Page 36 of Give Me Love

I tuck my shirt back in so I won’t look like the walk of shame entering the apartment complex lobby before I rub under my eyes one more time. I’ve got to stop sleeping with makeup on. I’ll have wrinkles by the time I’m thirty.

“You look fine,” he says.

“I look like I didn’t come home last night.”

He smirks and adjusts his hat for the hundredth time. Is he nervous? He seems out of place, and I wonder how often he’s actually walked a woman up to her apartment. The thought bothers me a bit, but I slide it out of my mind.You don’t even know this dude.

The elevator slides open, and we step inside. It only contains us, and all I smell is clean soap, spicy forest green.

“So, you usually snap at women about seat belts and then carry them into your apartment?” I ask as the golden doors slide open and my phone rings. We step out and I look at the screen, seeing it’s an unknown number, but I recognize it.

Mark.I hit the shady button. Why is he calling me? Didn’t we say everything we had to say when I left? My mind goes back to the odd calmness I had leaving him. It wasn’t hard to do, which told me what I needed to know—I should have done it a long time ago.

“Someone you don’t want to speak to?” Bryce asks as we walk down the hall.

“Something like that,” I mumble.

“Who was it?”

“I believe I asked you a question first,” I say, wondering why the phone call is his business.

“Oh, we’re still playing this, huh?” He sounds annoyed.

“We don’t have to be playing anything,” I reply with a cheeky smile.

We stop in the hallway, and he crosses his arms, taking his bottom lip between his teeth. Colorful tats stand out over his forearms, and his chest stretches the cotton of his shirt. He’s something to look at. I wonder what he does to stay in such great shape. I also would like to shove him and tell him to fuck off.

After the diner conversation last night about my job choice and now this, it’s clear this guy can push my buttons.

Bryce exhales. “No, I don’t usually snap at women about seat belts or carry them to my apartment.”

“Why did you do it with me then?”

“I thought it was my turn?” he asks with a lifted brow.

I roll my eyes. “Fine. The unanswered phone call was my ex. Would you like to meet him?”

He narrows his blues, and tiny lines form beside them. “You’re a smartass.”

I laugh out loud. “Me?” I point toward myself. “I believe you hold that title well enough for the both of us.”

His tongue goes to the roof of his mouth as he scans over my face. His presence alone is intimidating, but that gaze shakes my bones. “How fresh is this breakup?”

“Over a month. Would you like to know how it ended also?” I mean, might as well get it all out now, right?

He rubs his chin, scratching at the five o’clock shadow. “I’m all ears.”

I lean back against the wall. “We were together for two years. He cheated. I moved out.” Oddly, saying it out loud doesn’t bother me as much as it did only a few days ago. Some things just aren’t meant to be, and I’m one hundred percent certain Mark and I are one of those things.

He scans over my face again as I chew my gum with a closed mouth. “That’s it? And you’re done?”

I lift my shoulders. “Why do you care, Bryce?” This time I cross my arms. I can’t say I don’t like this banter between us, but I’d really like to know.

His reply is quick. “I wish I didn’t.”

Ouch.I feel a tiny sting in my chest from his words.

We stand there, both of us with tight eyes. I can’t figure this guy out.

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