Rain poured down around me as I ran down the sidewalk, blindly making turns at corners and not keeping track of where the hell I was going. All I knew was that I needed to get as far away from there as possible.
The January cold seared my cheeks. I wrapped my arms around myself because I had forgotten my coat back at Radiant and continued to weave around people when they exited restaurants and bars in the city.
“Woah, whoa, whoa,” someone said, catching my waist and pulling me underneath a door awning to keep me out of the rain. “Where are you running off to? It’s pouring outside, and you don’t even have a coat on.”
I sniffled and wiped my cheeks, lifting my gaze to see Derek.
“Oh, um …” I said, my voice hoarse. “Nowhere.”
He took my face in his hands and lifted it. “Are you crying?”
“No!”
“What’s wrong?” Derek asked, searching my face and not letting me go.
I opened and closed my mouth a handful of times, not being able to utter a single word until, finally, the only word that I was able to get out of my mouth was a measly, a broken … “Charlie.”
“Did he do something to you?” Derek asked.
“No, I’m just …” I stared at him, trying to hold back the tears because I didn’t know him like that and Charlie and I … we weren’t even a thing. “I just …” I opened my mouth, expecting to finish my sentence, but a sob escaped it.
I slapped a hand over my mouth to muffle the noise. I needed to get out of here.
But before I could twirl around and run back out onto the rainy sidewalk, Derek wrapped his arms around my shoulders. I tensed in his arms—because this wasn’t right; Charlie had told me to stay away from him—but his hug felt so good.
My arms wrapped around his torso, and I pulled him tight to me, crying into his shoulder. I probably looked so stupid—I sure as hell felt it—but Charlie … I had thought we were … I had been so naive, so stupid!
Charlie was at a sex club, about to film a scene with Nadia.
And right after we had sex this morning …
“Thanks,” I said once I finally pulled away. “But I should get home.”
Could I even go back home?! Did I want to face Charlie right now? Honestly, not really.
Maybe Sun would let me sleep over at her place again. Heather and Sierra both lived with Hector and Steven, so they didn’t even have an apartment together anymore. Which really only left Sun’s place and my place.
But I had left Sun at Radiant. She was probably with Maya and Russ or the girls.
“How are you getting home?” Derek asked.
I pursed my lips. “I’ll walk. It’s just a few”—dozen—“blocks.”
“No, it’s not.” Derek pulled keys out of his pocket. “I’ll drive you.”
After eyeing the keys and wondering if this really was a good idea—Charlie had warned me to stay away from him, but I was such a mess right now that I didn’t even know how to get back to Radiant from here, and I’d left my coat there—I nodded.
“Okay,” I whispered. “Just home.”
His lips curled into a soft smile—the warm kind Charlie usually had with me. “Where else would I take you?”
Once I shrugged, he grabbed my hand and led me to the car right on the street, opening the door for me to slip into the passenger seat. I sat down and smoothed out my bottoms, which were soaked through from the rain.
Derek sat in the driver’s seat and started the car. “Where were you?”
“At a bar,” I whispered.
“Downtown?” he hummed. “Which one? I’ve only been to Radiant and a couple others.”
