Page 51 of Take Care, Taylor

“Stop playing dumb. Just apologize.”

He blinked.

“For destroying my work in front of everyone.” I was shaking. “You know damn well it was well written, and if it were anyone else?—”

“You can write a lot better than that,” he said, voice even. “You know it, I know it, and everyone in that room knows it too.They’re competing with you, so they aren’t going to tell you the truth.”

“Well, I can’t wait to tear your essay about you and Stacey’s relationship apart next week. Brace yourself.”

“Stacey and I aren’t together anymore.”

“Good for her,” I said. “She can do a lot better.”

“Is that so?”

“I didn’t stutter.” I glared at him. “Your loss.”

“I thought you said she was unstable and not my type.”

“I was projecting your issues onto her.” I couldn’t believe he wasn’t apologizing. “Try not to make the next girl half as miserable, and you might last longer than usual.”

“Since you’re giving out tips, maybe learn how to fuck and the next guy won’t feel compelled to cheat on you.”

“Excuse me?”

“Do you need me to repeat it?” He stepped closer. “I can happily do that for you.”

“My sex life is none of your business.”

“You have to actually have sex to have a sex life, Audrey.” He looked directly into my eyes. “I bet you wanted the guy to wait for months and hope he’d forget all about it and just focus on writing with you.”

“Spoken like someone who thinks his dick is the magical cure for orgasms.” I could feel the anger radiating off him. “Spoiler alert: there’s a reason why none of the women you’ve been with ever come crawling back. They were just using you for your money; they could give better foreplay and strokes to themselves.”

“I’m shocked those words are even in your vocabulary, Audrey.”

“I’m equally impressed that you know words with more than two syllables.”

I tried to push my way past him, but he gripped my hips, holding me still.

“I’m not done talking to you.”

“I don’t want to hear anything else you have to say.” My chest heaved up and down. “You are literally the last person I would ever take relationship advice from, and you ripped my essay apart because you’re a goddamn hater and you can’t accept that there’s one person who is far better at writing than you ever will be.”

“You can believe that if you want.”

“I do.” I tried to move away again, but he pushed me against the wall. Then he placed his hands on the wall above my head, caging me in.

“Just apologize for what you said about the breakup with Stacey being my loss, and we can move on.”

“What?” I nearly choked on a laugh. “Why do you even care what I think about that?”

“I don’t, but we agreed to be cordial,” he said. “That was disrespectful as fuck, and I don’t appreciate it.”

“Truth hurts, Taylor. Let me go.”

“No.” He leaned closer, voice dropping. The veins in his forearms stood out like wire. “Since you want to discuss ‘truth,’ let’s talk about the fact that you’re attracted to me and you wish I would fuck you so you could finally know what it really feels like.”

“I’m not a virgin, Taylor.”