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Vincent, who wore me down until I was a shell of a person. Changing every aspect of my life to cater to his fragile ego and manipulative personality.

I tried my best to look relaxed, but I wasn’t. I was panicking.

“Long time no see.” Vincent grinned. His eyes scanned my body as I stayed perched on the barstool. It felt repulsive. He shaved most of his blonde hair off, looking almost bald. His receding hairline must have gotten the best of him, but his hazel eyes still glinted with that look that used to make me panic. It was a look designed to put me on edge, to challenge me. To get me to try to read his mind.

Basically, Vincent looked awful.

Like he hadn’t been sleeping well for a long time.

Dark circles sunk underneath his eyes.

I was able to take all that in, but it only took about three seconds for me to remember Mariam’s words.

You don’t owe him anything.

So I just stared.

I didn’t reply. I didn’t acknowledge him with more than my eyes.

I remembered that I had a tortilla chip in my hand and munched on it, waiting for him to do anything else besides ruin my day.

He lifted an eyebrow at my silence, “That’s all I get?”

I frowned, before getting an idea for no other reason than because I was a petty woman, “…I’m sorry, who are you?”

Vincent chuckled, “Really? That’s how you’re going to play this?”

I shrugged, glancing to the side and feeling a wave of mortification at the sight of Leo, turned in his barstool, with his icy blue eyes watching the back and forth between me and my ex.

“I don’t have anything to say to you,” I felt like my heart was going to race out of my chest though. I didn’t want to stay here. I wanted to run. As calmly as I could, I brushed off my hands from the salty chip crumbs, and stood from my stool to tell Leo, “I’m going to head back to the office.”

Something shifted in him, though it was subtle and I didn’t have enough time to focus on what it was. But as soon as I turned to step away from the bar and make it towards the exit, Vincent widened his stance in an attempt to block my path.

“I see you’re still the same cold bitch you’ve always been.” Vincent almost rolled his eyes, but he caught himself, narrowing them at me. Eager to see my reaction, my wince when his words cut through me like they always did. Excited to see that almost three years after I left him, he could still get in my head.

I sucked in a sharp breath of shock because while his words hit me like they used to, I was also surprised at how everything my therapist predicted about him came to fruition. Vincent still felt powerful putting women down. He still went out of his way to “win” arguments, even if he wasn’t actually in one.

He still didn’t evenlikeme.

His words proved that he never actually did.

I felt something icy and cold sink in my chest under his scrutiny. A terrible, heart-wrenching confirmation that this man did waste my time. There was no alternate reality where he saw me as someone he liked or respected.

I was too caught up in my spiral, still frowning at Vincent as his eyes flared, getting his fill on how his words broke me at that moment. I almost missed the warm body positioning itself beside me, if it wasn’t for that cockney accent snapping me back into the present.

“Nah, mate,” Leo’s voice was dangerously low, a tone I’d never heard him use before. It gave me chills, “Speak to me how you spoke to her.” I thought I remembered Zaid mentioning how Leo was six-five, which was a solid ten inches taller than my five feet and seven inches in height. Watching Leo square his shoulders, resting his large palm on my lower back as he stared at my ex-boyfriend, I could have sworn he was the tallest man in the world.

Vincent narrowed his eyes up at my coworker, running his fist across his nose in a nervous tick I recognized as fear, “I wasn’t talking to you—”

“I don’t care,” Leo dropped his hold on my back, stepping forward so that half of his body was in front of me, shielding me from my ex, “You’re a grown man. You don’t talk to women like that.” He lifted a fist and pounded his chest with emphasis, “You want to talk like that? Talk to me. Not her.Neverher.”

Vincent lowered his eyes, his jaw clenched as he huffed out through his nostrils in anger and humiliation, before his hazel eyes lifted and met mine.

I felt my heart jump into my throat, and it took every muscle I had in my body not to flinch under his stare.

Leo wasn’t having it. He stepped forward abruptly, making Vincent retreat once as he blocked me from his view.

“You don’tlookat her,” Leo’s tone was enough to imply the threat behind his words, “You don’tspeakto her. You look at me, or you speak to me. Those are your options.”