When I finally reach my apartment, Ethan is already there, waiting for me by the front door. So much for waiting for me to call him. I check the time on my phone: three forty-two in the morning. A sigh escapes my slightly parted lips and I paste on a wide grin for him.
“Good morning,” I greet him as I approach. “Have you been waiting long?”
He shakes his head. “I know you’re not off until after three.”
I dig through my purse and fish out my house key, slipping it into the lock and turning until the mechanism clicks. “Casey would have let you in, you know,” I tell Ethan as we step over the threshold of the door.
“I didn’t want to talk to Casey. I want to talk to you.”
“Okay,” I say, holding my hands up in surrender as I walk to the kitchen.
What I really want to do is take a shower so that I can wash away the shame of what I just let happen. I feel like I’m coated in a thick layer of sin and betrayal, with the word ‘cheater’ written across my forehead. Emotionally, it was one thing, but we crossed a line tonight that we can’t go back from.
I open the freezer, reaching inside to pull out the bag of pretzel bites, then I move to the toaster oven and crank up the heat, pouring enough of the bites onto the tray inside for the two of us to share.
“I don’t want that guy around you anymore,” he tells me, leaning against the counter. “He’s only going there because he wants to have sex with you.”
“That’s the only reasonanyonebuys a table up there, Ethan,” I remind him. “That’s how the whole system works. If you hadn’t been there with your friends – and they could have afforded it – they would have ordered off the menu.”
“Wrong.”
I bark a laugh. “You think Jake wouldn’t have ordered a half hour just because it had to be delivered? Your friends are creepy. They wouldloveto have that much power over someone.”
“My friends are creepy,” he scoffs, “and apparently my girlfriend isn’t just a whore by trade.”
Maybe it’s because I feel like he’s right, maybe it’s because he’s been making little comments like this since Eric first walked into the club, but his words make my blood heat.
“That’s it. You’re done.” I move around him, leaving the small space of the kitchen, and I point to the door. “I’m not your girlfriend anymore. Get out.”
He takes a few steps toward me and I move further into the living room. “Are you serious? I makeonecomment?”
“One comment? You have spent weeks insulting me,” I correct him. “And I took it, because a part of me thought that maybe I deserved it. But I’m done. So get out of my apartment.”
I don’t know if the steps he takes toward me areactuallythreatening, or if that’s just the signal that my brain sends firing out, but regardless, it makes my breath catch and I take two steps back, trying to keep him at a distance. I look to Casey’s bedroom door, closed tight with no light streaming out from under it, and I consider making noise; throwing something to wake him up, just in case.
“Babe,” Ethan says with a cock of his head. “It’s just a fight. Couples fight.”
“Well, we’re not a couple anymore,” I tell him, “because I literally just broke up with you.”
Something shifts in him; his eyes go dark, narrowing in my direction, and panic floods my system.
“That would be really stupid.” The steps he takes toward me this time are, without any doubt, threatening. “If you dump me, I’ll just show up at your work and buy you over and over and over again until you’re all used up. And you can’t say no to me, can you, whore? Maybe I’d let my friends buy you, too. You wouldn’t mind it for a paycheck, right?”
My blood is at a boil, rage and fear blending together to send me into autopilot.
“That guy you don’t want around me? The one you weresothreatened by? His fingers did more for me tonight than your cock has done since I met you.” I glower at him, speaking through gritted teeth as I order one more time, “Get. Out. Of. My. Apartment.”
I try to puff up my chest and stand taller, but standing at only five-foot-three, it’s not the most convincing performance. Ethan’s fingers prod at my shoulders, hard and angry, in an effort to push me backward.
“Or what, whore? What willyoudo if I don’t?”
My hands rear back, throwing themselves forward against his chest with a hard blow that makes him stagger. “Casey, get up!” I hide the fear from my voice as I shout down the hall, keeping my eyes locked on Ethan.
His hands launch forward and wrap too tightly around my wrists, pulling them toward his chest, and me right along with them. I struggle against his grip, stomping on his foot with a growl as I try to gain the upper hand and make contact withanywherethat will hurt.
“Let go of me, asshole!” I turn to face the hallway again, this time not able to hide my fear. “Casey!”
“Okay,” Ethan snarls, “I can let go.”
