"Calm down?" She growled. "Calmdown?!"
She stormed forward, and I jumped out of her path, not wanting to take another pounding to the chest. Yeah, I definitely regretted inviting her now.
Maria snatched up my phone lying on the floor by the bathroom door. Guess that answered my question about what that loud thunk was.
She jammed on my home button before quickly entering my code. I definitely did not give that to her. Exhibit B on why I needed to end our arrangement. The woman was crazy.
A flash of panic raced through me as I watched her pull up my texts. "Uh, listen, Maria -"
"What the fuck is this?!" She held up the text thread and scrolled up...up...and up. "My best friend!" She cried. "You've been fucking my best friend!"
I winced as the unfamiliar pang of guilt settled into my stomach. "It's not what you think, Maria," I tried to placate her.
I held my hands up as I inched forward, treating her like a rabid animal that I was scared to set off again.
"'I got off last night to the dirty things you did to me. When can we do it again?'" Maria quoted as she read through the message thread.
Okay, that sounded bad.
But if she scrolled through the messages, she would see that all of the texts came from Lissa, and weren't reciprocated by me.
"'I can't stop thinking about your big dick.'" Maria sneered as she continued to thumb through my phone.
I winced. Okay, so I did sleep with Lissa. Once.
I ran an irritated hand through my hair. God, I just wanted to leave now. "What were you doing going through my phone anyway?" Yeah, I was deflecting, but I was also annoyed that she felt she had the right to go through my personal things.
"Your phone kept going off while you were showering," she spat out, "and when I glanced at it, I saw the number. I know that slut's number by heart. She was supposed to be my best friend!" She cried.
"Imagine my surprise when I saw that she sent youthis!"
I jerked back as she shoved an image I had never seen before, one Lissa obviously sent me just now. It was a pouting selfie. Atoplesspouting selfie. I went to grab my phone, but Maria jerked it out of reach.
"Look," I tightened my towel as it started to slip. "It was one time. We were both drunk."
Well,Iwas. Lissa was sober as the bright sun and had zeroed in on me one night at Malley's. Maria had been out of town, and I was only in New Haven for my Aunt Kelly's birthday.
But I was already feeling guilty for sleeping with Lissa - Maria's best friend and my cousin, Barron's,...whatever she used to be. I didn't want the two women to fall out over something trivial.
"You and I aren't serious or exclusive anyway, so I don't know what the big deal is."
Maria's eyes rounded in unconcealed rage. Shit, I should've stopped after 'we were both drunk.'
"Not exclusive?! Not serious?! Why the fuck have you been sleeping with me all these years? Since I was fucking seventeen! Why have you been coming to New Haven nearly every month lately? Why do you stay with me when you have family here? Why have I wasted all these years on you?!"
I stood there, mouth flapping like a fish gasping in the fresh air. When she put it like that, I sounded like an asshole.
My gaze caught the topless selfie on my phone, still tightly clasped in Maria's hand.
Shit, Iwasan asshole.
"Get out!" She slapped my shoulder and practically shoved me out of the bathroom and down the hallway toward her front door. For a tiny thing, she had some power in her.
"Wait, wait," I tried to skid to a stop as she continued to push me towards her front door.
"My clothes," I pleaded.
I was butt naked, save for my towel, but even that barely covered me.
