“Look, I don’t have time to fight about this. Run upstairs and throw some clothes on so that we can go,” Trevor said, gesturing lazily towards the stairs.
“Go where?” Zoe asked, moving away from Jason, not only because he was actually starting to frighten her, but the garlicky odor from the noodles was starting to make her feel sick.
“Go back to Thanksgiving dinner,” Trevor snapped.
“Um, I was having Thanksgiving dinner,” Zoe pointed out, not bothering to add that she planned on sending the bags of food with them, which was hopefully soon because she really wasn’t sure how much more her poor stomach could take.
She went to stand up only to have to sit right back down when a wave of dizziness hit her.
“Are you okay?” Jason asked around a mouthful of food.
“Yeah,” Zoe said, taking a deep breath, “I’m fine.”
“Because you kind of looked a little pale there for a second,” Jason pointed out as Trevor dropped to his knees in front of her.
Trevor cupped her face. “Are you okay?” he asked, pushing her hair out of her face.
She pushed his hands away. “Yes, I’m fine. Now, would the two of you just go back to your family dinner so that I can go back to mine?”
Not that she could eat anything at the moment. Between her stomach twisting and her head spinning, she didn’t think she’d be able to hold anything down for a while.
“You need to-” Trevor began, but she’d had enough already.
She was sick and tired of the games and of this stupid arrangement, which only made her want to cry herself to sleep most nights because she loved him so much and she was nothing to him. She shoved to her feet, forcing him to back up so that she could walk away from him.
“No, you need to go,” she snapped.
“It’s my goddamn house!”
“No,” she said, pointing in the direction of his apartment, “that’s your goddamn house. This is my home.”
“It’s one and the same,” he said between clenched teeth.
“No, it’s not! I’m your tenant and you’re my landlord! That’s it! You have no business coming in here and telling me what to do!” Zoe yelled, feeling herself tear up, but she couldn’t help it. She was so exhausted. She was physically tired and emotionally strung out from pretending not to love him. She couldn’t take this anymore.
“I’m a hell of a lot more than just your landlord!” Trevor said, clenching and unclenching his hands by his sides as though he were fighting back the urge to grab her.
“What are you, then?” Zoe demanded, taking a step towards him. “Are you my employer? My friend? Or my fuck buddy? Because the last time I checked, none of those titles gave you the right to come in here and demand anything!”
“Wow, this is so awkward,” Jason mumbled, but instead of getting up and leaving like any normal person would, he simply tore into the second bag, grabbed another carton and gestured for the dogs to join him on the couch.
Trevor, on the other hand, looked close to killing her. “You know damn well what I am,” he bit out evenly.
“Yeah, I do,” Zoe said, wiping her face with the back of her hand as she made a decision. “You’re my ex-landlord, ex-employer, and ex-fuck buddy. So, get out,” she said, rushing out of the room before she broke out into sobs.
She made it to her room before the first one escaped and was sobbing hysterically by the time she’d stumbled into her bathroom to splash cold water on her face. By the time she’d realized what she’d done, she was already blacking out and falling towards the edge of the bathtub.
Chapter 27
“Look, I can leave if you want,” Jason said, moving to stand up as he grabbed the remaining bag of food, but Trevor barely heard him as he paced the living room, never taking his eyes off the stairs where Zoe fled only minutes before.
After she’d destroyed his entire world.
“Can you fucking believe her?” Trevor demanded, but he didn’t give Jason a chance to respond, or if he did, he didn’t hear him.
He couldn’t believe she just did that. “After everything I did for her?” Trevor said, shaking his head in disgust. While he’d been ready to move forward with her, she’d been looking to get out. Well, fuck her because he didn’t need her.
This wasn’t going to last anyway. He’d have ended things in another fifty or sixty years. He’d never wanted anything permanent with her, so this really didn’t bother him. This was fine. This was more than fine, Trevor thought as he drove his fist through the wall.
