Page 49

“Babe?”
Nothing.
Then soft snores escape his lips. Sighing, I pull the blankets up to my shoulders and curl up into him, closing my eyes. Unsatisfied. Confused. Tired.
What the fuck am I doing?
“Aria! God damnit!!”
Liam’s shouts reverberate up the stairwell. Wincing, I jump to my feet from the spot where I lay sprawled out watching a movie, and run down the steps as quickly as I can.
“What’s wrong?” I ask as my feet hit the landing at the bottom of the steps, gripping the banister and trying to catch my breath.
“Did you not do anything while I was working today? You knew I was coming over. You haven’t made dinner, the dishes are dirty, have you just been lying around all day?”
It’s my house, not his, so I don’t understand his anger sometimes or the way it’s directed. If I want a mess, I should be able to have a mess. But I also know better now than to talk back at this point.
“I - I uh, well I have work and I was kind of tired so I just took it easy. I was thi-“
“Took it easy?” he spits, “It’s not like you have it that hard Aria. All I ask is for the place to be picked up a little when I come over, and for dinner to be ready. You need to learn to be a fucking adult. How will you take care of our kids like this?”
Our kids? We haven’t discussed that. I don’t think I even want that. Not with him, or ever really. Not that what I want matters.
When did what I want stop mattering?
“No, no you are totally right Liam. I was thinking I would order us something tonight though? Maybe from the diner?”
“Fine,” he grits, “but I’m not picking it up.”
“I will, I promise,” I mumble, pulling my phone from my back pocket. “I’ll just call right now a-“
A loud knocking at the door stops me in my tracks. Who the hell would be here? Liam gives me a questioning look and I shrug my shoulders because I genuinely have no idea. I don’t get unannounced visitors. At least not since my best friend left the city.
Liam stalks to the front door and grips the knob, as he turns it and opens the door wide, I peek around the corner and notice there’s no one there. He pokes his head out the door and looks side to side. Nothing. He steps one foot over the threshold when I hear him yell out, “Shit!” as something makes a clattering sound.
“What’s wrong, what is it?” I question.
Bending down, he picks something up and as he stands and straightens, he turns to face me. The first thing I notice is the ice cold look in his eyes. The second thing I notice is the vase of black roses in his hand.
“What the fuck is this?” he shouts, kicking the door closed behind him.
“I don’t know,” I shrug.
Black roses? It can’t be. It’s a coincidence.
“Is there a note?”
His breathing grows deeper and I swear I can see smoke unfurling from his ears. He’s assuming this is for me, but who the fuck would leave that for me? It doesn’t make sense.
Closing his eyes for a moment, he takes a deep breath before opening them back up and digging into the center of the bouquet, pulling out a small card. I watch him closely as he reads it over. Crumpling it in one hand, he lets out a low, guttural growl before dropping the card and hurling the bouquet at the wall. Upon impact, the glass vase shatters into tiny little fragments.
“You fucking whore!” he grits, charging toward me as I back up. Step after step I walk backward until my back hits the wall and I can’t go any further.
“Wh-what are you talking about?” I whimper, making myself small. Pressing myself so hard into the wall that I wish it would just swallow me whole.
“After everything I’ve done for you? Everything?! The guys all told me you were a fucking whore. A slutbag piece of trash that hooked up with half the guys in Havok Hills after a night out drinking. I told them they were wrong, but here I stand. Made a fucking fool of!”
“I-I’m not, I- what are you talking about?” I ask quietly. Meekly. “I’m not, it’s just you Liam. You.”