“I don’t get it.”
He nodded. “That much is evident.”Asshole. “We need the last room empty, so we can get on with the demolition. You’re holding us up.”
My eyes dropped as I absorbed his words. I thought the other guys staying here were avoiding me, but maybe the reason I wasn’t bumping into them was because what Micro was saying is true. What if they’d all moved out, and only I was staying here? My god. That’s terrifying for a number of reasons.
“You’re demolishing the place now?”
He opened up his tablet and tapped the screen, showing me some snazzy building that I guess was the plan for once they’d knocked it down, and then he flipped to a spreadsheet filled with dates. There was a list of numbers and names, and all were marked in green except mine. It didn’t even say Rocket. It said V.
“Wait. You’re going to knock the place down and rebuild it without him?”
Micro closed the tablet again. “We have to proceed now. We have everything booked in. We’ve been working on this for months, scheduling equipment and temporary housing, moving guys into places while we do the demo, supplies, workers, everything. The last fucking thing blocking this from proceeding is you.”
I felt tears burning my eyes, but I refused to let him fucking see them.
“Why didn’t you just say earlier?”
He rested a palm on top of his tablet, staring at his fingers instead of me.
“Because you were in pain, and you needed time. You deserved time to process, V, but if we don’t start this project on time, we’re losing time and money. We’ll lose contractors. We’ll lose timeslots. We can’t afford to delay it.”
“You worked around me until now? Uh… I appreciate that, but I can’t get past the fact that... it’s Rocket’s room, Micro. His stuff is there, with mine. It’s… it’s his.” It was the last link I had to him. The last place that he’d slept, or left his scent. The place where his clothes still remained, at least those he hadn’t taken with him. The place where his last beer bottle still sat by the bed, because I couldn’t bring myself to toss it in the recycling. If they demolished it, then he was really gone.
“He reached out to Henley the other day. He said to trash all his stuff that’s left. He thinks he’s not coming back.”
My heart stuttered in my chest, and I pressed a hand over it, trying to soothe the sudden stab of a knife in it.
“What?” I need him back. I want him back. Fuck me, I love him and I want him here.
“V, I know. I get it. We’ll get him back, but things need to keep moving in his absence. I’ll send a couple of the prospects in there to help you move your stuff, and they can ditch what’s left. It’s what Rocket wants.”
I swallowed the burn of tears, the hollowness of my fucking soul, as I stood up.
“They better not touch a fucking thing of his. I’ll kill them first.”
“V, be reasonable.”
“I am. I’ll kill them before they suffer.”
Micro’s lips twitched a touch, but the man looked exhausted. Not just tired, but that heaviness that comes from nights of lost sleep, tons of pressure, and the weariness of needing just a little peace. I realised I was adding to it. An extra burden he didn’t need.
I picked up the coffee and gulped the last of it.
“I’ll go pack my things. And his. I’m taking all of it, and if you try to stop me, I’ll make sure you never have another child.”
Micro’s eyes widened, and he moved back behind his desk, having just stepped around it to follow me.
“Whoa. Gotcha. V, don’t give up hope, yeah? We’ll get him back. We’re working on it.”
I held the door open, refusing the little hope he was trying to gift to me.
“First you have to find him.”
Micro chuckled. “Please. Like we don’t know exactly where he is. We’ve always known.”
What?
Chapter Thirty
