“Right,” he agreed. “We ate pizza at Mateo’s then went to the movies. I figured we’d recreate our first date, only from the comfort of your place. I know you prefer staying home than going out.”
Any other time, I would’ve been so overcome with joy that I would’ve wrapped myself around Bradley and given him my heart all over again. These days, a gesture as thoughtful as this from him was as rare as finding a shark walking around the forest.
But something inside of me was too broken to see the sweetness in his actions.
I’d been fine during the day—mostly. I’d spent it writing a little, reading, and watching my comfort Korean dramas. The tasks kept my mind busy for a time so that I couldn’t think about the betrayal of yesterday, but every so often, the memory would come crashing back in.
The back of his knuckles colliding with my jaw in a biting sting.
The coppery taste of blood filling my mouth and conjuring nausea.
The ache of realizing the guy I’d loved all these years had been replaced by a foreigner.
The last one was what haunted me the most. Physical pain and I had long been acquainted, and I often welcomed its companionship during dark times. But that deep splintering of my heart and the fracturing of the future I’d concocted in my head had been nearly intolerable.
Until Dante appeared.
The handsome man had cleared the fog of hurt from my head, and it wasn’t until he’d confronted me about Bradley that the hurt had closed back in. He’d insisted that what had happened wasn’t an accident, and his confidence in that idea had stuck with me. Now, even I wasn’t sure.
Now I sat next to the man I’d promised my life to, eating pizza and pretending that nothing was on my mind, wondering what to do and what I felt.
“So that was my day,” Bradley finished, and it was only then that I realized he’d been telling me about his day at work this entire time. He took my untouched dinner plate with a mumble about me not eating what he bought, which I ignored. After replacing my slices in the pizza box, he loaded the plates into the dishwasher—something heneverdid. He glanced at me from where he tidied up the kitchen. “How was your day?”
“You never ask about my day,” I pointed out flatly.
He frowned, and genuine remorse seemed to flood his blue eyes. “I don’t? Well, that changes now, too. More flowers, more talking about your day. I’m going to become a better man for you, Dollface.”
Perhaps it was because I didn’t believe him. Maybe it was because I wanted to test this new version of Bradley to see if it was real. Or I might’ve wanted to poke the bear to see if he was truly gone or just in hibernation.
Regardless of the reason, I told him calmly, “I hung out with Dante.”
The two of us stared at each other, neither of us moving or breathing as my statement hung in the air between us.
Bradley smiled slowly. “Nice. Did you have a good time?”
“Yeah. He brought me coffee and a cinnamon roll.”
Bradley’s smile stayed in place, even as his jaw ticked. “He came here?”
I nodded.
Bradley turned his back on me as he put away the remaining pizza. “Cool. I’m glad you had fun with your friend, Doll.”
Bradley was feigning his acceptance of my day with Dante. The tightness in his shoulders and roughness in his voice made that obvious. But it seemed he was trying to be okay with it. His arguments remained bottled up, which was uncharacteristic of him.
Was he actually interested in changing for me?
I wanted to believe that was the case. I wanted to believe his acts of affection yesterday and today weren’t fleeting but real steps toward us growing. But the wound on my heart was as fresh as the one on my face. I didn’t know when or if my trust in him would return.
“I was thinking I might stay over again,” Bradley suggested as he rejoined me on the couch and gently trailed his fingertipsalong my upper back. He smiled sweetly and kissed my temple. “I really do love being with you.”
My eyes collided with his, and I searched them, finding small traces ofmyBradley, the one I often missed and loved. His knuckles trailed up my neck until his palm cupped my jaw. He started to tilt his face closer to mine.
A sudden shattering of glass made both of us jump and gasp. Bradley whipped around while I looked over his shoulder to find what had happened.
“Shit,” Bradley hissed as he jumped up.
I stood, too, and that was when I saw the vase of roses shattered on the ground. Glass shards were everywhere, and the roses were scattered about the floor with water gathering beneath it all.
