Page 75 of From That Moment

We had never exchanged keys. We had never hung out just to…hang out. It always had to do with sex or her needing something from me.

I hadn’t realized that until it was over. Now, it was a stark reminder that everything that I had with Paris was completely different.

I was no longer working at her branch of the company, so I didn’t have to worry about any issues there. Things were going to get better for her at work now that Benji was gone. I didn’t want to think about that and swallowed the anger that rose.

We were making inroads. And today, I was going to give her something that meant that.

I only hoped that she was responsive to it. Of course, now that I thought about it, it sounded like I was overreacting and making a big deal out of something that could be normal practice. Sensible.

Or too big of a step so quickly.

I got dressed and went to see what I could make her for brunch. She’d had a girls’ night the night before, so she hadn’t stayed the night as we had originally planned. She needed girls’ time, and I understood that. So, I had hung out with the guys. Now, I was starving and couldn’t wait to see her.

Times sure had changed.

I turned on my music again, dancing poorly throughout the kitchen as I figured out what I needed to make. I had a bottle of champagne for mimosas because she loved those—we were millennials, after all, it was what we were supposed to do.

I laughed at that, even if nobody else heard the joke, and then figured out what else I could make for her.

I liked cooking, even if I wasn’t the best at it.

I enjoyed making sure that she was cared for because I knew not a lot of people had done that for her in the past. Her girls did it now for sure. And I would be forever grateful that she had found a family amidst the ruins of what she had grown up in and with.

My hands fisted on the counter, and I counted to ten, doing my best not to imagine hurting the man who had hurt her.

I couldn’t change the past, but maybe I could make her a future promise.

I only hoped that she wanted the same thing.

I couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment that things had changed for me, the time where I could say that, from this exact point, I loved her and wanted to see where we could go with our lives together. The feeling had been steadily building, and now I didn’t want to turn away from it—something I might have done in the past.

Not with Paris.

That meant something.

The doorbell rang, and I frowned at the clock, wondering how she had gotten here so quickly. Maybe she hadn’t done her hair. We were just going to have a lazy day. I wouldn’t mind that.

I looked at all the vegetables and eggs I had on the counter and figured they could last for a minute while I went to the door. I walked over, wearing only gray sweatpants and nothing else since I hadn’t bothered to finish getting ready yet. I opened the door, about to make a joke about my dick because…hello, it was Paris and me. Instead, I froze, blinking quickly and wondering if I should have perhaps looked through the peephole before I opened the door.

“Baby.”

“What the fuck are you doing here?” I asked Allison as she tried to push her way past me.

She nearly stepped on my foot with her high heel, and I involuntarily took a step back. She put her hand on my chest, gliding past me into my house.

I couldn’t physically stop her. If I did, then I’d have to put my hands on her, and I’d end up throwing her out on her ass.

And that wasn’t something I was about to do.

“I asked you a question, Allison. And I didn’t invite you in.”

“I wanted to say I’m sorry.”

“What do you mean? Wait, I know what you mean. Get out. You’re not wanted here.”

I saw the hurt mixed with calculation in her expression, and I wondered how I could have been so wrong about someone. Then again, I hadn’t looked beyond the surface. Just as she hadn’t. We had been who we needed to be for each other in the moment. We weren’t anything more than that. We never had been. And it had taken me too long to realize that.

“You don’t need to be cruel,” she said, and that calculating gaze was back.