Once alleightof his abs are out of sight, my blood stops rushing to what must be the female equivalent of an erection, and I say, “Hi. How was your day?”
“Fine.”
So, we’re sticking to single-word replies. Alright. Not giving up yet, I follow him to the kitchen, and while he pours himself a glass of water, I hoist myself up on the kitchen island, sitting precisely where he fucked me a few times. The edge in his steel gaze tells me he notices, even if he keeps pretending to ignore me.
“My day was fine, too. Thanks for asking,” I say with patience. “Kev got lunch for the whole office. It was very festive. Everyone had a lot of questions about you. They want to know when you’ll be back.”
“I don’t know,” he mumbles once he’s done drinking.
Because I can tell he’s about to leave, I say, “Shelly texted. She wants me to let you know she’s available if you need to talk. She sent you messages, but you never replied, so she wasn’t sure you got them.”
“I did.”
God, what a drama queen.“Don’t you think it would be a good idea to talk, Lex? To a licensed therapist at least, if not to me.”
“Must we really do this, Andrea?” he mutters, miffed.
“We have to at some point, Alexander.”
He sighs with annoyance and walks away. I jump down from the counter and follow him.
“Lex.”
“Not now.”
“Then when?”
“When I’m ready.”
“How will you be ready if you don’t talk about it to anyone, Lex?”
“I’ll figure it out.”
We’re in the guest room now, the one he used last night. “At least talk to Shelly,” I insist, following him into the bathroom.
He lets out a cynical snort. “Right. Given how her husband is clearly on your side, I bet it’ll go splendidly.”
“What?”
He glowers at me before removing his sweaty T-shirt and throwing it in the hamper. “I can’t believe you’d drag my own best friend into this, Andrea,” he utters reproachfully.
Oh, so Kevin called him… Given how affected Lex seems, I’d venture he gave him an earful. “I didn’t,” I defend myself. “He kindly asked how I was doing, and when my lie didn’t sound convincing enough, he decided to let you know what he thought of the way you’re treating me. If you want to know the truth, I defended you, even though I’m not sure you deserved it.”
Something flinches in his eyes, doubt, sadness, more annoyance… I don’t know, but I don’t let it stop me from saying the rest. “Stop assuming the worst of me, Lex. It’s offensive, and I only have so much patience. I get that you’re hurt, and I get you need time.” I pause long enough to breathe and get the trembling of my voice in check. “But I also know you want me here, despite everything you say. Otherwise, you would have had the locks changed today. So, keep telling yourself what you want to believe. I, personally, am not fooled.”
I leave him standing there, returning to the living area. Miraculously, I slam no doors on my way there, which I’m quite proud of. My skintingles with a mix of frustration, nervousness, and pride. I’m glad I found the strength to call him out. Maybe with a few more scoldings like this, he’ll open his eyes and see what’s really going on here.
In the meantime, I’ll be doing my thing. Or rather, Mason’s thing. Sex is a great way to release some steam and maybe make him—and me—more amenable. If a good, rough, and intense fuck is what we need to talk, then so be it.
We’ve never been good at fucking our feelings out of our systems, but maybe it’ll work this time around.
Something is going on with Andrea. I’m not sure what, but there’s definitely some plan afoot. After the slight argument we had after she returned, she ignored me for the rest of the evening. And although it was exactly what I wanted, I didn’t like it all that much.
I spent the day going over the heist she executed, and despite being well rested, I haven’t found a crack yet. But at least I now understand how she pulled it off so fast. She trained Iris to assist her. By using the AI’s processing power and its ability to calculate much faster than we ever could, Andrea bought herself months of work.
Maybe I was wrong, after all, and she knew exactly what she was doing—as she claimed.
Although I’m still not done going over everything, I decide to take a break from it and spend some time on my other priorities. While I was away, my lawyers handled my assets, but I still need to catch up. Without any input from me, my stock trading algorithm paused its transactions after a week. For the most part, it turned out to be profitable, but I need to get the ball rolling again.
