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For a second, I believe him. He’s that convincing.

Or maybe I’m that stupid…

I grab my phone out of my back pocket and pull up the photo before shoving it in his face. His brow furrows as he studies it.

“Okay, I’ll admit that this looks bad but I swear I didn’t kiss her. She kissed me and I was pushing her away in this photo.” His voice and his body language lead me to believe he’s telling the truth. Then, I remember that Daisy saw him.

“No. Daisy saw you making out with her. Don’t lie to me.” I’m desperately fighting my body’s desire to forgive him and end the tension between us.

“Sweetie,” he says, walking up to me and wrapping his arms around my waist. I try to pull away as fresh tears well up in my eyes at his touch but he tightens his grip. “Your friends don’t like me. Daisy is lying to you. I don’t know why she would want to hurt you like this but don’t let her destroy us.”

At his words, the only thing I can feel is confusion. Would Daisy really do that me?

“Wait, what about the lap dance? Do you really think I’d be okay with some slut grinding all over your lap?” I say, renewed anger in my voice.

Don’t give in, I scold myself.

He sighs and looks up toward the ceiling.

“Emma, you’re making a big deal out of nothing. It didn’t mean anything.”

“It’s not nothing to me! You had some other girl all over you! Were you turned on by her?”

He chuckles and shakes his head.

“You are too sensitive. I swear, it didn’t mean anything, baby. I was more there to hang out with my brothers and friends than anything else. Besides, if you hadn’t ditched me tonight, I never would have ended up there,” he tosses out.

Guilt floods me that I wasn’t there with him. Should I have called Moe and asked for the night off?

“I’m gonna hop in the shower. Why don’t you go calm down and when I come out, we can go to bed,” he instructs, kissing my forehead and I feel like crying again.

What the hell is going on with me?

* * * *

“Good morning, beautiful girl.”

I roll over and come face-to-face with Ryan. I just watch him, not saying a word, and after a moment, he narrows his eyes at me.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I say with a sigh, rolling away from him.

“Bullshit. Come on, Emma. What’s going on? Are you still upset about last night?”

I nod my head. He sighs heavily and lays his chin on my shoulder.

“Sweetie, you are really blowing this out of proportion. It didn’t mean anything.”

“Yeah, okay.”

He wraps his arms around me, his front to my back. His erection presses against my butt and I freeze.

“I love you, baby. Can we please have fun today? You said we would spend the day together.”

I feel guilty because I did promise him that yesterday when I couldn’t get out of work. I take a deep breath and try to get past what happened last night. If he says it meant nothing, then it meant nothing.

“I love you, too.”