Page 46 of Going for Gold (Sweet Cravings 3)

I rolled my eyes. "Who cares if it is?" I said. I brushed past Kristen.

"Alina!" Chris' voice made me cringe. I looked over my shoulder to see him running down the steps. Before I could say anything, Kristen was walking toward him.

For some reason, I felt frozen in place. The stadium was too loud for me to hear what they were saying. So I just watched the scene unfold in silence.

Kristen poked him in the middle of the chest and said something. Chris laughed and lifted up the flowers. Kristen pointed over his shoulder at the girl he had clearly been flirting with. Chris shrugged and looked over at me. He gave me one of those looks that used to get him anything he wanted. But today I wasn't fazed.

He put his hand on Kristen's shoulder and lightly shoved her to the side so he could get past her.

My feet unfroze and I walked over to him. "What do you want, Chris?" All the joy I had felt from my team's victory seemed to evaporate.

"To give you these." He held up the flowers. "Congratulations, babe." He leaned forward to kiss me.

I put my hand on his chest to stop him. "Chris, stop."

He pulled back and gave me a funny look. "I stayed away for a few days to give you time to cool off. Let's move forward, okay?"

"Is that an apology?"

"Yes. We've already talked about this. Gabriela tricked me. We shared a kiss. End of story."

"Shared a kiss? You said she kissed you and you shoved her off."

"Yeah, that's what I meant."

"Those two things are different, Chris. How do you expect me to trust you?"

He smiled again. "Babe, come on. It's me. Don't do that thing you always do."

"What thing?"

He sighed. "Where you don't let things go. You need to learn how to forgive people. If you had forgiven Gabriela years ago, this whole thing wouldn't have been that big of a deal. And she couldn't have used your own anger against you. You're not even mad at me. You're just upset with her. So how about you come back to my room and we can celebrate your victory how we should have celebrated mine."

Each word out of his mouth made me even more angry. "You're such an asshole, Chris."

"Because I'm right?" There was that damn cocky smile again.

"Why do you always have to be right about everything? I told you that stuff about Gabriela so you'd support me, not hang it over my head. How could you do this to me? With her?"

"I said I was sorry."

"Actually, you didn't say you were sorry. You just shoved flowers in my face."

"Well, I'm saying it now."

I stared into his eyes. He didn't look sorry. Last night I had promised myself that I wouldn't let Chris ruin this week for me. Yet, here he was ruining this victory. I should be celebrating right now, not fuming. This wasn't what love was. Love was putting the other person first. It was supporting them. It wasn't hooking up with their arch nemesis during the most important week of their life. This relationship was so one sided, and I had been too blind to see it before. "I don't forgive you, Chris. And I don't believe it was only one kiss." I turned around to walk away from him.

"Alina." He grabbed my wrist. "I'm choosing you."

"Over Gabriela? I didn't realize that was a choice you were debating."

"You know what I mean."

"Well, I'm not choosing you."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"It means that what we have isn't healthy. All you care about is physical needs, not emotional. You don't love me because you're too in love with yourself."

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