“I already told you. She wanted to get with me. Talked about her * being shaved and shit.”
The fucking whore. I thought it and almost let it fly out of my mouth.
“With Brooklyn there?”
“No. Brook left to go to a sleepover.”
Tears pricked at my eyes. “And you stayed? With Cori? Who was grabbing your dick?”
“I left when she started that shit.”
I buried my face in my hands and took a few deep breaths.
“Viv, what are you so pissed about? I turned her down cold. Several times. I’m with you. I love you.”
“And what about seeing Brooklyn? You’ll just keep going over there and playing right into Cori’s hands, because it’s the only way you can see her.”
“I’ll never turn my back on Brooklyn again. Don’t ask me to do that, Viv.”
I lowered my hands to my lap, clenching them into fists. “I’d never ask that. But now I feel like a homewrecker.”
“That’s fucking nuts. Cori and I slept together a few times ten years ago. I was too high to even remember it. She got pregnant. We’ve never been together. Not like you and me.”
“She’s Brooklyn’s mom.”
“So what?”
I turned to face him, gathering my courage to ask a question I was afraid of the answer to.
“Did you think about it? Giving things with her a chance so the three of you can be a family?”
He pressed his lips together, silent for a few seconds. The longest seconds of my life.
“There’s my answer,” I said, my voice breaking. “Take me home. I don’t want you coming with me tomorrow.”
“Be rational, Viv.” He scowled at me. “What matters is that I chose you.”
“While I foolishly didn’t even know I was in a contest with anyone.” I wiped the tears from my face. “I hate you right now. Take me home.”
He did, and I slammed the car door and stormed into the house alone, locking the deadbolt. I got in bed and cried and cried and cried, not stopping until my eyes were swollen and I had a pounding headache.
It hurt bone deep that my one and only had considered another woman, even for a second. I didn’t think that was something I’d be able to forgive.
TWO FUCKING WEEKS.
Viv hadn’t answered my texts or phone calls since Christmas Day, and I was out of my mind. I stared at the January calendar on Jeff’s wall, wondering how many more weeks it would take. How many days. How many hours.
“What’s going on with you and Viv?” Jeff asked, closing the screen on his laptop. Obviously he’d figured out I had no interest in his boring financial forecast for the club.
“Nothing,” I muttered.
“Bullshit. The servers are afraid to even make eye contact with you.”
“Nothing’s going on with us,” I said sharply. “Nothing at all since Christmas. She hasn’t spoken to me since we had a fight that day.”
“Shit, man. What happened?”
I rubbed my forehead and exhaled deeply. “I fucked up like I always do.”
“Don’t give me some abstract shit, Kane. What, exactly, happened?”
“You know I’ve been seeing Brooklyn over at Cori’s place.”
“Yeah.”
“Well, the weekend before Christmas Cori asked me to come over for dinner and didn’t mention Brooklyn was going to a sleepover right after dinner. She hit on me while we washed dishes. Grabbed my cock and told me I should give us a chance at a relationship so Brook can have a real family.”
“That’s fucking low.”
“Is it? I feel responsible for the situation she’s in. She was a single mom at age twenty. I never once did right by her except when I paid back the child support I owed her.”
“Yeah, but grabbing your junk when you’re with someone else is inexcusable.”
“I shut her down. Told her I’m with Viv.”
Jeff said back in his chair. “But?”
“But I felt like shit for days after. Like I fucked all of them over. Cori, Brook and Viv. I wondered if I should put my feelings aside and make Brooklyn number one. Cori’s a good mom.”
“What, you mean be with Cori even though you don’t want to? Leave Viv?”