this apartment and walked away.
"I wish I could go back to that night," I say the words softly, not wanting to give him any sense of power over me. "I wish I could change the way I acted."
"You acted from your heart." His index finger pats against my hand. "I'll never forget how you looked, Kayla. I've thought about it every day since then."
I've pushed it to the furthest recesses of my mind every day. If I'm being brutally honest with myself it changed who I am on a very fundamental level. It was my rock bottom and for the rest of my life I'll always remember that it was Parker who pushed me there. "I try not to think about it anymore."
"We don't need to." He smiles up at me. "Today is the first day of our new life together. Fate brought you back here, Kayla. We were always meant to be together."
We were never meant to be together. Love isn't supposed to rake you over the coals like this. It's not a game of hide and seek. Parker loves me when it's convenient for him. He's proven that enough times that falling back into the trap that is his empty promises will only stall my life again. I can't do this anymore. I want the answers to my questions and then I want Parker to become a distant memory. "I need some answers, Parker and right now, you're the only person who can give them to me."
"If that's what it's going to take to get you back, ask away."
Chapter 3
I should tell him, right here on the spot, that the chances of the two of us getting back together are level with the chances that I'm going to win the lottery someday. It's never going to happen. I can barely look at him without feeling anger and disgust. The idea of crawling back into a relationship with him is so foreign to me I can't even process it.
"When did you meet Ben?" I ask with quiet resolution. I need a jumping point to clear the hurdle that is his connection to Ben. I heard the fragmented edges of a conversation between the two of them. Now, I want Parker to fill in all those scattered blanks for me.
He leans forward again, tracing his thumb across my knuckles. I don't pull back for fear of losing his desire to do what's right. I know he wants to share with me. I see it in his face. "It wasn't long ago, Kayla."
"How long?" I push because having a full understanding of when they met matters more to me than I'm willing to admit right now. I'm trying to convince myself that I want every single detail so I can carry it all back to Noah when I recount today's events to him. There's more to it than that. I need to know that the night in the hotel room and the days spent with Ben hold some meaning beyond his desperate need to regain Noah's attention.
He pulls his hand through his brown hair, his fingers separating the curly locks. "It was two or three weeks ago."
"Two or three weeks," I repeat back in a mumble. "Where did you meet him? Did he contact you?"
His hand glides from his hair over his face stopping to pinch the bridge of his nose. "I met him outside your apartment building. I was standing on the street when he came out of the building."
"How did you know where to find me?"
He shrugs. "I thought about going to see Alexa to ask her but I didn't want her to rail on me. I thought you might have stayed in touch with your old boss so I stopped by there."
"Vivian told you where I live?" I ask before taking a drink from the bottle of water.
"She said I missed you by twenty minutes." He leans back, smoothing his hands over the front of his shirt. "I had to get up the nerve to talk to you. I stopped at a bar by your place and had a few beers."
I doubt that anything would have turned out differently had I known Parker was only a few feet from the front door of my building just days ago. The fact that he confirmed that he left me for someone else would have come to light then. Seeing his gentle smile would have only been a brief reprieve from the inevitability of it all.
"Once I decided I was ready to talk to you, it was dark out." He
"I wish I could go back to that night," I say the words softly, not wanting to give him any sense of power over me. "I wish I could change the way I acted."
"You acted from your heart." His index finger pats against my hand. "I'll never forget how you looked, Kayla. I've thought about it every day since then."
I've pushed it to the furthest recesses of my mind every day. If I'm being brutally honest with myself it changed who I am on a very fundamental level. It was my rock bottom and for the rest of my life I'll always remember that it was Parker who pushed me there. "I try not to think about it anymore."
"We don't need to." He smiles up at me. "Today is the first day of our new life together. Fate brought you back here, Kayla. We were always meant to be together."
We were never meant to be together. Love isn't supposed to rake you over the coals like this. It's not a game of hide and seek. Parker loves me when it's convenient for him. He's proven that enough times that falling back into the trap that is his empty promises will only stall my life again. I can't do this anymore. I want the answers to my questions and then I want Parker to become a distant memory. "I need some answers, Parker and right now, you're the only person who can give them to me."
"If that's what it's going to take to get you back, ask away."
Chapter 3
I should tell him, right here on the spot, that the chances of the two of us getting back together are level with the chances that I'm going to win the lottery someday. It's never going to happen. I can barely look at him without feeling anger and disgust. The idea of crawling back into a relationship with him is so foreign to me I can't even process it.
"When did you meet Ben?" I ask with quiet resolution. I need a jumping point to clear the hurdle that is his connection to Ben. I heard the fragmented edges of a conversation between the two of them. Now, I want Parker to fill in all those scattered blanks for me.
He leans forward again, tracing his thumb across my knuckles. I don't pull back for fear of losing his desire to do what's right. I know he wants to share with me. I see it in his face. "It wasn't long ago, Kayla."
"How long?" I push because having a full understanding of when they met matters more to me than I'm willing to admit right now. I'm trying to convince myself that I want every single detail so I can carry it all back to Noah when I recount today's events to him. There's more to it than that. I need to know that the night in the hotel room and the days spent with Ben hold some meaning beyond his desperate need to regain Noah's attention.
He pulls his hand through his brown hair, his fingers separating the curly locks. "It was two or three weeks ago."
"Two or three weeks," I repeat back in a mumble. "Where did you meet him? Did he contact you?"
His hand glides from his hair over his face stopping to pinch the bridge of his nose. "I met him outside your apartment building. I was standing on the street when he came out of the building."
"How did you know where to find me?"
He shrugs. "I thought about going to see Alexa to ask her but I didn't want her to rail on me. I thought you might have stayed in touch with your old boss so I stopped by there."
"Vivian told you where I live?" I ask before taking a drink from the bottle of water.
"She said I missed you by twenty minutes." He leans back, smoothing his hands over the front of his shirt. "I had to get up the nerve to talk to you. I stopped at a bar by your place and had a few beers."
I doubt that anything would have turned out differently had I known Parker was only a few feet from the front door of my building just days ago. The fact that he confirmed that he left me for someone else would have come to light then. Seeing his gentle smile would have only been a brief reprieve from the inevitability of it all.
"Once I decided I was ready to talk to you, it was dark out." He
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