Was he his normal bratty self?
Did he ask Jordan to hit him? And if so, would Jordan hit him?
Did Elias enjoy it?
These are not fucking questions I should be wondering as I’m discussing business with my employee. And to be honest, I’m pissed all over again that Elias would actually fuck this guy. To make me jealous or not, it was an idiotic thing to do.
“Sir?”
My gaze snaps to Jordan’s, and he’s staring at me like I’ve lost my mind. “Yes?”
“Are you okay? I asked if it was okay if we went over the things you missed while you were gone.”
“Yes, that would be fine.”
And so, he begins. We sit there for close to an hour as he catches me up on everything. Apparently, it was quite a busy few weeks. By the time he leaves, I’m wondering if I maybe should’ve taken a third week off because my focus is nonexistent.
It’s around four when I leave the office, which is the earliest I’ve left in years. I’m hoping Valerie is home so we can talk about things, but I’m dreading the moment I walk through that door. It seems as if the only positive in my life right now, the only person who doesn’t make me want to pull my hair out, is Elias, but I haven’t even been able to see him since we got back. Then, that thought brings back the guilt I feel toward Valerie. She doesn’t deserve to be a person I dread seeing. This fucking arrangement, that was only supposed to be temporary, is destroying our friendship, little by little. Well, that, and my mountain of lies I’m keeping from her.
The day after we returned, he flew to North Carolina. Apparently, one of his old roommates is graduating college. Graduation is normally in June, so I’m not sure why it’s happening now, but whatever. He won’t be back until tomorrow. That’s too many goddamn days away.
Parking my car out front of my house, I turn off the engine, resting my head on the back of the seat for a moment. I need to get this over with, but I’m going to hurt her. Hurting Valerie is never what I wanted. I made some very bad choices; choices that could’ve been avoided had I just been honest from the beginning, and I’d like to believe I lied in order to protect her, but that’s horseshit, isn’t it?
I lied to protect myself.
I was selfish.
I’ve dug my own grave, and it’s time I fess up and face the music. The longer it goes on, the more she’ll get hurt.
Hilda is in the kitchen cooking dinner when I walk in. With a quickhelloto her, I head out back, where I know I’ll find Valerie.
She’s sitting in a lawn chair, messing around on her phone when I step up to her. Her eyes raise from the phone to meet mine, and there isn’t even a fake smile given.
“Hey,” I mutter, sitting beside her.
“You’re home early.”
Guess we are skipping the pleasantries.“I think we should talk.”
“Oh?” She sets her phone down on the table, crossing her arms over her chest. “About what?”
“Well, we should probably start with why you’ve seemed so upset with me all week.”
“Zeke…” The way she says my name sounds almost like a plea. “You’ve been through enough, and I really don’t think we should do this right now.”
“I’m not sleeping lately, Val. Between Elena and whatever this tension is, I’m not fucking sleeping. I think we need to do this now.”
Her big, circle-framed black sunglasses get pushed up into her hair on the top of her head, as her pale green eyes settle on mine. “When we were in Miami, I started to get the feeling there was something going on that I wasn’t privy to.”
My mind races on what she could’ve seen. Elias and I didn’t have sex. Hell, we didn’t even kiss the entire time we were there.
“Okay…”
“The night of the funeral, when I went to bed early from the migraine, I got up in the middle of the night for a glass of water. You weren’t in bed, so after getting a drink, I went to look for you.”
Fucking hell.
“You and Elias were passed out in the den,” she says, eyes never straying from my face. “He was asleep with his head on your arm.”
