“What’s that?” I mumbled.
Skylar smiled. “Why don’t we make posters and online ads for Lilith’s kittens? She’s due in two weeks or so, right?”
On top of everything else, that was one more thing to worry about. I groaned. “Yeah, she is.”
I knew Skylar was right. It needed to be done, and doingsomethingwould be better for my mental state than moping around and feeling sorry for myself.
As if she knew we were talking about her, Lilith slunk out of my bedroom and sauntered up the table with her tail high. She meowed in herI want more foodvoice.
“I’ll feed her,” Skylar offered.
“No, it’s okay. I can do it,” I mumbled.
Despite my depression, Lilith was still my responsibility - especially since Griffin had run out on both of us.
Guess I might be a single parent to two kids after all,I thought bitterly.
When I was faced with the giant bag of food Griffin had bought, I grew even more upset. He was supposed to step up and take care of Lilith. Now he was gone.
I poured Lilith double the amount of food we usually gave her and set down the bowl. The faster she went through the bag, the faster we could get rid of it, and I wouldn’t have to think about Griffin every time I opened the cat food cupboard anymore.
“I think we have some thick paper and markers,” Skylar said. “Do you want to make physical posters, or post online ads, Jake?”
I sighed. “Maybe doing something with my hands will make me feel less shitty.”
Skylar nodded in agreement. “Okay. I’ll print out a bunch of photos for you with my laptop, and you can stick them on the posters.”
While I waited for Skylar to finish that, I went back into my bedroom to scour for rogue craft supplies. I rummaged through my desk drawer to find a marker, but when I found one, something else caught my eye and I immediately dropped it.
On the little corkboard above my desk hung a familiar strip of glossy paper. It was the photo of Griffin and I from the Omega Angel Café.
I stared at it, not knowing how to feel except a blinding sense of turmoil. My hand twitched to tear it down and rip it up, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Instead it hung there like a mocking reminder of what I didn’t have - and probably what I would never have again in my entire life.
Tears burned in my eyes and I blinked them firmly away. But despite the swell of emotion, I couldn’t look away from the photos. Griffin’s smile in them shone brightly and tugged at my heart the same way it always did when he smiled. My hands balled into fists at my side at theunfairnessof it all.
He should have been here. Instead, he ran away like a coward.
Just like Andrew did.
The dam of emotion broke. With a snarl of frustration, I slapped a stapler off my desk, then hissed at the ensuing pain that shot through my hand. But at least the pain distracted me from thoughts ofhim.From thoughts of both of them.
Andrew and Griffin… Both of them were exactly the same. Pretending to love me, using me for sex, and then disappearing. The only different was that Griffin had let the charade go on a little bit longer, and tricked me into thinking he wasn’t a bad man.
In the end, it was my fault for believing him.
“Jake?” Skylar’s gentle and concerned voice came from the door. “You okay?”
“No,” I said.
He saw me standing in the middle of the room, nursing a throbbing hand and scowling, and came towards me. “Jake, what’s wrong?”
“Everything’s wrong, Sky!” I cried. “I fell for it again! Every fucking alpha I get close to bites me in the ass. Why did I let myself think Griffin was any different? Now he’s gone, and I’m never going to see him again.”
Skylar guided me to the bed and sat me down. “He was good at pretending to be decent. Even I liked him. But I should have known he wasn’t good for you when he insisted you two weren’t dating that one time. He basically admitted he wasn’t interested in earnest.”
“We weren’t dating,” I admitted. Bitterly, I added, “Neither of us wanted a real relationship. Once again, it’s my own stupid fault for believing there was something there when there wasn’t.”
I glared at the photos of Griffin and I across the room. My stomach tied itself into knots, and I nearly felt sick. When Skylar followed my gaze and saw the photos, he got up and walked to them purposefully.
