Never Been Loved(100)

With that, I move down the hall, grab a shirt of the floor in my room, and turn back the way I came.

“I’ll be right back,” I tell her as I walk out the door.

As the elevator doors shut slowly, I hear an apartment door opening, and keep my grin to myself in the elevator car. Sera’s going to follow.

Which means maybe I got through to her, and now she’s going to make sure that Aly knows I’m the one she wants.

Jules, I’d bet you’d want to see how this play out.





Chapter 27



“I missed you, baby,” Aly says, as I step out of the elevator and into the lobby. “How come you won’t answer my calls, huh? Weren’t we good together, Hunter? Didn’t you like what we did?” She hops on me like I’m a train about to take her for a ride.

“Aly, maybe there’s a reason I’m not answering your calls or texts; it’s been four months. Maybe that reason is I don’t want to talk to you anymore,” I say, getting her arms and legs away from me. Sera doesn’t need to see this.

This was a bad idea.

I should’ve just let her come up and refused to open the door. Then again, I can’t remember if she has a key or not.

Now she’s got her hands in my shirt and is dragging me closer. I don’t want to do this. The swirling sensation in my head is starting to hit and that can only mean one thing. Yeah, my sugar’s starting to drop.

“I know you didn’t just say that to me, Hunter. Shall I call your mother to get this all settled out?”

“Yeah, call my mom, Aly, at night. Go complain to her that I’m not following your plans. We’re not getting married, and we’re sure as fuck never sharing the same bed again.”

Aly makes a show of getting her phone out of her pants. I’m disgusted with all of this. How easy I was to play, how much Aly wanted to be part of the game.

“How are you going to survive without your mom’s money? How are you going to take care of Jules’ kid, huh? Oh, poor Hunter, don’t try to get a brain now, and start thinking for yourself.”

She’s got her stride now, and I try to breathe normal. Sera’s heard everything. “You marry me, we have enough money to keep us going for the next fifty years. Aren’t you tired of fighting, of struggling every single day? Aren’t you tired of it all?”

Aly just had to say it.

The swirls in my brain move faster now, and my head’s too heavy for my neck. Sera’s here and she’s listening; she’s seeing everything.

I’m just tired, beyond exhausted of my life, of moving forward only to be pushed a hundred steps back. I’m tired of struggling with my finances, with the kid, with Sera, even though she’s made everything in my life easier.

I’m just tired of fighting it, tired of trying to be normal.

“That’s right, baby. You know you want me over her anyway. My way is the easy way, and there’s nothing wrong with that.” Aly says, but it sounds far away, from a stony tunnel rather than standing right in front of me. I’m somehow in her arms.

“You don’t need her when you can have me,” Aly whispers in my ear. “Everything will be so easy for us, baby. We can do whatever we want, we can buy whatever we want. You won’t have to work and be so tired anymore.”

“I’m tired,” I repeat, just wasted with the thought of the fight that’s never going to end.

“You love what we do together, Hunter. We’re good together, you know it, baby. We explode together, and I love your mouth. Here, call that girl you have upstairs, tell her to go home, and we’ll go upstairs to your bed.” She gets her phone in my hand.

I stare at it, completely dumb.

I don’t know why I have it in my hand.

Swirls of colour get in the way of my sight, and Aly’s face is twisted down into something like fury.

“Hunter, I’m getting tired of this. Call that fat bitch upstairs and tell her to go home. Wait, tell her to take the kid, too, and we’ll be all alone. I’ll do whatever you want, baby, I swear. You know how much you love my mouth on your cock.”

Her mouth’s on me? Is that what that is?

Where’s Sera? Is she here? Why isn’t she here with me? What the fuck is Aly doing?

She’s fucking kissing me, when my girl’s hiding somewhere in this lobby.

I get my hands on Aly’s shoulders and shove her away from me, getting her as far as I can. I tear myself away, feeling like I’ve been almost drowned.

“Get the fuck out.”

God, what the hell is Sera thinking right now?

I’m never going to dig myself out of this.

I need her out of here. I push her out the way she came, towards the doors, her phone now in her hands, and shove her out enough that I get the inner doors shut and lock her out. Some asshole better not let her in again.