His hand fell away from my chin. “I wouldn’t have offered if I minded.”
“Be safe, okay?”
He quickly packed up his food. “You, too. And Rose?”
“Yeah?”
He smiled as he stepped effortlessly over the wrought iron fence. “Don’t be a stranger.”
I smiled back at him. “Same goes for you.”
As I headed back upstairs to my condo with all of my untouched food, I couldn’t help but sigh as I fell to the couch. I unwrapped my plastic-wear and dug into the luxurious steak, and with every moan that dripped form my lips I found myself wishing that he hadn’t had to leave. Things had always been so damn easy with him. He never judged me or held me to a standard that I couldn’t reach.
Why couldn’t it just be that way with Blake?
Why do I always fall for the wrong guy?
I settled in for the morning as I pulled a blanket over my lap. I piled the food on top of my thighs, picking and choosing each and every bite as I turned on DOTA on Netflix. Being without Blake meant that I had a chance to reclaim my passions in life.
And I wanted to start with my anime.
“No, wait,” I murmured as I paused the show.
I wanted to start with something that I knew he’d curse up and down.
“Rom-com, it is,” I said as an evil grin spread across my face.
I searched for them in the search engine and picked the very first one that popped up. It seemed “cutesy” enough, and the cuter, the better. Blake hated these kinds of movies. He hated the fact that he could predict them, or that they followed the same sort of format, or that the characters were 2-D regurgitations of actual, decent characters from other movies he found much more superior than the ones I enjoyed watching.
I settled in with a smile on my face as I tore into the cinnamon sugar pancake in front of me.
My plan was working. I knew that if I had Caleb at my side during the rest of this divorce, it would probably piss Blake off enough that he’d sign the papers out of spite. I had plans to talk with him about it, too. I wanted Caleb back in my life. I wanted us to rekindle our friendship… or, at the very least, rekindle whatever it was he could stomach having with me. However, as I watched the movie in front of me, another idea crossed my mind.
Blake would absolutely sign those papers if I was in love with someone else.
If there was one thing his fucking ego couldn’t stand, it was me relying on anyone else other than him. I watched the movie progress, witnessing this young woman in desperate need of help. She wanted to make partner in her law firm, but because she had sacrificed everyone and everything to get there, she had no outside connections, save for her workplace.
And the second I watched her ask her best friend to pretend to be her fiancée for a charity ball, the idea slapped me across the face.
Lound knocks pounded from my door pulling me from my thoughts.
“I know you’re in there Rose. Open up!”
Blake’s voice shocked me out of my trance and my food almost tumbled to the floor.
“Rose!” he shouted as another boom echoed through my condo. “Open this fucking door!”
I set my food off to the side and threw the blanket off my lap. What in the absolute hell was that maniac doing at my place?
“Rose!” he exclaimed as his fist thudded against my front door.
I whipped it open until the locking chain stopped it. “What the hell do you want?”
Blake tilted his head. “Can we stop with the theatrics so I can come in?”
“No. What do you want?”
He scoffed. “To talk with you face to face like an adult.”
