But after she left, I started to realize that it’s impossible for me to separate my feelings from sex the way I told her I could. The whole time I was thinking about how much I wanted her all to myself. I didn’t want it to end, I wanted to keep her in my room and make her come over and over until we both became too tired to do anything other than sleep.
Stepping back and letting her leave my room, knowing that in a matter of hours we would be here on her date with Zale, was torture. That’s why after she left I went to the meeting room to speak with Gabriel and I asked for a week off.
I need to put some real distance between Kairi and I to sort out my feelings. And she needs to be able to pursue things with Zale, or any other guy, without me and my dick getting in the way and confusing her.
“She also hated you,” Zale says, pulling her attention back to him. “She was convinced you were going to steal me away from her. Freaking psychotic.”
Kairi gives him a forced smile before taking a sip from her strawberry daiquiri. This whole date is doomed, and nothing I can suggest will get it back on track, and I think they’re both realizing it.
“Anyway,” Zale says awkwardly. “Tell me about you and Colton.”
She perks up at this, quickly glancing in my direction. I don’t look up from my glass, pretending not to listen, even though we both know I am.
“W-what about him?” She asks nervously.
“Well you two were dating,” he says. “What was that like?”
She shrugs. “It was good. He was nice.”
I bite my lip to hold my laugh in and pick up my phone.
Colton: Tell him we were nothing more than a fun fling.
”Just good?” Zale asks as she glances down at her phone on her lap. “And just nice? That sounds boring as hell.”
Kairi doesn’t answer him as she stares down at her phone, and I frown as I watch her. She isn’t typing back or scrolling, she’s just staring down at the message.
“Earth to Kairi,” Zale says, nudging her leg with his foot.
She looks up, glancing at me quickly, before clearing her throat. “Colton and I weren’t really anything…serious,” she says. “We were just having fun.”
Zale snorts. “Figures. He doesn’t seem like the type of guy to settle down anywhere.”
I frown as my attention moves to him.
“What do you mean by that?” Kairi asks, just as confused as I feel.
“It’s only a matter of time before he packs up and leaves the team, Kairi,” he says, as if this should be obvious to her. “We both know he’s still a flight risk at the end of the day.”
Kairi frowns, lowering her fork to the table. “I think it’s time you move on, Zale,” she says, trying to sound calm but failing horribly. “He’s been back for over a year and he’s not going to run off anywhere.”
I pull out my phone, hoping she sees it in time.
Colton: It’s alright, darlin’, you don’t need to fight my battles. Try to get back on track with the date.
She glances at her phone, but chooses to ignore it. “You’ve been giving him a hard time ever since he returned to the team and honestly? You sound obsessed at this point.”
Zale’s mouth opens as he sits up straight, clearly taken aback by her outburst.
”You’re going to be in the shock of a lifetime when he proves you wrong,” he says, dropping his fork to the table and folding his arms across his chest.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she says, shaking her head in denial.
The hairs on my arms rise, and I know this is about to endverybadly.
Zale laughs condescendingly. “I knew you were naive, Kairi,” he says. “But I didn’t think you were stupid too.”
In a split second I’m out of my seat and taking a step toward him, ready to make him eat his own words, but I freeze when Kairi jumps to her feet and slams her hands on the table.
