“He didn’t offend me, Elio. He doesn’t deserve that. Trust me, he just—The bruise didn’t even hurt me.”
“I am glad it didn’t. But that does not excuse the painful fact that seeing it on your arm for those three days hurt me. Do you know how much willpower it takes to ignore killing someone who is supposed to be dead? The mental stress it caused me, who will pay for that? Hm?”
“Come on, it’s not that deep.”
“His disgusting gloved hand gripped your armdeeply. Yes, it is that deep.”
I bit back a laugh, and he caught it.
“This is not funny,” he clarified. “I do not like that you are trying to vouch for that man.”
“I’m not vouching for him; I’m just letting you know he’s not worth the trouble. Trust me. Leave him be; you’ll have more peace of mind when you do.”
“Were you involved with him?”
The question caught me off guard. “What?”
“Before… were you and he… intimate?”
He watched me intently, and upon my silence, something dark crossed his eyes. “You were.”
“Only once,” I blurted, “and it didn’t mean anything to me.”
“What about him?”
I sucked in a breath from my parted lips, letting it out with a response. “Not anymore.”
“You do not sound sure.”
“Elio, it happened years ago—”
“But you still speak with him, knowing he might harbor feelings for you. You care about him—”
“Baby, the only person I care about romantically is you.”
That shut him up—in fact, his whole body froze beneath me. Was it from me using that term of endearment or frommy declaration? I wasn’t sure, but it had the tips of his ears growing a shade redder as he cleared his throat and shifted on the seat as if he didn’t know what to do with himself.
“Well,” he started, looking everywhere but at me. “I already made my decision. I will make him suffer, and then I will kill him.”
“Jesus, Elio—what if it upsets me?”
His gaze snapped to mine. “Do not threaten me like that.”
“It’s not a threat. It will upset me because the only good thing in my present is killing the mildly good thing in my past.”
“What if the good thing in your present wants to be the only good thing in your life and in your future, and in order for him to be sane, he has to kill the mildly good thing in your past so that you can see and know him as the only solid good thing that ever happened to you?”
“Yeah, you lost me.”
“I will not change my mind. If I let him go, he will not learn his lesson.”
“He already learned his lesson, okay? He’s pretty fucked up right now and very angry.”
“Precisely what I wanted.”
“Let him go… please, for me—for little old me who youreallycare about and would hate to anger because she would not let it go and would most likely bug you till your ears bled and you had no other choice but to do her bidding when you could have just accepted when she asked nicely?”
He sighed, shaking his head as the frown slowly slipped off his face. “Promise me he won’t interfere with us because then I will not wait to make him suffer. I will just kill him. In cold blood; I would make sure I don’t use a gun so that I can feel his life slipping away with my bare hands.”
