Page 233 of Double Daddies
“Don’t think so,” Avery snapped. “We trolls are possessive of our shit.” She glanced down at Adam’s side of the bed, spotting the two—yes,two—towels he’d used after his morning shower and thrown carelessly on the floor, as usual. Another habit she hated.
She stomped over and grabbed them, launching the bath towel at the redhead. “There.” The smaller towel, barely big enough to cover Adam’s waist, she threw at him. “I’ll get someone in to pack your crap and deliver it to your office, along with the bill. That’s all you’re getting from me, Adam.”
Feeling her temper fraying at the edges, Avery spun on her heel and walked out. Heading straight for the front door, sheflung it open, then plucked his bunch of keys from the bowl on the table—yet another of his requirements. It took her ten seconds to identify the keys relevant to her apartment and the building, another thirty to wrestle them off the Denver Broncos keyring.
“Avery, please…” The difference in his voice was astounding; soft, pleading, a throwback to the man she’d met months ago. A testament to just how well he played the game. “This doesn’t have to be the end.”
Turning, she laughed and flung the keys in his direction. “Yeah, it really does. The end of your free ride, Adam. You don’t pay rent, you don’t contribute to the bills, you sure as hell don’t buy the groceries. None of that matters anymore, because it looks like the only thing you brought to this laughable excuse of a relationship is the potential for everything sexually transmitted.”
They stood there barefoot, in nothing but damp towels, and she didn’t see even an ounce of regret. No shame, no inner reflection of anything but irritation at being caught.
The walk of shame might give them some humility.
“Can I at least get some clothes from the?—”
“That’s a hell no. Get out, both of you.”
She didn’t know what was more satisfying—watching them trudge into the hallway with the essentials barely covered, or slamming the door shut behind them.
Once the apartment was quiet again, the adrenaline fueling her anger began to fade, leaving her shaky and, to her horror,teary.The damn things were burning behind her eyes, blurring her vision.
No, no, no. Absolutely not.
There was nothing that could possess her to shed tears over that lying, cheating, unreliable sonofabitch. If her emotions wereout of whack, it was only because she was so goddamn angry at being played for a fool.
Locking the door and slotting the security chain into place for good measure, Avery forced back the rising deluge and hurried down the hall to retrieve Venus. Cuddling the Mallow, she avoided even looking inside her bedroom.
The bed needed incinerating.
The city probably wouldn’t be impressed if she dragged it down to the street and set it on fire along with all of Adam’s shit, so she had to figure out what to do with it because there was no chance she was sleeping on that thing ever again.
But as she stumbled to the living room and collapsed on the couch, a horrible thought struck her. Six months Adam had been living here. Her routine hadn’t changed in all that time; her schedule at Wakey Bakey was pretty solid, with today being an anomaly.
How often had he brought his casual fucks home? How many women had he slipped through the front door intoherhome? What else had he desecrated with his slimy, unfaithful dick?
The bath, the shower? The floors? Thecouch?
Head falling back, she tightened her arms around Venus for comfort and squeezed her eyes shut as tears pushed through her rigid resistance. How the hell did a good day turn into a nightmare so quickly?
It hadn’t, she realized. She’d been living in the nightmare for six months without being fully aware of how deeply she was immersed. The little niggling issues she’d tried to understand were simply warnings of how big the main issue—Adam—really was beneath the surface.
Today was the culmination of everything wrong in her life.
Was that another sign? Some universal indication that she needed to do things differently? But what, exactly? If the universe was going to take the time to blow up her life inspectacular fashion, could it not take a few extra minutes to point her in the right freaking direction?
For God’s sake, she was happy at Wakey Bakey. It gave her the chance to talk to people, to brighten their day with baked goods and a smile. It also provided her with ample opportunities to sample said baked goods, which was probably why her ass could stop a runaway train—personally, she blamed the hazelnut fudge brownies, but no one could resist the warm, gooey treats.
So, she was happy with her job, but her personal life had just taken the plunge off a cliff and smashed on the rocks below, erupting into flames and black, acrid smoke.
But had it, really?
Avery rubbed her cheek on the Mallow, trying hard to step away from the big ball of ridiculous hurt brewing in her chest. Her life had slipped off the rails a little, that was all. No cliff, no fire and smoke.
Adam cheating on her wasn’t a cataclysmic event; it hadn’t even been a big surprise. He wasn’t the love of her life, nowhere near. The pain in her heart was… she didn’t know what it was, but it wasn’t caused by her heart cracking in two from his deception.
In all probability, thanks to his controlling attitude and the distance it caused between them, she doubted they’d have lasted more than another month, maybe two. She couldn’t stay with a man who physically and mentally compressed her to suit him.
What did that make her, in his eyes?
