“No, you’re not. You’re listening because I have something to say, and you need to hear it.”
Everything in me was screaming at me to bolt, but the stubborn asshole in me wouldn’t allow me to prove her right. The pussy comment was still rattling around in my skull, and try as I might, I couldn’t get my feet to move.
“Spit it out, then leave me the fuck alone.”
She beamed at me and took one more sip of her drink before setting it back down on the bar.
“We’ve known each other for a long time, Hazai.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, still not sure where she was going with this.
“You know me well enough to know I would never fall in love with a man.”
“So you’ve said.”
She nodded. “Don’t get me wrong, I love fucking your kind, and you’re fun to keep around from time to time, butlove?It’s just not in the cards. A woman maybe, but never a man.
“Get to the point, Hec.”
She glared at me, and I sighed, taking a sip of my drink and settling back against the bar to listen to her rant.
“Now, the only exception I can think of that might change my mind was if I found a man that looked at me the way Gabe looks at you.”
I choked on my drink, and my head whipped around to face her.
“What?”
“Youheard me. Hazai, I don’t think you realize what you have with him. I’veneverseen a man look at someone the way he looks at you. Like you’re his wholeworld.Like he would slay armies and turn mountains to fuckingashin your name.”
“He doesn’t look at me like that.”
“Yes, hedoes,you blind fucking idiot! Helovesyou, Hazai. The kind of love people write epic stories and love songs about. The kind of love that only comes around once every couple thousand years.”
She poked me in the chest with a pointy fingernail to enunciate her next point.
“And you’re,”poke,“fucking it,”poke,“all,”poke,“UP!”
I snatched up her hand to prevent her from stabbing me in the chest again.
“Hec—”
“No! I refuse to allow you to throw Gabe away like he’s a piece of garbage. That man loves you, and believe it or not, Hazai, youdeserveto be loved by him. He’sgoodfor you, Shem.”
“I can’t be with him. Not anymore.”
“And why not? What is his big irredeemable crime? You’re ending things with him because he cares about youso fucking muchthat he wants to see the absoluteworstparts of you so he can help you heal and find peace?”
“He thinks I’m… Now that he knows, he thinks I’m…”
“He thinks you’re what?”
“Disgusting,”I spat, my entire body cringing with the violence of the world.
She rolled her eyes as if what I was saying was ridiculous.
“Did hesaythat?”
“No—but,”
