Page 52 of Unofficial

"Nope. You didn't want me to be the only one who messed around, but it turns out you were the only one of us who did. And on top of that, you slept with a woman out of spite who clearly has feelings for you. That sounds healthy."

She doesn’t care how sarcastic she sounds. What he did was cruel.

"You told me you still have feelings for him!" he shouts and stands. "Do you have any idea what that feels like?"

Jess nods. "I can imagine it wouldn't feel great, but I never said I did. I said I didn't know. Which I didn't at the time because I wasn't allowing myself to think about it. I couldn’t think about it because I put all my effort into us. And trust me, I don't want to have feelings for him. At least, I didn't."

"You're falling in love with him again?"

"I don't know... maybe? He's doing everything I loved when we were together and doing whatever he can to show me things are different. I don't know if I trust him yet, but he's putting in effort."

"How the hell is he doing that?" he asks, anger still flashing in his eyes.

Jess takes a deep breath and settles herself. She doesn't think Landry would ever physically harm her, but his anger scares her a little. "He texts me every morning. Then he talks to me throughout the day. He sent me gifts at work with notes saying he should've been doing it all along. Then he showed up in the lobby last week and asked me to dinner. Up until that point, there wasn't even an indication I was going to give him another shot, but he kept trying. He put himself out there."

"And what's he doing when you're not with him?" Landry asks. "How do you know he's not out screwing every other woman out there while you're putting him on a bullshit probationary period?"

His anger silences her. Bullshit probationary period? He knew why she did it, and he said he was fine with it, but he clearly wasn't. And the night he thinks she slept with Kade is the night he sleeps with someone to get back at her. This isn't the man she wants to be with. He may check off every box on paper, but in person, he's not a good man.

"Well?"

"As far as I know, you're the only one of the three of us to sleep with someone else in the past week."

His jaw clenches, and his nostrils flare. "That's not fair."

"To point out you're condemning him for something you did when you're the only one we know definitively did anything of the sort?" Sighing, Jess stands. "I'm done, Landry."

"Because of him?"

"Because of you."

Jaw dropping, he stares at her for a few moments before speaking. "Me? I've been here. Every day since I met you, I've been here."

"Have you, though? You still have a wall up. You clearly have an issue that you had to wait sixty days from the day we met to climb into my bed, and then you lied to my face, telling me it was fine. You have this vindictive side when you're angry, and you have no boundaries when it comes to hurting people when you feel slighted. What you did with that girl wasn't fair to anyone involved, including her."

Looking at the ground, he nods his head. "You'll do anything to make yourself feel better about choosing Kade after everything he put you through."

"This isn't about Kade, Landry. I haven't chosen him. This is about you and how you come across. The way the little things mix with the big things."

"What does that even mean?"

"It means that it shows me the type of person you are, and just because we both want a long-term relationship that ends with marriage and kids doesn't create a solid foundation for a happy life. It's how you haven't talked to me for almost two weeks, but you'll follow me and get a last-minute date to show you can do what you believe I'm doing. How you don't text me in the mornings or ever offer to clean up after I make us dinner. The way you pull away and make it nearly impossible to get to know you without you exploding. You're here, but you're not fully here. The part I can't get past is the person you become when you're angry."

"I'm not allowed to be angry?"

"You're one hundred percent allowed to be angry. What you're not allowed to do is cast judgment on someone's character or act like you have them and an entire situation figured out to say hurtful things because you want to go tit for tat. You're not allowed to use someone to get back at a person. Did you even think about how what you did would make me feel? Or worse, how this Holly girl feels about it knowing you're not calling her the next day? She probably thought she had a chance to get you to like her and see her how she sees you."

He scoffs. "Like Kade treats women, you mean?"

"Then how the hell does what you did make you any better than him? Because the way I see it, there's not much difference in the man he was and this man in front of me."

"That's rich, Jess. Real rich. You know what? You have fun with your ex. Let him break your heart again. You deserve it. I can't believe I thought I could fall for a bitch."

She nods her head and walks to the door, holding it open. "Goodbye, Landry."

Taking the door from her hands, he slams it shut behind him, causing her to jump. Whether or not she decides to give Kade a chance, she knows this was the right decision. Landry may have looked good on the outside and when it came to checking off the boxes of what she wanted in a man, but that doesn't account for the real-life version of the man she now knows. And certain things can't be overlooked.

Chapter Nineteen

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