“What are you looking for?” I asked.
He was breathing through his nose, slightly trembling, his eyes wild.
“You’re angry?” I asked.
He looked away, his jaw tightening. Without thinking, I yanked the necklace he’d given me over my head and held it out to him. His mouth fell open, as if I’d slapped him in the face.
“Just wait a second, Avery. Let’s take a second and think about this.”
I arched my eyebrow, obstinate. The penny still dangled from the chain in my hand, just inches from his chest.
“Are you fucking kidding me? That’s it?”
“Please,” I said, unimpressed. “You can’t get rid of me that easily.” I pushed to my tiptoes and looped the necklace over his head before sinking back down on the heels of my feet, my hands on my hips. “Penny for your thoughts.”
Lifting the small copper circle into his large palm, he stared at it for a moment before a ghost of a smile appeared, fading as quickly as it had arrived.
He sighed in defeat, but the fight had just begun.
“I thought maybe …”
“What?”
“Someone else was here.”
“What?” I shrieked. The only thing in the apartment that wasn’t exactly the same when he’d left was me. I couldn’t fathom why he’d even think such a thing. The dress he’d slipped off me hours before was still hanging halfway off the wooden coffee table, my bra was still in a small, lacy heap in the bedroom doorway, and my panties were still tangled somewhere in the sheets.
Josh huffed, trying to reign in his temper. “You answered the door with the chain locked and then left me standing in the hallway like I’m some stranger you don’t want in your apartment … You’re acting all nervous and weird! What the hell was I supposed to think?” His voice rose as his frustration increased with each word.
“That I had someone in here the morning after we … Are you serious?” My stomach turned. Someone had to have done this to him before. He was heavily guarded, and I had only scratched the surface of his armor. His eyes widened, as if he knew I’d seen too much.
“Whoa,” he said, holding the coffees out in front of him. “Let’s start over.”
I crossed my arms across my middle.
“What’s going on with you, Avery? Why are you acting so strange? Is it because of last night? Is it too weird now? Are you not sure? About … me?”
“Stop. You’re overreacting,” I said, holding up my hands, palms out.
He looked at his watch and then sighed, a deep growl resonating from his chest. “I have to go. Please tell me what’s wrong. I’m gonna go nuts all day worrying about it.”
“Why?” I dropped my hands and groaned, exasperated.
He wrinkled his nose. “Huh?”
“Why would you worry about it?”
His face twisted, as if I had begun speaking a foreign language. “Avery, what the hell?”
“You’re so different.”
“So are you,” he spat back. “You were fine last night. Now that we’ve … you’re trying to bail.”
“I’m not trying to bail. But you … I’ve dated people. You don’t, you—”
“When?” he asked, his tone accusatory.
I frowned, insulted. “I’ve lived a long time before you came around, Josh Avery. You’re not my first relationship, if that’s what this even is.”
“If that’s what this is? What else would this be, Avery?”
“Well, the arrogance certainly hasn’t changed.”
He walked away with his fingers interlocked on top of his head. He let his hands fall to his thighs and then turned to face me. “You might have had boyfriends before me, but you haven’t been this way with anyone else. I know it. You know it. Stop bullshitting me. What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“No one changes overnight, Josh. No one is one way their whole life and then changes for one person.”