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He shoved off the side of the truck, sucking in a breath. But the expected explosion didn’t come. He turned away, breathing out in a controlled fashion before taking another breath, slower this time, deeper. After a few repetitions, he turned back to me, looking almost…normal.

Then he smiled.

It was nothing more than a flicker, one that barely reached his eyes.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” he said. “I’m all messed up around you. I have been ever since things ended between us.”

He came toward me, close enough that I could smell the spicy aftershave he wore. When he reached out to touch me, I backed away.

Tight lines appeared around his eyes, but he replied in a level voice, “I guess I messed up pretty bad, huh?”

“We’re not getting back together, Cecil.”

“Why not?” Tone cajoling, he said, “We were good together, baby.”

I sidestepped him again, careful to moveawayfrom the truck. I wouldnotlet him trap me against it.

“We were good together as long as I didn’t piss you off,” I said coolly. “Then I made the mistake of outshining you at work.”

“You never outshone me.” His eyes narrowed as he glared at me. “You might have flashed your tits at clients and gotten more jobs than me, but that’s just being a tramp, notoutshiningme.”

A hot blush washed over my cheeks at the accusation. It was one I’d heard from Cecil before. However, the sting was far less this time.

“It’s probably hard for you to recognize when clients are impressed, Cecil,” I said, offering a smile with false sweetness. “After all, the jobs you worked solo were mostly average. Rather like you.”

Rage lit his eyes, and he reached for me.

I sidestepped and lifted my arm, striking the inside of his wrist as he tried to catch me, using enough force to send a good, numbing jolt straight up to his shoulder.

“Bitch,” he snarled, face flushing a deep shade of red.

“You lay your hands on me...you’ll regret it.” I leveraged my warning with a soft voice. I wasnobody’spunching bag.

“Is there a problem here, folks?”

Cecil whipped his head around. “Mind your own fuc…”

His words trailed off, drying up on his tongue as he came face to face with a police officer. It was almost funny enough to punch through the fury that wrapped around me.

Almost.

The uniformed officer started toward us, eyes moving between Cecil and me.

“I think we’re good now, officer,” I said, glancing at Cecil with a hard look. “I’m just getting ready to call for a Lyft.”

The officer nodded. “If you’d like to take care of that, I can wait here.”

I moved away from Cecil, feeling the hot burn of his gaze on the back of my neck. I didn’t give him the satisfaction of looking back.

As I opened the rideshare app, I heard the cop speaking, his voice low and easy.

Cecil bit off a short, “Of course.”

He slammed the truck door thirty seconds later, and I wasn’t surprised. I refused to look in his direction. I’d already made one big-ass mistake with him tonight. More than one, and I wasn’t about to keep making them.

I wanted to go home, have a stiff drink, and forget the entire fucking day.

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