My heart raced, and I suddenly needed to sit down.
A million thoughts went through my head in the space of a few seconds. What did she want? Was she calling to apologize? To ask me for medical advice? To tell me she was dying of a terminal illness and needed me to help her?
The only way to find out was to answer, not that I wanted to. But if I didn't, she would either keep calling or she'd give up and I'd have to spend the rest of the day, and week, wondering what she wanted.
Honestly, I didn't know which was worse.
So, I answered the fucking phone.
"What do you want?" I asked immediately, skipping any greetings whatsoever.
I could practically hear her pout over the phone. "Good morning to you too, grumpy face," she said, and I bristled. She'd called me that when we were together, an affectionate smile on her own face while she teased me about my bad mood.
It was incredibly tone deaf for the way things stood, and it took a lot of effort for me not to hang up immediately.
"What do you want?" I asked again.
She sighed, clearly irritated with not getting the response she was looking for. “I’m missing a pair of earrings.”
I blinked, incredulous. “Excuse me?”
“Are you deaf today? A pair of earrings. I’m missing them. The last time I had them was at your place, so if you could look around for them, that would be great. They’re the diamond studs I bought when we went to Savannah that time, remember?”
Oh, I definitely remembered. I took time off work and we went down south to Savannah and the islands off the coast of Georgia to have a relaxing break. We swam in the ocean and fucked in the cabin we’d rented, and I’d been really happy.
“I haven’t seen your fucking earrings,” I snapped. “Trust me, everything of yours that you left here got boxed up and left out on the curb.”
Jasmine made a tsking sound. “You could have called and asked me to come get it.”
“That would have involved talking to you, and up until you decided to call me for some pointless bullshit, I was determined to never do that again.”
“You’re holding a grudge.”
Everything went red for a second, and I could feel myself gripping my phone hard enough that it hurt my hand. It was a concentrated effort to let it go. “Don’t fucking talk about grudges to me,” I bit out. “I’m entitled. You were unfaithful probably the entire time we were together, and waited until I was gone enough on you to ask you to marry me to say anything about it. You don’t get to act all high and mighty here.”
“I didn’t call to argue with you, Logan,” she said. “I just want my earrings.”
“Fuckyour earrings,” I spat. “And fuck you, too.”
“Don’t you hang up on me!” she said loudly, but it was too late. I jabbed my finger into the screen, ending the call, and tossed my phone onto the couch for good measure.
I was still exhausted, but over it was a layer of adrenaline, my heart still pumping fast and my breathing labored. She had some nerve, calling me like I was going to hunt down her fucking diamond studs and then what? Mail them to her? Arrange a meeting?
Fuck that. She wasn’t worth the effort. She wasn’t worth my anger either, but it was there, threatening to erupt and bubble over. That answered the dilemma about showering before bed, and I stomped my way to the bathroom to turn on the water.
It wasn’t enough to completely calm me down, and I ended up laying in bed with the blackout curtains drawn to block out the morning light, fuming. I was still so tired, but I couldn’t get my brain to shut off for long enough to fall asleep.
Usually when I was like that, some good sex worked to relax me enough that I could drift off, but the last person to know that was Jasmine.
So, out of the question.
The only other person I’d had sex with since Jas was Elise.
All of a sudden, all those memories I had been ignoring since I’d gotten back from Greece were there again, and I couldn’t help but think about the way she’d moaned for me and how her mouth had felt around my cock.
I reached for my phone to check the time, and remembered I’d left it in the living room.
That was for the best. It was too early to be calling someone for a booty call, that was for damned sure, and even though we hadn’t really explicitly said we would leave our little affair in Greece where it had happened, that seemed to be the agreement. I hadn’t reached out, and she hadn’t either.
I didn’t want to call her and seem like the one who couldn’t stop thinking about what we’d done or come off as needy when I wasn’t. I didn’t need her. I didn’t even really want her, except for when I was in a bad mood and in need of relief, apparently. Then it was a different story.
But either way, I wasn’t going to be the one who came crawling back trying to see if she was still interested. Ifshecontacted me, then that would be... well. It would be her who was admitting she still wanted me and then maybe we could work something out.
We were both adults, after all. Capable of making our own decisions. And if Elise decided she wanted me still, then I was willing to hear her out.
Until then, it was back to business as usual.
