“Oh, I’m over him. I’m soooo over him.” Ara’s voice is shaky. I don’t like it.
“Really?”
“Absolutely.”
Then why bring this up? “I feel like I’m missing something here, Ara.” She’s so flustered, I wish I hadn’t pushed it. I back away a little bit and lean casually against her wall, so she doesn’t feel trapped. “He kicked your computer, didn’t he?”
Her cheeks blaze. Her eyes fill with tears.
“He wasn’t a good boyfriend,” she says quietly. “But it was partly my fault.”
Not sure what that means, so I tread carefully. “Under no circumstances should someone destroy your things, Ara. I don’t give a shit what you think you did to deserve it.”
“He was really jealous.” Ara tucks her hair behind her ears. “All the time.”
“Of?”
“You.”
My heart stops. “Excuse me?”
“I… I’m… he knew I gamed with you guys whenever I could. But I only do it because I like our conversations on Discord.”
Our bland, generic, safe conversations. I swear the air evaporates from my lungs.
“He’d get jealous if I paid more attention to you guys than him. Between gaming with you and spending all my time in my studio, he pitched a fit one night and yelled about how he wants more from me. I didn’t want to give him more. He took it out on my computer. Which is better than trashing my studio, I guess, but—”
I’m so furious I see red. “Did he ever lay a hand on you?”
“No.”
I work really fucking hard to keep my tone calm and soft. Then I close some distance between us. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.” She’s not lying. I can feel it. “He just started to get super obsessive. The more I worked or did things for myself, the needier he got. I couldn’t stand it. When he broke my computer, that was the last straw. It was the first and only time he was violent around me, and I didn’t stick around to give him a chance to escalate.”
I grab her shoulders and pull her in tight to my chest. “I wish you’d told me sooner.”
“I don’t know you,” she mumbles.
“You know me, Ara.” I tip her chin up. “And even if you don’t know me well enough yet, you could have gone to Trey.”
“I handled it.”
And I’m so proud of her for sticking up for herself and knowing her worth. No one should be treated like that. Jason is a dick.
Ara cringes at me. “I’m just going to come out and say it all, okay?”
Fuck, there’s more?
“He was jealous of you because he caught me saying your name once.”
Oh shit.
“While I was coming.”
Oh. Double. Shit.
“Yeah. Sooo…” She pushes away from me and puts her hands on her hips. “How’s that for an ending to our first date?”
I stare at her for a few beats. “Who said this is the ending?” I grab her by the ass and pull her in. “This first date’s only just begun.”
Chapter 9
Ara
Glitch’s intense gaze doesn’t intimidate me, it empowers me. What is it about this guy that makes me so bold?
Everything. The answer is everything.
I’ve just laid my truth out—or most of it, at least—and I fully expected him to run out of here. Instead, he looks more committed to this evening than before.
I can’t believe I told him I got caught saying his name while I came. See, this is what happens when I get flustered. I overshare. But I want him to know because I want him to understand that this isn’t a rebound.
I’ve been harboring secret feelings for him for months. I want to tell him I tried to break up with Jason multiple times because my heart wasn’t his, it was Glitch’s, and I only kept taking that douche canoe back because I felt guilted into it every time.
That was my fault. I won’t ever make that mistake again.
Just like I won’t hold back from Glitch tonight, or any other night from here on out.
I back up, making him follow me out of the kitchen, down the hall, and into my bedroom. If we’re moving fast, it doesn’t feel like it. Honestly, this night feels like it’s been in the works for ages.
“It smells so good in here,” he says, looking around, taking in every little detail of my personal space. The contrast between his dark hair and inked skin against my blush pink walls and cream bedding is hot. He plucks a white peony from a vase and smells it. Dropping his hand down to his side, he twirls the stem between his fingers and stalks over to me.