The anger inside me is overwhelming. The last thing I want to do is start a fight, but I can’t just let it go. It’ll just simmer inside me, and then when something else happens, I’ll lose my cool.
I take a hard swallow, looking to her for a brief moment in the passenger seat of my truck. She’s tired and also a little tipsy.
“Lexie, can I be honest with you right now?”
Her tone drawn out, she says, “Yeah?”
“Well, I need to know if you’re up for a conversation right now. I’m not leaving on bad terms.”
“What’s the problem?” She’s already getting defensive.
“So, I’m frustrated about how tonight went. I didn’t know I was signing up for a night out with Bellamy’s finest flirt.”
She scoffs. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“You were flirting with that entire bar!”
“Oh, for Pete’s sake, I was not!”
“Yes, you were! You had them all over you!”
“That’s just how men are around me. You know first hand, that’s how we got started,” she points out.
I huff out another breath. “Yeah, and I thought you and I were dating now. You can’t be eyeing up your next victim while you’re still dating me, sweetheart. I don’t play those games.” My voice is tight.
“Wow, you are really mad.” She laughs, and it’s taking a lot for me not to blow up. She’s still striking a nerve deep inside me. One that won’t budge.
“Of course I am! How would you feel if I was in there sweet-talking every girl right in front of you!”
“I wasn’t trying to pick anyone up. I was just being nice.”
“Well shit, if that’s nice then—”
“Would you just stop?! Why are you being like this?!”
“Like what?!”
“Jealous?! Insecure?! I’m not sure!”
“I’m not sure what dating rule book you read, but mine says flirting with someone other than your partner is sort of considered cheating.”
“Unbelievable.”
“Yeah, you’re right. This is unbelievable. You are twenty-eight years old trapped in an eighteen-year-old girl’s body,” I say, and she just grits her teeth. Crossing her arms, she looks out the window away from me. I’d pay any amount of money to be at her house already.
The rest of the five-minute drive feels like fifty. The bigger person in me knows we can’t end tonight like this, and considering she’s acting like a child, I’m not expecting her to fix that.
I barely get my truck in park before she’s jumping out.
“Lexie,” I say, but she slams the door on my voice anyway. I get out and walk after her up to her front door. Her neighbor is of course sitting out on the porch smoking a cigar. Lexie frantically digs through her purse, trying to find her keys.
Quietly, I say, “I want to come in and talk.”
She shakes her head. “No,” she states and pushes her door open.
I let myself in behind her. “Yes.”
“I don’t want to, Jesse. You’re being a controlling jerk!”
