Page 84 of Resisting Mr Black
I yank my arm from his grip. “Well, you need to learn how to because it’s over.”
“You don’t mean this.” He reaches out a hand to touch me, but I jerk out of his reach.
“You don’t tell me what I mean, and you don’t get to touch me ever again.”
His jaw tightens as he draws his head back. “Sophie, please.” His voice is pained, and I hate the way my name sounds on his lips.
A rumble of thunder echoes overhead and heavy wet drops of rain begin falling, chilling my flesh. I bite the inside of my cheek to stop my lip from trembling at what I’m about to say. I fix him a steely look. “It’s over.”
And I turn and walk away, with Lucy at my side.
The taxi journey home passes in a blur of tears with Lucy cradling me like a baby as I sob. As soon as she opens the door to the apartment, I make a beeline for my bedroom and peel off the stupid bloody burlesque outfit, throwing it in a heap on the floor. I stare at my red, swollen eyes in the mirror and wipe off my make-up, removing all traces of the evening, and throw on my pyjamas. My clutch bag vibrates from the floor where I chucked it, signalling yet another phone call. I don’t need to check to see who’s calling me. I have no intention of speaking to him. His front door key lies on my bedside table from earlier. When I was still blissfully ignorant. Fresh tears swim in my eyes and I tear them away from the key, unable to look at it.
Lucy is perched on a kitchen stool and two mugs of steaming black coffee are waiting on the counter when I finally emerge from the bedroom.
“I’m sorry for ruining your hen-do,” I say sliding onto the stool beside her and resting my head in my hands.
“You haven’t. We’re too old for partying all night, anyway.” She nudges me playfully and gives me a smile, but I can’t muster one up in return.
I curl my hand around the mug and slide it towards me. “You go home.”
“I’m not leaving you like this.”
“I’ll be fine,” I say automatically, although I know I won’t be. I’m not sure how I’m going to get over this. Get over him.
She folds her arms across her chest and fixes me a firm look, which tells me she’s not going to budge. “You’re not fine at all. You’re totally distraught. You’ve just had a massive bloody shock.”
I stare down at my coffee as silent tears tumble down my cheeks. An hour ago, I felt like the happiest woman in the world and now a massive hole has been ripped through my life. “If it means anything, he looked totally distraught too when you finished with him.”
I finished with him.
A double knock sounds on the door to my apartment and my heart leaps.
“Sophie, let me in,” Art’s voice calls from the other side.
He’s here.
I instinctively tense and my eyes fly to the door. “Send him away. I’m not talking to him.”
His fist lands against the door with a thud and I jump as the sound echoes down the hallway to where I sit. “Sophie. Please, talk to me.”
Lucy’s wide blue eyes swing from me to the door. “Don’t you think you should speak to him?”
I don’t believe this.
“Whose side are you on?” I snap.
“It’s not about sides, it’s about what makes you happy.”
“You’ve got one more chance to let me in,” he cries from the other side of the door.
One more chance before what?I frown at the idle threat.
“Didn’t he say he owns this place?” Lucy asks.
How could I forget?
“Yes, it would appear that way.”