“I get that. But we’ve been together for a long time. The good should outweigh the bad, and baby you know there was a lot of good between us.”
I frowned. “You weren’t thinking about all of the good while you were fucking the stripper in Vegas, were you?” Folding my arms over my chest, I waited for his response. But what could he say? He let his boys and his dick get him in trouble once again.
Taking a deep breath, he ran his hand down my arm. “Baby, let’s stop this before we both say some shit that we don’t mean. I don’t want things to get too far out of hand. We’ve been away from each other long enough.”
I cleared my throat, knowing exactly what he was doing.
Jayson was a sweet talker, and he could charm his way out of just about anything simply by touching you and changing the tone in his voice.
“Don’t do that,” I said, shaking him off me. “I’m not going to fall for your little game. Especially not after the way you disrespected me. I don’t give a damn how long we’ve been together or how much I love you, I won’t be disrespected. And you screwing someone else and putting yourself in a position to get her pregnant, falls in that category. I’m not the type to sweep things under the rug and act like everything is okay.”
“I’m not asking you to act like everything is okay. I’m asking you to at least try to fix us. This is the first time I’ve ever cheated on you—”
“And it’s also the fucking last.”
“Nova—”
“No, Jayson. See, that’s what’s wrong with men that screw up like this. You think you’re entitled to a one-time pass to do whatever the hell you want and still be forgiven.”
“I’m not saying that.”
“You’re not saying shit,” I blurted. “I’m done with this conversation.”
Just as I turned away, he snatched me by my waist and spun me around to face him. “I’m not losing us. You mean too much to me. I’ve known you since I was twenty-three and I made you my wife at twenty-five…three years later, and you’re still my everything. Nothing that happened changes that.”
I froze, unsure of how to respond to his words. Suddenly, I was overcome with a mix of emotions. Emotions that I didn’t want to have. He didn’t deserve me after what he had done. At least, that’s what I had told myself.
But was I really okay with giving up on us so easily?
Did what we have deserve a second chance?
Taking a deep breath, I dropped my head on his shoulder. A tear slowly slid down my cheek as every emotion inside of me made its way to the surface. Wrapping my arms around him, I let out a heavy sigh. “Maybe, we can—”
“What in the whole fuck?” I shouted as my eyes sprung open and locked in on my bedroom ceiling.
Drenched in sweat, I sat up in my bed, plagued by the nightmare that had just played out in my sleep.
The shit was too damn real, and I had so many questions.
Why were Jayson and I in the same room?
Why did I allow him to talk to me?
And most importantly, was I really about to take his trifling ass back?
I scrubbed my hand over my face, trying to toss the thought from my mind. Knowing I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep, I hopped out of bed, threw on a pair of sweats, and rushed out of the door.
I needed to take a drive…a long one.
2
Nova
If it were up to me, I would be at the movie theater with my feet kicked up, a medium bag of buttery popcorn, and a large mixed ICEE. That would’ve been the perfect way to clear my head. But it was way too late for that, and I didn’t want to be bothered by a room full of people on a Friday night anyway. Thankfully, Don was in town, and he was just as eager to see me as I was him.
Don was my comfort zone. Whenever I felt down or just needed someone to talk to other than Izzy, he was the person I called.
I stood at the front door of his mother’s guesthouse, waiting patiently for him to open the door. The second he swung it open, a smile spread across my face. It had only been six months since we last saw each other in person, and I couldn’t help but hate that it had been so long. Just the sight of him made me happy. And it wasn’t just because he was tall with smooth cocoa brown skin and a beard that I desperately wanted to run my fingers through.
