Page 65 of The Player's Club
“Who the hell are you?” I growled, my blood pressure rising by the second.
The guy seemed surprised. “Uh, who the hell are you?”
That was when Elodie came to the door. When she spotted me, her eyes widened.
“Mac! What are you doing here?”
I scowled. “Who the hell is this guy, Elodie?”
The guy turned toward Elodie. “Elodie, who is this?”
Elodie sighed, shaking her head. “Mac, this is Todd, my ex-boyfriend. Todd, Mac is a...friend.”
Todd, her ex? The man she’d broken up with before we’d gotten involved? Was she back with him again? A sinking feeling developed in my stomach.
I had the intense, sudden urge to punch Todd’s teeth in. It didn’t help that he had a smug face. Plus, he kept looking at me like I was a pest he’d found in the garbage.
It was only Elodie coming outside that kept me from getting into a brawl. Todd opened his mouth to protest, but Elodie shook her head.
Elodie folded her arms across her chest after she shut the front door. She walked me over to her car. Which meant she didn’t want Todd to overhear our conversation.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I wanted to see you. I didn’t think you’d have company.” I nearly snarled the word company.
I knew I was acting like an asshole, but I didn’t care. Seeing a man at Elodie’s door had ignited something feral inside me. I knew she didn’t technically belong to me. But at the same time...she belonged to me.
“Todd just wanted to talk,” she explained.
“I thought you two had broken up.”
“We did. We are broken up. But he’s still a friend.”
I let out an incredulous laugh. “Baby, you think he just wants to be friends? Come on. He wants you back. He acted like your guard dog back there.”
“So what? He’s protective of me. We were together for five years. He was there for me after my mom died.” Elodie tipped her head up, her jaw a stubborn line. “I’m not going to apologize for seeing a friend.”
A friend? Was she serious? And I didn’t want her to apologize. I wanted—what the fuck did I want? If I could, I’d never let another man so much as look at her.
We stared at each other, clearly at an impasse. I suddenly wished I hadn’t come. It wasn’t like our arrangement had meant we’d be monogamous. If Elodie wanted to get back with her ex, who was I to stop her?
Elodie reached out to touch my arm. “Trust me. This isn’t anything to worry about. Todd is just here to talk.”
I wanted to believe her. I hated that I didn’t. I wished I didn’t give a fuck. What was it about Elodie that made me feel like up was down, down was up, and that my entire life was a fucking mess?
“Does he know about us?” I asked.
“No. I didn’t think he needed to know.” She took a step closer to me. “What’s between us is between us. Besides, Todd wouldn’t understand.”
“You mean he’d try to talk you out of it.”
Elodie shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t really care what his opinion would be.”
I was slightly mollified by that statement. At least Todd wasn’t so influential in Elodie’s life that she’d let his opinions sway her.
“I’ll call you later,” she said. “Okay? Trust me.”
I went home and opened a new bottle of whiskey. I didn’t like to drink alone, but it seemed to have become a habit. The whole thing with Caroline, along with my relationship with Elodie, had twisted me up inside and out.