Page 6 of Before the Fall

Another step brings me to right in front of her, and I stop. “No joke, Tia.”

She stares up at me with such sadness in her eyes that my heart breaks. I’m dying to kiss her after so long, but when I lean in, Tia slaps me hard across the face.

“That’s for breaking my heart. Now go back to your girlfriend before I do something worse.”

I watch as she marches out of the room and can’t deny I deserved that slap. I actually deserve so much more.

But what does she mean she’s going to do something worse?

CHAPTER THREE

Tia

My hands shake like leaves in a hurricane as I try to pretend I’m strong and don’t give a damn about seeing Jaxon again. Oh, God. All that therapy and the first time he’s in front of me again I can’t deny I’m a mess. I thought if I ever saw him again I’d be able to handle it.

How wrong I was. One look at him and it was like all the time apart meant nothing and I was back in my old apartment where he broke up with me.

Wait a second. That’s right. I need to remember that detail. He broke up with me. He left me for another woman, so whatever he’s doing here means nothing.

I can’t deal with him right now. How dare he come to my apartment like nothing ever happened? Like he didn’t shatter my heart when he left me.

Like he has any right to just march into my home.

Feeling myself slip into a place I swore I wouldn’t visit ever again, I hurry to my room and lock the door behind me. I need to not see him. If I don’t see him when he talks to me, I’ll be able to hold strong and not crumble to pieces.

“Tia, come out here. I need to talk to you.”

Why is he acting like he has any right to be standing in my living room right now ordering me to do what he wants? Who the hell does he think he is?

“Go away! I don’t want to see you. You aren’t welcome here, Jaxon!”

Ah, there’s that fire my therapist told me to never let go of. I wasn’t sure it still existed, especially when I saw him at my door and all I wanted to do was throw my arms around him. As Dr. Atkins always tells me, it’s okay to care about someone. That doesn’t mean they get to be a part of my life.

Now if I can just remember that when Jaxon refuses to leave.

I hear his footsteps as he walks down the hall toward my room. They stop just outside my door, and then a second later, he tries to turn the handle.

He really does think he has some right to be here. He needs to get the hint he’s mistaken.

“Tia, please come out. I need to talk to you. It’s important.”

The hint of sadness in his voice makes my willpower falter ever so slightly, but then I remember the reason he said he needed to leave me. “Just go. I want you to leave me be.”

“I can’t.”

My stomach twists into a tight knot when I hear that. He said that the night he came to see me after that terrible week I spent out at his house. He said he couldn’t get me out of his mind then. Now what’s his reason why he has to come here and bother me?

“Why? What makes it impossible for you to leave my house, where incidentally, you aren’t welcome, Jaxon? Did your girlfriend leave you?”

I don’t care that my voice sounds like I’m gloating. I hope she did leave him. Maybe he finally understands what it felt like when he broke up with me.

“No.”

“Then go back to her and leave me alone,” I say through the door, not caring that I may be hurting his feelings.

He ripped my heart out when he left me. Turnabout’s fair play.

“Let me in, Tia.”