“Levi, hey … I thought you were going to call me later tonight?”
He doesn’t speak, but I watch his jaw clench now as his lips thin. The unease that I had felt when walking in the room grows to a burning ball of anxiety in my gut.
“How was work?” I hedge nervously.
“Fine.”
“Would you like something to drink?” I continue, moving to settle in on the loveseat opposite from him.
He leans forward, dropping his arms from the back of the couch and placing his elbows on his knees, never dropping his eyes from mine. “No.”
“Okay.” I gulp, not understanding his mood today. Hell, I haven’t seen him since the other night, and even though we didn’t leave on good terms, the brief texts that we’ve had since haven’t given me a clue to why this is happening now.
Unless he knows you’re about to break it off.
I ignore the inner voice and will my hands not to start fidgeting as I shift in my seat.
“How was your party?” he questions, deadly calm as he continues to leer at me.
“Good,” I respond. “Well, good until I figured out that the hangovers are never worth the buzz,” I clarify in an attempt to lighten the mood.
“That’s nice. I didn’t hear from you after you told me you would be going to that new club in town,” he accuses.
Losing the battle with my nervous fidgeting, I twist my fingers together in my lap. His eyes cast a quick glance at them before they flit back to my face. “Yeah, sorry about that. After the girls got here, things just kind of went crazy. They had me busy from the second they opened the pizza boxes until I got home last night.”
“Hmm,” he remarks.
“Anyway, how was your night?”
“Interesting,” he discloses ominously.
“Did you have a lot of call outs?” I ask, trying to ease the alarm I feel over his calm anger.
“Not really. Just one.”
“Are you okay?”
He studies me for the longest breath before leaning back with one side of his mouth tipped up. Instead of looking like a smile, it only makes his face look like an evil sneer.
“Levi?” I coax when he doesn’t speak.
“Tell me, Ember,” he starts. “Would you think for one second that I would be okay with my fucking woman dressed like a slut while some man had his hands on her?”
“What?” I gasp in shock. I don’t take my eyes off him, but I have a bad feeling things are about to get ugly.
“Did you fuck him?”
“Levi! No, of course not. You know I’m not that type of girl.” Except, I’m not really sure what would have happened if rational thought hadn’t returned after the touch of Nate’s lips to mine last night. If I’m honest with myself, we were, in fact, seconds away from becoming a tangle of naked flesh.
“I’m not sure I believe you, Ember. Imagine my shock when we get a call to come check on that new fucking club because of the crowd size, and I walk in to see my girlfriend in the middle of some weird bar lap dance. I have two goddamn eyes, and I would be a fool not to believe what was right in front of my face.”
Shit.
Damn.
Well, this wasn’t exactly how I had pictured this going, but I might as well get it over with. Rip off the Band-Aid and finally make the long overdue move to end things between us.
“Nothing like that happened, Levi. I’m sure that Nate was just putting on a show because he knows the girls would think it was hilarious to embarrass me.”
His eyes flare at the mention of Nate’s name, and I feel my heart pick up speed and my skin flush cold with chills.
“Nate?” he bursts out, the sound like a deep rumble of thunder, making Bam bark. Levi’s head swivels toward where Bam is sitting, and I hear my poor baby whine, which is so unlike my sweet-natured pup. He loves everyone.
My mind goes back to the other morning when I found out he had been tied to the fence, and I know, somehow, deep in my gut, that Levi was responsible.
“Look, Lev. I had hoped that we would be able to go out to dinner tonight to have this talk, but clearly, this just needs to happen now. I’ve felt this way for a while now, but we’re just not working. I think it would be best if we broke things off.”
There. I said it and the world is still spinning away.
His head twists from Bam, and he studies me with his stoic and quite frankly terrifyingly calm mask still in place. I wait with bated breath as he continues his silence. The clock on the wall behind me ticks away. Bam’s panting echoes against the walls. My heart is in my stomach as trepidation climbs up my throat.
I watch as something dark dances across his face, briefly, before he gives me a nod and stands. I lean back in my seat at his sudden movement.