For the next few hours, we talked about anything and everything other than Trevon. From Ollie’s to Dr. U to my sexy neighbor that wouldn’t leave me alone. And when Kasey brought him up, Mycah stood and raised her eyebrows at me. “Do I hear a rebound?” she asked.
My cheeks tingled, and I gazed out at the city through her floor-length windows. “No.”
Kasey pursed her red lips. “We’ll see about that.”
Mycah placed her hand on Kasey’s knee and kissed her. “Well, I’m going to bed. I look forward to hearing more about this mystery man.”
Kasey watched her disappear down the hallway and grabbed our empty wine glasses.
“So, are you two a thing?” I asked, following her to the kitchen.
“Yeah.” She smiled.
“How long?”
Her eyes widened with excitement, and she leaned against the counter. “A few weeks. I’ll have to tell you more about her in the morning. If I tell you now, you won’t be able to shut me up and I don’t want to keep her waiting.” She brought me to a spare bedroom and pulled out a few blankets. “Are you alright?”
I smiled weakly. “I will be.” Hopefully.
When I laid down and shut my eyes and was finally alone with my thoughts for the first time tonight, I clenched the blankets in my fists. I wasn’t alright. My heart hurt. I felt like I was suffocating. The tears wouldn’t stop rolling down my cheeks.
Did I drive him to cheat on me? Did I not go out with him as much as he wanted me to? Was I not fun and spontaneous anymore? Was it because I said that I needed time to think?
I wiped the tears. No. This wasn’t my fault. I refused to blame myself for this. Cheating on me was his choice, and it was a bad one.
I was lying in a bed and staring up at a plain white ceiling. Gusts of wind blew in through a cracked window. All I wanted was to pull the blankets over my body, but everything felt too heavy to move. My head. My heart. My muscles.
“Dani, it’s not your fault,” someone whispered.
Eros laid next to me, fingers grazing against my cheek. I turned onto my side, tucking my hand under my pillow, and gazed into his black eyes. He was wearing those horns again.
I waited for him to say something to take my mind off of this, but he just wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into his chest. I inhaled his cinnamon aroma and relaxed in his arms. They were so warm.
We laid like that for hours. My fingers digging into his bare back, me holding him closer than I ever held Trevon, clutching him like he was the only thing I had ever wanted. I didn’t know how much I needed this.
“I’m going to make this right for you,” he said.
When I woke up the next morning, I swore I could smell Eros on the bed sheets. It felt as if he had been there with me the whole night, but that was an even stupider thought than the idea of me giving Trevon a second chance.
After Kasey dropped me off at home, I stood in the elevator with my phone pressed to my ear. “I’m so sorry again, Dr. U., but I… I won’t be able to come in today.”
“Is everything okay, Dani? You never call off,” she said, worry clear in her voice.
“Yes.” It was. At least, I was feeling a bit better than yesterday.
She paused for a long moment. “Dani, it’s not good to deny your feelings. Don’t let them build up. Remember how that unfolded in the past for you.”
“I know,” I said softly, stepping out of the elevator. Denying Mom’s murder made me so hateful of everything until Trevon. Now I had to deal with Trevon and his cheating.
“Take as much time as you need,” she said. “And promise me you’ll talk to someone about this, even if it’s not me.”
“I promise.”
I hung up the phone and walked down the hall. Trevon was the only good in my life after I lost Mom and now he was gone too—willingly. What did I have left? Who did I have left to talk to about this? Kasey. Maria, maybe.
Everything was eerily quiet as I pushed my key into my apartment door, lost in my thoughts. Then, suddenly, I heard yelling from next door. I was going to ignore it until I heard Javier’s voice.
“I can’t fucking believe you!” Eros said.
“Come on. You know how I live, Eros,” Javier said. I gripped the doorknob, fingers turning white.
“I told you to stay away from her!”
“You told me not to fuck her, and I didn’t.” Javier’s voice was laced with annoyance.
“So, you fuck her boyfriend instead?” Eros paused. “I can’t believe that I actually fell for this shit. I should’ve known. You’re just like your father.”
Javier chuckled. I could only imagine he had the same sinister look on his face that he gave me when I caught him with Trevon. “You should be used to it by now.”
“This is why I left.”
“Who are you kidding, Eros? You were banished! You didn’t leave. Mother didn’t want a son like you. She never did.”
Silence.
“Why didn’t you tell me that she’s—” Javier started, but I heard sudden footsteps and saw the door swing open, so I slipped into my apartment and shut the door behind me. That didn’t sound good.
I inhaled deeply, breathing in the scent of eggs and bacon, and closed my eyes. Eros and Javier were half-brothers? Where did their mother banish him from—and, on second thought, who even used that word anymore? Why did Eros warn Javier to stay away from me?
The last question interested me more than the others. Maybe I was hoping that it was because he possibly liked me too. After last night’s dream, I was starting to think anything was possible.
He probably told Javier that so he could be the one to fuck me. He had made that clear from the moment that he met me that that was what he wanted.
The bacon on the skillet was sizzling in a heap of grease. Maria hurried out of the hallway, running a hand through her hair, phone pressed to her ear. “I don’t know where she is. She didn’t come home last night, and I’m so worried about her, Zane. And this breakfast is burning and—” She looked at me with wide teary eyes and clicked off the phone without saying goodbye. She rushed over to me and pulled me into a hug. “Dani! Where have you been?”
“At a friend’s place,” I said, awkwardly patting her on the back.
She wiped a tear from her cheek, trying not to mess up her mascara. “I was so worried about you. I heard what happened. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“You are?”
“Yes,” I said. “I think so.”
Honestly, I was still hurting, but I felt so much better. Last night, my world felt like it was shattering. I didn’t think I’d ever spend another day without disgusting wet tears rolling down my cheeks and puffy red eyes.
“Are you okay?” I asked. “You and Javier—”
She frowned. “Javier is an asshole who likes to lead people on, apparently. What we had was nothing compared to you and Trevon.”
I gazed over at the burning bacon. “Has Trevon come over?”
“No.” She turned off the stove and placed the bacon on a glass plate. “But Eros did.”
Eros came looking for me?
“You should go see him. He seemed worried.”
“I will,” I said. “Later.”
All I wanted to do now was sink into my sheets, fall asleep, and dream of Eros. I knew that the Eros in my dreams wasn’t the same as the Eros in real life, but dream-Eros had comforted me last night. And I hoped that it would happen again.