Page 8 of Back To You

“Yes,” I answer warily, impatiently waiting for him to tell me the reason for this call.

I’ve lived in my current complex since I started veterinarian school because it was in the center of where I spent my time: my school, the animal shelter, Mia and Eddie’s apartment, Drew and Emmett’s house, Lenny’s.

I pay my rent on time, don’t disrupt my neighbors, and never need any maintenance or assistance.

I am a stellar occupant.

I haven’t talked to Mr. Dominic since he gave me a tour of the place two years ago.

“I hate to be calling about this,” Mr. Dominic responds, “but your apartment has been broken into.”

Chapter 4

Luke

I watch as Annie’s face drops.

The way her brows furrow and her mouth slightly opens tells me she wasn’t expecting whatever news was just shared with her.

I step closer, placing my hand lightly on the small of her back, and I know something is really wrong when she lets it stay there.

The heat of her skin meets my palm, even through her red jumpsuit, and the smell of jasmine and roses overwhelms my senses, the same way it does every time she lets me get close to her.

Annie and I have been in this limbo together these past seven years, ever since I walked into Lenny’s and found a brand-new version of her.

She fights me on almost everything I do or say, and it seems like every conversation we have ends in an argument or her telling me I’m an idiot.

And I love it.

I love the fierceness of her, the confidence, the shield she puts around herself and the heart she thinks isn’t there anymore.

But she forgets I know her better than I know myself.

And when she acts like a brat, it turns me on.

I’ve known Annie since I was six years old. As classmates, as friends, as lovers; I know each and every side of her, and I know that she’s fighting me every chance she gets because she still cares. Even if she pretends she doesn’t.

At the beginning, I tried to talk to her about what happened between us. I wanted to do whatever I could to make things right—I still do—but she wouldn’t let me. She was gone by the time I came out of my meeting with Emmett the day of my interview and it was Eddie who started training me at the bar for the next few shifts.

I didn’t get to see her again until my first shift with her a few weeks later, and she ignored me the whole time. Acting as if I didn’t exist.

When we were closing that day, we finally had a moment alone and I tried to talk to her. I asked her what happened at Grant’s party—why she left me, what happened with Devin and the other girls—but she would barely look at me.

I tried to find traces of my 1st grade table partner, my homecoming date, my best friend, but I couldn’t. She wouldn’t even look up from the floor when she said we were both better off forgetting everything that happened between us, and I still wonder if she could actually hear my heart shatter into more pieces than I thought possible.

Forget growing up together?

Forget our first hug, our first kiss, our first time?

Forget how it felt to hold her hand or make her laugh?

Forget the only person who sawme? Not who everyone else wanted me to be.

Asking me to forget her was like asking me to forget how to breathe.

Then it was like something shifted inside her. Her eyes finally met mine, and she stepped so close that I could almost taste the cherry-flavored lip gloss on her lips.

Then she told me she’d cut my balls off if I told anyone about our past.

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