I pushed the door open then and got swept up in the weather. Lennon didn’t back up right away. He kept his headlights aimed at my car, offering me light in the otherwise inky parking lot. I hit my keyfob as quickly as I could and sent him one last wave before sliding into the driver seat and huffing out a breath of relief.
It was over.
Lennon and I were done.
I started the car, noting that Lennon was already driving out of the lot, and carefully pulled out of the spot. As I drove past the entrance of the building, a tether pulled me to a stop, my foot moving to rest on the brake pad.
I sat there for a full minute, considering my options.
I wanted to go back in.
I wanted to seek Weston out. See him in the place he thrived. Watch as his fingers flew across the keyboard of his computer as he worked.
As quick as the image materialized in my mind, I hit the gas and swung into the nearest free parking space. I grabbed my purse, squeezed my phone inside—I wasn’t making that mistake twice—and darted back toward the front entrance with my work key in hand, ready to unlock it and gain access.
To the building.
To Taylors Security.
To Weston.
11
WESTON
Ipaced the length of my office, the black walls and walnut furniture shrouded by the night and lack of power. My laptop screen glowed from where it sat on my desk. Upon leaving the break room and coming in here, I hit the power button on it, drawing it out of its bottomless slumber for a shred of light.
I brought my hand up to my face and ran it over my chin. I could still taste her on my lips, on my fucking tongue. The sweetness that existed between Olivia’s legs was now a part of me, sinking deeper into my goddamn flesh and turning me into a madman.
Because I wanted more than what I got.
Despite how wrong it was, and the shit I’d have to do to right my actions, my body bustled with enough energy to light this place for the next week. It traveled up my legs, making my muscles ache in a way that forced one foot in front of the other until I couldn’t stand it anymore.
Eventually, I rounded my desk and dropped into my seat with a heavy sigh, eyes locked on the coding program on my laptop screen. The same one I spent so many of my daysworking in. My email app wasn’t far south. It had its very own spot on the taskbar, that red circle indicating I had another new message demanding my attention. I ignored it. I couldn’t fucking deal with that right now.
Not after what happened.
Not after spending the last few hours trapped with Olivia, every ounce of me twisted in a painful war against having her and not being allowed to touch her.
She was my little brother’s girlfriend, for fuck sake.
There was no valid excuse that would justify me putting my mouth on her.
The facts were simple, and while they might have sounded like an excuse, they were no less true. My life was days away from turning into complete chaos. And nobody knew it. Not even Lennon. I was purposeful in keeping it close to my chest in efforts to not hurt those around me.
And yet, look what happened, anyway.
When Lennon found out what the hell Olivia and I got up to tonight, he’d blow a gasket. And it’d be worse than all those years ago when I told his at-the-time girlfriend that he was running around on her. Back then, I was the chivalrous bastard that wanted the truth printed on the biggest damn billboard.
I wasn’t the same person now.
My good intentions were muddled, the white that once casted itself over my choices faded into a slate gray.
I was filled with a messiness that rivaled Sharpie scribbled on walls. The shit I was keeping to myself couldn’t be undone or reversed. It was a bleach stain on a brand new navy linen towel, easily seen but impossible to fix. Everyone knew the only way around either was to replace what’d been ruined.
Unfortunately, that was a lot easier with inanimate objectsthan human error. My fuck up couldn’t be erased. It couldn’t be ripped out or thrown away. It couldn’t be expunged with the click of the backspace button.
I couldn’t open a program, move around a few numbers and letters and create something totally different. My dark truths were there to stay. There to burn their way deeper and deeper into my flesh and bone. The truth was, they were rewritingmycode. Infringing upon my DNA and turning me into something else entirely.
