Page 55 of Consumed By You

“All right?” he echoes in apparent shock from my venomous tone.

“Yes,all right. You’ve told me. Thanks.”

He blinks with incredulity, his face twisted with barely contained emotions. “Do you forgive me, Darcy?”

“No.” I shake my head. “You don’t get to say a couple of words and fix this. You don’t give a shit about me, and if you think I’m going to roll over and play nice with you, you’re sorely mistaken.”

I reach into my purse, take out my wallet, grab a five, and drop it onto the table.

He glares at me in frustration. “Can we please talk civilly for just one fucking second?”

“How dare you ask me for civility when the last time I spoke to you, you threw me out of your office! I did nothing wrong!Nothing! I’m not going to apologize, so I hope that’s not why you made me come here.”

“I didn’t make you do anything.”

What. The. Fuck.

Having heard enough, I storm from the café.

“You wanted to talk to me just as much as I wanted to with you!” Benjamin exclaims, following close behind me.

“Is this some kind of sick joke?” I don’t even care that people are looking.

“Darcy, stop! Just listen to me for a second.” He rushes in front of me, but I dodge him and keep walking back toward the bar.

“Leave me alone, Benjamin. I mean it!” I seethe, yanking his hand off my arm.

I don’t look back to see if he’s following me. I can’t. My chest is drumming rapidly, for the first time in months, but I don’t care. He can’t just show up in my life like that. It’s taken me so long to try and forget the time we spent together.

When I shove open the door to the bar, the place is still pretty empty. There are now three chairs taken. Kevin is dancing behind the counter to some techno music coming from the radio. I stomp up the stairs to Marilyn’s office and push the door open.

Good, she’s not here. I don’t think I could explain to her what just happened. I hang her dry cleaning on the coat rack with trembling, useless fingers.

I had no idea seeing him would excite me, scare me, as much as it has. Even though we were fighting, the attraction was there. At least it was there on my part. He was more beautiful than I remembered him to be.

When I come down the stairs, Kevin beams widely. “I didn’t see you come back. How long have you been here?”

“Just got in…and now I’m off. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“You just got a call. A guy!” Kevin calls out, and it stops me in my tracks.

“Who was it?”

He makes his way over to me, drying a glass. “I had no idea you knew Benjamin Scott!”

My mouth flattens in disdain. How does he know where I work?

“He sounded like he really wanted to talk. He asked for you to call him tonight, said you had his number?” He’s gaping at me like he’s supposed to know these aspects of my life.

“We dated once. A while ago,” I admit reluctantly.

“What happened? Why did you stop?”

“It doesn’t matter now. I’m not going to call him.”

“Then give him to me! Girl, I’d never let that man go. Have you seen what he looks like?”

“I know only too well what he looks like. I just ran into him on the road. That’s probably why he’s calling.”