Page 191 of Fighting the Pull

He caught my good wrist before I got there.

I stopped, twisted it free, and took a step away from him.

“Don’t touch me,” I bit.

“Take a breath, sweetheart. Calm down. I fucked up. I shouldn’t have done this now.”

I shook my head. “No. Nope. Now’s the perfect time. I already regret howtotally fucking stupidI’ve been. If you’d tacked more time on that, it’d make it worse, not better.”

“I need to know you—”

I threw up both hands, feeling far more than a ping of pain in my injured one, but since managing other pain I was experiencing took precedence, I ignored that too. “I don’t care what you need.Ineed to get the fuck out of here.”

“I can’t let you go when you’re agitated like this.”

“Are you fucking insane?” I shouted. “You just broke my heart!”

And unfortunately, my voice broke on that last part.

He took a step toward me, his face…

His face…

I couldn’t let myself process the look on his face.

“Baby,” he whispered.

I couldn’t process that either.

I started toward the stairs again. “Fuck you, Hale.”

He caught me again.

I yanked away and screeched, “Fuck you!”

We stood, staring at each other.

Then I said, “It would be really nice if you could give me some space to collect some of my stuff and go. I’ll arrange to come back and get the rest when you’re not around.”

“I want you to stay here.”

“I’m not staying here.”

He drew in breath and then he said, “I get you need to leave right now. Come back when I’m gone. I’ll be gone in two hours.”

“I’m not fucking staying here, Hale.”

“Right,” he said quietly. “Then let me call Paul to take you home.”

I shook my head. “No Paul. No you. No on your place. I’ll call a Lyft.”

“I’d feel better if you let me call Paul.”

“What aren’t you getting about this?” I snapped. “You ended it. We’redone. Let me get on with us beingdone.”

He crossed his arms on his chest. “I’m not leaving until you allow me to call Paul to take you home.”

“Fine,” I spat.

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