I sit at my desk until I can’t take it any longer. It’s nearly six anyway. I grab two cold beers from my fridge and march out to his garage without checking my reflection in the mirror.
Knox’s head is buried under the hood of some old car, giving me a nice eyeful of his muscular ass as I walk up the driveway.
I take a deep breath, and say, “Hey. It’s hot out here, I brought you a cold drink.”
Knox grunts and keeps his head under the hood. Is this going to be like the first time I brought him beer all over again?
“I’m not going back inside until you talk to me. You may as well enjoy the beer.”
“Don’t make this hard, Avery,” he says, his voice gruff.
I step forward, and set a can on the engine. Knox sighs, and ducks out from under the hood. He takes the can off the car, but doesn’t open it.
“Can’t we just talk about it?”
“The fuck-buddy thing didn’t work for either of us, and I was crystal clear from the start that a relationship was never an option. There’s nothing else to talk about.”
“But how can you ignore your feelings?”
“Avery, no. It’s still no. It’s always going to be no. That’s the way it has to be.”
“Knox, I understand what you think you have to do, and be.”
“No, no you don’t. You don’t have kids. You’re not the one who spends your whole adult life trying to do the right thing.” His nostrils flare and his eyes bore into me, though his voice is soft, “And you’re not the one who dropped the fucking ball and let your little girl get her heart crushed.”
“That’s going to happen, everyone gets hurt at some point. It’s not your fault her mother abandoned her. How did you ever think you were going to protect her from that realization?” My voice is soft, comforting.
“Maybe, but that would happen a different day, not the day of her graduation. If I hadn’t been, if we hadn’t been, then it wouldn't have happened.”
There’s no point in arguing this with him. My heart aches too much to stand here any longer. I need to leave, before I have a complete meltdown and embarrass myself.
Maybe I should go stay with Darla for a while, until the stabbing hurt dulls a little.
“Okay,” I say, and turn and walk back to my house.
As I round the corner, I can see a brown pick-up parked across the street. Probably another delivery, of more sex-related products for me to pimp. Once on my doorstep, I put my hand on the doorknob.
“Bitch!”
It’s Nathan. He walking towards me from the pick-up. His blond hair is disheveled and his blue eyes fierce.
“You scared me,” I say. “What are you doing here?”
“You fucking destroy my relationship with your fucking videos, and you wonder why I’m here?”
My heart, already racing from talking to Knox, thumps out of control. I’ve never felt threatened by Nathan, but this is weird.
“I somehow don’t think I’m the reason your fiancée left you, Nathan.”
“Everyone I know is calling me squeeze toy!” He roars so loud his voice seems to echo off the house across the street.
I don’t know what to say, but drop my hand off the doorknob.
“I fucking warned you! I told you over and over to shut your fucking mouth. That you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. But still your fucking videos went on and on and you would not shut your fucking mouth!” he screams at the top of his lungs.
Paralyzed, my mind races. What is he saying? Why is he blaming me?
“Every fucking day she used to ask me how I never learned a fucking thing from you. How she couldn’t believe I sucked so bad in bed when I lived with you so long, Avery. It didn’t matter how many times I told her you were full of shit, or how many times I told you to stop. Your fucking idiotic videos went on and on.” Spit flies from his mouth as he yells.
“Who the fuck are you?” Knox demands as he comes around the corner of my house.
Knox
The blond asshole glances at me before turning back to Avery, his face beet red from yelling. He’s standing close to Avery, too close and I rush to them and put my arm around Avery, pulling her back to position myself between them.
“What do you mean, told me?” Avery asks.
“Over and over, you fucking bitch. Until you got me banned.”
“Oh my God,” Avery says, “You’re my troll?”
“You’re Hung like a Donkey?” I demand with a laugh.
“You just couldn’t shut your fucking mouth,” he yells, ignoring me again.
I’ve had enough.
“I told you before I’d send you to oblivion you ever bothered her again.”