I twirled around, grabbed him by his neck, and slammed him up against the wall. “I don’t believe you because you’ve been trying to fuck up my life since we were kids. And there isn’t a better time to do that than now, when I’ve finally fallen in love with a girl.”
The words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them. It was the first time I had said it aloud—I had thought it a million times—but to hear those words … it was jarring. I had never loved anyone the way I loved her.
And when I’d finally gotten close enough, she was gone.
Derek’s lips curled into a smirk. “You love her?”
Flaring my nostrils, I shoved him back and stormed out of the room and to the front door. The pink-haired girl flicked her cigarette out onto the balcony and closed the doors, her robe now drenched in rainwater.
“If I see her, I’ll holler.”
“Please, fucking don’t,” I murmured underneath my breath.
I didn’t need Athena running around with someone like Derek or her, who apparently liked torture. It would’ve been completely fine, but I really, really didn’t like her fucking vibe. It gave off predator.
And I didn’t want her convincing Athie to try being a masochist for Derek.
So, I left. And when I had absolutely nowhere else to turn, nowhere else to check, and nobody else to call, I drove back to the apartment and parked in the underground lot. I pressed my lips together and tried to hack my brain for something—anything.
Where could she have gone off to? Why hadn’t she answered any of my calls? Was she that angry at me? Would she let me explain? And would she believe me if she did give me the chance? She had been so sad at Radiant when I locked eyes with her.
My clothes stuck to my body from the rain. I stepped onto the elevator and hit the button to close the doors. I paced inside it and ran a hand through my hair, my mind buzzing.
“What am I going to fucking do?”
The elevator stopped on the main floor, and the doors opened.
Halfway into the elevator, the woman stopped. I lifted my gaze to see the woman I had been looking for all night, her cheeks stained with tears and her eyes wide as she looked at me.
“Charlie …”
My eyes widened twice as much as hers did. “Athena …”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE
ATHENA
I opened and closed my mouth a handful of times, standing in front of Charlie with tears in my eyes. The elevator doors shut behind me, and I gulped down all my words.
What do I say to him? Right here? Now?!
“Athena,” Charlie whispered again.
After shuffling next to him, I turned toward the elevator entrance. The lights above the door lit up with every passing floor, and I desperately needed it to hit ours now. I didn’t know what to say to him.
At Derek’s place, I’d had him call me an Uber almost immediately. He told me he would pay for it, too, since I’d left my belongings at Radiant and that I could pay him back later. So, I had been driving around Pittsburgh for the past hour while an old guy listened to me cry.
Never once did I think about what I would say to Charlie!
“Athie,” Charlie said, taking my hand. “I’m?—”
My first instinct was to pull away. So, I folded my hands together and shifted from foot to foot, my heart pounding so loudly that I could barely hear the sound of his voice. I knew it wasn’t the right thing to do …
But I didn’t want to blindly fall for his charm.
As soon as he started talking, as soon as he touched me, I would melt.
