Chapter 28

“You up and left me for some big city life and a girlfriend who doesn’t want me hanging out with you. You left me! So I found my own way, and now because you don’t like it you think I should stop.” I smart, biting hard, sounding every bit the catty bitch I have become over the past months. “See, the funny thing is, you want me to go back to being your little sidekick, but you’re not even going to stick around more than forty-eight hours to even see that I make it. Doesn’t sound like you really have any intention of seeing me through anything.” I throw my shoes off into the open walk-in closet, rifle through the display of shoes distractedly, and pull out some high black stilettos, studded with mini spikes from two seasons ago that will work with this top. Trying to keep my cool so very painfully, I slide them on my feet then haul out a matching belt and sling it around my low-rise jeans. Glam rock, to suit my ‘piss off, I fucking hate you’ mood of right now.

Arrick frowns as he watches the outfit taking shape before his eyes. His whole body language responding to the change in me, and I can see the evolution from caring and understanding to getting pissed with how this is going. I no longer care, I am beyond trying to reel in that inner crazy in me, and shoes and clothes are no longer having any effect.

“So, you’re just going to dress up and go out to get wrecked, right? You’re handling it so fucking well. Four-hour drive home for absolutely fucking nothing, Sophs, round of applause.” He snaps; that cool demeanor breaking once more and at super-fast speed for him. His eyes narrowed and sparking with rage and jaw squaring as he grits his teeth to curb the temper. I straighten up and meet his scowl face-on, glaring right fucking back at him with the fury of a girl who has been trampled on one too many times, and disappointed that her one lifeline turned out to be a big fat nothing.

Despite Arrick’s cool outward persona there is no doubt he has that hot Italian Carrero blood in there somewhere, and I always figured his time in the ring, beating opponents, helped to disperse it enough to maintain calm everywhere else. He obviously needs a good boxing match soon or else he is in serious Carrero explode mode. Part of me wonders what that would ever look like; years of cool control dissipating and letting that underlying fierce and passion out. Part of me is edging stupidly to push and see.

Yup, inner self-destruct mode for sure!

“You wanted me back here … I’m back! Now you get to go sail off into the sunset, patting yourself on the back for the sterling job of delivering me home. Go! Go back to New York and Natasha. I don’t need you here, I don’t need you anymore, and I never will. I’m fine by myself, I can handle my own shit from now on without you running interference.” My voice raised, heart beating fast as anger floors me internally, my head seems set on poking the bear with a big stick. I have obviously internally decided that if I can’t have his support then I want his reaction, and even though mature Sophie is screaming at me how stupid this is, childish Sophie is egging me on. I want to wound him the way he is wounding me. I want a reaction from his icy self.

I myself only have two reactions to an angry Arry … either I cry and revert to wounded child, or I hate him and lash out with any weapon I can. Right now, it’s the latter, and the words tumbling out of my mouth are not even close to what I really mean. I’m mad and hurt that he is fucking leaving me again. Just like he did two years ago when he moved to the city!

“Yeah, right, until the next drunken call to scrape you off another club floor, or stop some asshole taking his violent tendencies out on you?” Arrick sneers, anger snapping in that beautifully glaring face, losing his own ability to keep it all calm and wrapped up like Mr. Control. always does, but I only sneer back. Never deterred when head-to-head in battle with him, and right now giving less than zero fucks about how this is going to turn out.

“Don’t worry; I won’t be calling you anymore. It’s pretty clear that I’m more hassle than I’m worth and dumping me back here is a sign that you don’t want to deal with me anymore. I get it loud and clear … I’m not your problem from here on in!” I pull off bitch in so many ways, stance, frosty tone, and glare. If it was any other douche in New York getting this side of me then I would high-five myself with a sense of flawless achievement, but because it’s him, I just get a resounding sense of nausea clawing up inside. That tiny inner voice trying so hard to remind me that this is Arry. My Arry! He is my heart and clawing at it crazily will only wound me in return, but I block it out.

Despite all the cold and nasty words pouring from my mouth, deep down I’m in heart-wrenching agony, like my insides are going to self-implode and I can’t breathe. The effort of holding myself in check and the tears at bay are excruciating beneath that solid block of forming ice. I stamp it all down as best as I can so that the surface stays unchanged.

I don’t want him to leave me, I want him to stay with me and take care of me like he always does. I want him to help fix me and find the root of why everything has been falling to shit around me. I need him. I always needed him.

“You’re a piece of work, Sophie. I see now that you’re not the same kid I adored. She had the sense to take help when it was offered, and she did it gratefully. I don’t know where this version came from, but I don’t like it; maybe we have just grown apart and this isn’t going to work anymore. You obviously changed in the time you stayed away and this girl facing me now is not someone I want to know, or even know how to get through to.” Arrick straightens up, fixing his shirt and smoothing his jacket down in that infuriating way of regaining control that makes me want to stab him with my fucking shoe. He is disconnecting from me emotionally. Putting that barrier back up, like he has done a million times in the past months, putting problem child Sophie on the other side of the fence, so he doesn’t have to deal with her tantrums.

“Well I’m not keeping you here, there’s the door … Pretty sure you already displayed great skills at using it the last time you fucked off.” I stand with my hands on my hips, venom on show while my heart disintegrates and pushes him away. All the while my soul is screaming at him to see through this bullshit and just help me. I lift my chin defiantly, the angry scowl across my face aching with the effort of holding it. I won’t show weakness.

Don’t leave me again.

“I’m out.” Arrick lifts his hands and walks across the room, heading straight for the door in a casual ‘couldn’t care less’ stride. I falter, losing my stance and impulsively reach a hand out after him, before recoiling it back fast and snapping it to my side. Swallowing down hard to kill the words that were fast behind it; that whiny fucking kid who was about to beg her lifeline to never abandon her.

I don’t think so!

He doesn’t look back but just briskly walks off, tall and straight, with a shake of his head.

My angry glare dissolves as he disappears out of my life once more. Back to square one, and the angry way he has been every time he’s come to pick me up from nightclubs and bars the last few months. I have pretty much severed what we salvaged last night, and standing here, right now, I’m suddenly engulfed with numbness. A tear rolls down my face, but I brush it away harshly, the scowl coming back to keep my pain at bay, filling my body with stubborn rage to stamp down on the heartbreak brimming down low.

“I don’t need you!” I whisper bitingly, scowling, hating how the tears fight through despite my grip to not let them. I swallow hard and will them away, trying to ignore that overwhelming black hole that’s plagued me for months as it engulfs me in the worst kind of way. This time it isn’t just an empty gnawing force that drags me down, it is an all-consuming dread that threatens to devour me completely.