Page 96 of By Rude Strength

“We’re coming out to check on you if you’re not back,” Kevin warned.

Brandon nodded in agreement. “What he said.”

Cass frowned, and he pressed a soft kiss to LA’s cheek.

Gavin flinched.

LA turned and kissed Cass, a deep kiss with a hot swipe of tongue—okay, yes, he was doing it because Gavin was right there, but fuck him. LA wanted to make it clear who he was here with and where he stood. He smirked at Gavin. “So. Let’s go.”

Gavin was scowling but quickly tried to school his expression back into a smile. “Let’s.”

LA let Gavin lead the way outside to his car, his heart pounding with dread. He wasn’t sure what Gavin was up to, but he doubted he even had any of LA’s things. This was simply a ploy of some kind, but for what?

Gavin stopped at the corner of the shop, turning around to say, “Okay, look. I get it. You were mad at me for Darren—”

“Who?” LA frowned.

“The guy I posted?”

“Yeah, no. I don’t care.”

“Well, you’ll be happy to know that it didn’t work out. It was a stupid mistake and I’m sorry.” Gavin smiled sweetly and tried to reach for LA’s hand. “Can you forgive me?”

“What? No!” LA jerked away. “We’re done, remember? All fucking done.”

“You can’t be serious.” Gavin laughed. “Come on. You know I didn’t mean that. I’m willing to take some big steps, okay? To prove that I’m really serious about us.”

“Oh yeah?” LA narrowed his eyes. “How about putting on a blindfold and playing in traffic?”

“You’re so silly.” Gavin grabbed LA’s waist. “I’m talking about moving in with you.”

“What?” LA was so stunned that he couldn’t move for a few seconds.

“You heard me. I wanna show you that I’m really committed to making us work.” Gavin smiled. “We can use my furniture. Yours is hideous. And hey, it looks like you finally got rid of all those creepy paintings, so—”

LA snapped out of his stupor and pushed Gavin away. “No.”

Gavin scowled. “What?”

“No.” LA took a deep breath. “And not just no, but hell no. Fuck no. We’re done.”

“You don’t get to say that, not when—”

“I get to say whatever the fuck I want!” LA seethed. “We’re not together. We will never get back together. Not fucking ever.”

“Come on.” Gavin tried to grab him again. “We’re so good together! Why do you want to throw it away?”

LA sidestepped Gavin’s hand, arguing, “Because that’s what you do with trash.”

“You think what we had was fucking trash? What the fuck?”

LA took a deep breath to calm down before he said something cruel.

Gavin was an asshole, but LA was better than that.

He knew he could do this.

“At first, no. Yeah, we had some good times, and there will always be some part of me that cares about you.” LA shrugged. “But I see now that the only reason I put up with the shitty way you treated me was because I was afraid of change. I was afraid to be alone. I was fucking afraid to stand up to you because every time I tried, I’d always blow up and feel like an asshole!”