Page 104 of Falling Offsides

COURTNEY

The momentI step outside my apartment, I freeze.

I’m standing right in front of his door.

Auguste's door.

I don’t know why I didn’t hear it before, but now it feels soloud. The fact that he lives across the hall from me—right here. So close. I can almost hear him breathing through the walls.

I stare at his door for what feels like an eternity. My heart pounding in my chest. My thoughts are a swirl of noise.

Last night was a clusterfuck. From the moment I accepted the invitation to go to the bar, to the moment I walked away from him. This morning, everything still is a shitshow of gargantuan proportions. My head and my heart are saying two very different things. One—not my head—has no sense of self preservation. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be standing here. Staring at Auguste’s door like it holds the answers to all my problems.

At least more than Delilah did because for all the talk she gave me about setting boundaries and not allowing myself to fall into the same trap as my mom, she still managed to make me question every promise I have ever made myself with one question;

If I am not falling for Auguste, why am I so angry that he omitted the fact he lives right there?

And why do I keep saying omitted like it’s not a passive way of saying he lied? Auguste lied to me.

I force myself to look away, my feet moving without me telling them to because I know what this is. I’ve seen it before. The red flags are there. The warning signs.

Just like they were there with Martin.

At one point he was sweet, too. Charming. He made Mom feel special. But once he had her? He turned on her.Controlledher. And I won't let that be my story.

I can’t let Auguste do this to me.

I keep telling myself this as I wait for the elevator. Anxious to escape something I’ve allowed to grow too close. I don’t want to feel the weight of what’s been between us. I don’t want to think about howgoodit felt.

How right it felt.

The elevator doors ping open and I rush inside before I go completely mad and do something I’ll regret.

“Oh, shit, I’m sorry,” a husky female voice chuckles when I bounce off the tall figure. Cold water sloshes onto my chest as she pulls back and gives me a wide smile. “My bad, girl let me?—”

“No.” I pull back, taking in the woman. “It’s fine.”

She’s beautiful. Her honey brown braids frame her face with colorful charms woven into her hair that make her hazel eyes more striking than they already are.

My chest constricts around my lungs when Auguste’s door opens and Samson’s nails scramble on the stone floor. My heart can’t take the sound. Tears flood my eyes as I move around the statuesque woman in front of me and hideout in the corner.

Of course, the little mite finds me. His paws scratch at my legs, begging me for attention like he did last night with his puppy yaps. I swear they sound different already. A little deeper.

Samson squirms between my legs until I crouch to greet him. Then he’s leaping into my arms and licking my face as another tall shadow stands in the way of the doors.

Auguste.

His feet are large and bare in my line of sight while I hug Sammy to my chest and stand. For a moment his eyes are all I see. Pleading. Dark. Tired. The man standing in front of me looks exactly how I feel on the inside, and I’m slammed with the urge to hug him. The same urge that overwhelmed me the other night when he showed up at my door with Samson. When he cooked for me. Took care of me.

The tall woman looks between us and presses a kiss to his cheek.

“I’ll just… umm…” She hooks a thumb over her shoulder towards his apartment. “Seriously, sorry about the spillage.”

“No problem.”

My stare follows her to his door as I hug Samson tighter. Her denimshorts cut off at the curve of her ass and the black bralet just covers her boobs.

She’s standing in his open doorway as he tells me, “That’s Sabine…”