Page 58 of Fly Back to Me
This is all so fucked up.
Her inviting me for coffee. Me accepting the small proposal. Her long and lean legs in that goddamn plaid skirt and black heels.
Shit.
The window of opportunity mockingly lowers, and we’re just a casual walk from parting ways. All the caged words rise to my throat, prepared to be launched out rather than left unsaid yet again.
I refuse to submit this time.
My instincts bolden when her legs subtly kick up speed, blood simmering with a forbidden craving. “You can really drive a man crazy, you know that?” I quip, continuing after her.
Her silken lips exhale a laugh. “Is that so?”
“Yes, it is so,” I say curtly. “And frankly, your antics are starting to become borderline unbearable.”
A slight scowl dresses her face, but she never peers in my direction. “Then maybe you shouldn’t have accepted my invitation for coffee.”
“Hey,” I demand, halting her with my palm around her arm. “Would you slow down for a damn second? I’m talking to you.”
“What?” she fires back, swatting my hand off of her. “Believe it or not, I’m not made of stone. Okay?”
My eyes skate back and forth between hers. Her lenses are glazed with tears threatening to spill over any moment, and my chest hollows out.
If I thought I’d be rewarded with some internal gold medal for resisting Olivia, I was deeply misguided. Because there isn’t a strand of solace I win for my loyalty. Just a gaping hole beneath my chest where Olivia was gouged out.
Gone.
Just like that.
“Can you just stop for a moment? Please?” I ask, my voice a notch above a whisper. Her throat rolls as she steers her gaze from me, and I shake my head in wonder. “I’ve never met someone like you before.”
She inhales a rickety breath, eyes still drifted to the side. “Like what?”
“Like you just fit.”
The words flow out of me like a stream of water—smooth and fast.
Olivia darts her eyes back to me. “Well, it doesn’t matter. You’re with someone.”
She curls around the brick building at the corner of the sidewalk, quickly marching to the entrance of the parking lot.
It doesn’t matter?
Since when?
In a flash, my boots are hot alongside her heels. “That doesn’t seem to be stopping you though, huh? You’re so hard up for it, like you’re just begging me to slip a hand under that skirt.”
She pivots to station in front of me, slamming her fist downward. “Ugh, how dare you speak to me like that?”
“How dare I?” I spit back, stabbing a finger at my pounding chest. “You’re playing all these little games, and…”
My hand swipes down my mouth as I straighten my posture, frustration crawling through my veins. She’s unmoving as I pivot my head, and a deceptive smirk paints my face.
I backpedal as I pluck my Suddora bandana from my jeans pocket, fastening the handkerchief around my head as I hold her eyes. “Take a cold shower, then come talk to me. How about that?” I taunt her with a jerk of my chin.
My hands drop from my hair as I turn to walk off, but her fist crashes into my arm. I pivot around as she leans into my chest, her fingers grasping the lapel of my coat.
Her stare is blown with fury as her chin slants up, my lips pursing when she harshly tugs me forward. “Maybe you should tell that to yourself considering you keep coming back for more,” she grits out. “Such a devoted boyfriend you are.”
