Page 180 of Call Me Baby 2: Side B

I try to resist his gaze, but it’s no use.

My eyes keep choosing his.

Then his charming smirk fades away.

What’s left in his eyes is bare, stripped,

something fierce.

“Or do you mean shit like… I love⁠—”

“Stop.”I stand suspended. Disarmed.

In my head, I’m already imagining it—him red-faced and wild, I fuckin’ love you coming at me like bullets shooting out of the barrel of his throat, veins popping, spit flying…

But it’s all muted, ‘cause I’m standing there with my revolver to the side of my head, a heartbeat away from pulling the trigger so my bullet hits my ear before his words do. ‘Cause I’d rather blow my brains out than let him give me his I-love-you just so he never gets the chance to rip it away.

I drag in a lungful and snap my spine straight. “You know exactly what I mean.”

I look unaffected, I sound aloof, but my pulse is out of control. “Tell me you love my pussy ‘til you’re blue in the face, but what you were about to say?” My mouth parts to say no. But my lip trembles, and I don’t trust it.

Instead,

I swallow it down and shake my head.

His face falls grim,

realizing I’m not playing.

I strangle the cue in my fist. “At no time, in earnest or in jest, may either party issue verbal or written declarations of love, or offer statements implying long-term commitment.”

His eyes close,

fingers pinching the bridge of his nose.

“She’s quotin’ her own damn contract,” he says, laughing under it, shaking his head like I’m the most exhausting thing he’s ever wanted. “God—you adorable disaster.”

He falls back a step and loops behind me, scooping his bag off the floor.

Laptop’s out, and he drops onto the stool. “But outta curiosity,” he mutters, eyes on the screen, typing. “What happens if I say it?” A quick side glance. “Just coverin’ my ass. You pressure me into drinkin’ again, I’m sayin’ all kinds’a stupid shit.”

I edge back from the felt.

“Then I’m gone.”

// CLAUSES FIVE & SIX //

I circle the table as Andrew’s heated gaze drags up my spine, and it makes it impossible to block him out and focus.

He’s kicked back against the wall,

cue balancing lazy on his shoulder.

I bend into my shot⁠—

then a laugh rips across the hall, tangled with a deep voice in the distance that says, “Baby.”

My head snaps over,