Page 26 of Ruin

What the fuck?Get it over with?

She wrenches herself out of my grasp and grabs her bag. A knock sounds at the door as she digs through her purse.

Gi barks, “Come in.”

Ann keeps her eyes on the ground as she rushes in. “I’m sorry. I need my notebook.”

My chest feels hollow as Gi pulls her keys out of her purse, so angry she’s practically shaking. I don’t understand why she’s so mad. I take a tentative step toward her.

“I’m sorry about New Year’s Eve,” I say quietly. “I should have been the one to kiss you at midnight. It should have been me taking you home.”

Her eyes widen like her blood is boiling, and her lip twitches into a sneer. “I agree.”

I want to take her in my arms, to find the right words to make this right. But she just wants to fuck me and get it over with? I can’t let her go like this.

“Hey. Come with me tonight.” Smiling softly, I reach out a hand to her.

“To your interview?” she asks, batting my hand away. “Not a good look to bring a plus one to your law school interview, Tommy. Besides, I can’t. I have a date.”

The smile falls off my face. “With who?”

“Antonio.” She throws his name at me like a rock.

“Fucking kidding me.”

A hum of frustration starts low in my rib cage and whooshes up to my brain like a fire hitting oxygen. I have to turn away from her so I don’t punch the wall. She’s going out with him? On a fucking date? Even after what just happened between us?

“He’s a piece of shit. He’s not the right guy for you, Gi.”

“Neither are you, Tommy,” she snaps, fucking crushing me. She must be able to tell because her voice softens. “Maybe I’ll see you at the pool party at Lexi’s tomorrow night? You know, her big ‘July at Christmas’ blowout.”

I barely hear her over the rushing sound in my years.

When I don’t respond, she sighs. “Don’t leave until Ann finishes with your suit. Good luck tonight, Tommy.”

11

Tommy

Ishould be on my way to meet the dean. I should be running through my talking points, smoothing out my answers. I shouldn’t be driving in circles, strangling the steering wheel so tight I can hear the leather creak, obsessing over Giovanna and motherfucking Tony the Hack.

He’s in love with her. She agreed to a date with him. Both are things I can’t control.

But how the fuck can she go on this date with him when I had my fingers inside her just a few hours ago? Was she cheating on him with me? Is she going to let him fuck her again?

The thought of him kissing her, touching her, sliding into her makes me physically ill. Rage claws up my chest. I don’t give a fuck what they did before, but it can’t happen again. She’s mine. She’s always been fucking mine.

FUCK.

Up until yesterday, I thought I had to wait, that I couldn’t drag her through the grind of building a future, that I had to earn the right to claim her. But after today? Waiting isn’tan option. I need to be inside her, hold her, kiss her. I crave her, and it has nothing to do with logic.

I won’t get through the interview like this. I won’t get through law school like this.

Fuck it.

I wrench the wheel and gun the car toward Long Island.

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