Without a doubt, I loved Eli, and I knew he loved me. But that sense of warmth and peace...that was something that just didn’t exist with us. I knew that I couldn’t just sit quietly in a room with him. We couldn’t have those moments where we just loved being in each other’s space, soaking up each other’s air. With him, it felt like something always had to be going on. The shit was exhausting, especially since my career required so much of my energy. After a long day, it would’ve been nice to just cuddle up with the man that I loved and simply enjoy the silence.
“I’ll send you the party details when I get home.”
“Okay, Mama.”
She gave me another hug and kissed me on the cheek. “Alright, babe, I’m starving. Let’s get out of here,” she told my father.
“Okay.”
“Bye, Daddy,” I said while hugging him. “You guys enjoy.”
“Will do. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
“Oh, and don’t be in here working too hard. You already look great.”
I grinned. “Thanks, Daddy.”
He shot me a wink, then followed my mother out of the building.
Getting a compliment from my father was always great. He’d competed in and won several bodybuilding competitions back in the day. He had an entire room filled with awards and photos to prove it. It was inspiring as hell, and if dance wasn’t my first love, I probably would’ve followed in his footsteps.
Just as I was about to head out, my cell phone buzzed.
It was Eli.
Shit.
“Hello,” I answered.
“Nyx, hey. Can we talk?”
“Yeah, sure. What’s up?”
“Not over the phone. Are you home? I can come by your place.”
“No. I’m at the gym. But I’ll be headed home in a bit. If you want to stop by in like an hour, that would be good.”
“Okay, cool. I’ll be there in an hour.”
“Alright, sounds good.”
“Oh, and just to give you an idea of where my head is at, I just want to say that I’m sorry for coming at you like I did. And I’m even sorrier for leaving you at the restaurant. No matter what you said, I should’ve still made sure you got home safely.”
I nodded, appreciative of his apology. “Thank you for that.”
“You’re welcome. Oh, and speaking of which, how did you get home?”
My head fell back. Why the hell did he have to ask that question?
I stood still, pondering how many ways I could answer his question without putting us back into the position that we were working to get out of.
I hated myself for what I was about to do, but I wanted all of this shit to be over. “Skye picked me up,” I lied.
“Oh, okay. Well, I’m glad you’re okay, and I’ll never do no shit like that again.”
“It’s okay. I know last night was a lot,” I said, the guilt from the lie I’d just told quickly starting to eat me alive. “But we’ll talk more when I see you. I’m going to head home and get cleaned up. I’m sweaty as hell.”
