Page 70 of Love or Leave

His stomach sank.

Jalen?

What was this, their third date? Was this going to continue? She'd seemed unsure about him on the bus.

And why the hell wouldn't she be home by ten o'clock?

Then he remembered why she'd wanted to have sex with him that night. To get more experience.

God fucking dammit.

"Tonio!"

His sister's voice broke through. "Yeah, sorry, what?"

"You don't seem to care at all that the whole family is angry about Fran moving a guy into your house."

He shook his head. "It's not news to me."

"Well, it is news to the whole family, who basically want to put a hit on your wife, who you claim to still be in love with."

He tried to absorb her words, but another text came from Cara, and he couldn't think about Fran or Maria or his mother or Blake.

Cara: Maybe we can meet up in the morning. Not too early.

His eyes doubled.

What had she said on the bus? That Jalen had asked her to an Orca's game? Those games usually started at seven, finished by nine thirty. Hopefully, they would go back to her place, not his. That would mean they'd get there around ten.

And he was off at ten. If he just went over to her house after work, then he could—

His brain forced him to stop the super fucking stalker-y direction his heart had taken him in.

"What are you going to do?"

He sighed. "I don't know, Maria," remembering Maria was talking about Fran.

Ugh.

The last thing he wanted was to keep talking about Fran, Blake, and that old house. He’d finally crawled out from under that weight and started to see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

But now the tunnel was bleak as fuck.

As was his future with Cara. Although he couldn't really grieve that, considering they never even had a present.

Exhaustion hit him like a train. He wished he could just snap his fingers and make it all disappear. Even just for a little while.

"Maria, I gotta get back to work," he said, rubbing at the tightness in his chest.

"Okay," Maria said in a sad voice. "I'm sorry you're going through all this, Tone. I can't imagine how I'd feel if Pete asked for a divorce and moved a new girlfriend into our home."

Antonio shook his head. Too many things were all happening at once. He just wanted it all to stop.

"I'll let you go," she continued. "And I'll try to keep Mom from killing Fran."

"Okay, bye."

He hung up the phone and, with it, hung up all the noise about Fran. But as soon as he did, his mind fell on Cara, as it had every day since their night together.

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