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“We’d better get back inside before you freeze.” He pulled my hood up and tied it under my chin, leaving me weak in the knees. “Come on.”

As we walked back in the building with his arm over my shoulder and mine around his waist, it was the perfect fit. I was beaming as thoughts of the night ahead zipped through my mind like a toddler high on Laffy Taffy and Lemonheads.

He’d light a fire, I’d pour each of us another margarita, and we’d curl up on the sofa and watch a movie. Of course, he’d be shirtless because, well, he was shirtless in all my thoughts.

We got off the elevator, and he pointed. “Fern, I think I could beat you to my door.”

Sirens went off in my brain. “What did you say to me?” I stopped, rested my hands against the wall, and stretched out my legs.

“You heard me, lady.” He started to jump up and down like a fighting champion. “Challenge extended.”

“Challenge accepted.” I bent over and touched my toes at the same time he came up behind me and pressed himself against my rear as I roared with laughter. “Let’s do this.”

We stood side-by-side as he pointed. “Okay, crazy chick, it’s on. Ready, set, go!”

We took off down the hall, gaining speed quickly. I was behind and did the only thing I could. I grabbed the back of his coat with all my might and then pushed off him and made it to the door first. I threw my arms in the air.

“Girl, you did me dirty.”

Why did that phrase send a shiver down my body?

He lifted me so we were face-to-face. “Do you know what the punishment is for that?”

I purred, “No, but I can’t wait to find out.”

He put me down, I entered the secret code, and boom, we were inside. He hung up his coat and then took mine. “Should I start a fire?”

He was reading my mind. “Sure.”

We took a few steps to see a fire already going in the fireplace and he looked at me. “Did I start a fire earlier?”

“No—”

“Surprise!” Like a bat out of hell, a beautiful red head walked out of Gabe’s bedroom. Did I mention she wore a see-through camisole? Yup, the boobs and nipples had me stunned out of my mind. As hard as I tried, my eyes were glued to her perfectly perky breasts.

I could see movement out of the corner of my eye as Gabe tripped over the sofa table and a lamp crashed to the floor. “Ashley!”

My eyes traveled up to her super model face to see she was as shaken by my presence as I was hers. Gabe grabbed a blanket from the couch and tossed it to her. She quickly wrapped it around the hottest body I’d ever laid eyes on.

“Oh, my gosh,” she gasped.

Her eyes were saucers as she looked from Gabe to me. “I was in town and just thought?—”

I heard his voice, but I’m pretty sure I was floating above my body. “Fern, this isn’t what it looks like.”

The ability to inhale oxygen left me, and spots were in front of my face before I finally gasped for air.

My brain was frantically attempting to process the sight before me, but there wasn’t anything to process.

He was a self-proclaimed player, and my having the code to his door meant nothing. I was just another one of them now.

I grabbed my purse from the floor and moved toward the door, but he stepped in front of me. “Move. I mean it.”

“Fern, this was all before you, not since I’ve known you. You changed everything, and you changed me.”

I pushed his chest, the one that I clung to just an hour ago, with all my might, but he didn’t budge.

“I need to get out of here!” I stepped to the left, and he did also.

“Fern, it’s not like this for me anymore. I swear it. I’ve said it was day-by-day, but I’m crazy about you. I need you to stay so we can talk.”

My voice cracked. “Shut up! Just get out of my way.” I made a fake move to the right, and when he followed, I shot left with the door in my sight. The door that would take me away from this pain and lead me to the life without him.

I pulled it open, but his hand slammed it shut. “No, you’re not going like this.”

My eyes burned. I couldn’t let the faucet turn on. “Move!” I used my fingers to try to pry his hand as my vision blurred. “Let me out of here…please.”

He suddenly took my shoulders in his hands, and I looked down as a tear escaped. He held me firmly with my feet barely touching the ground. “Please don’t cry. This isn’t me. Give me a chance. I’ll never hurt you.”

I shook my head.

“Fern, you have to listen to me.”

I inhaled and mustered some strength because if I didn’t, I was afraid I would literally die. I looked into his face and the green eyes that melted me. “Let me go, Gabe. I don’t want this. At all. Don’t come after me. Don’t call me. Just let me be.”

He looked at me as if I were speaking Bulgarian. “You think about us and what we are. You know this was me in the past. Not anymore. You know that.”

“Let me go.”

He set me down, and I got out of there as fast as my feet would carry me. Once outside his building, I realized I’d forgotten my coat. Since the weather was holy shit, I can’t feel my face degrees , I shivered my ass off to the car and beat myself up all the way home. WTF was I thinking?

We said it was day-by-day. We both agreed, but I’m the one who got burned.

This was his life; this was Gabe. He probably had a list as long as Santa’s of ladies who showed up naked at his apartment twenty-four/seven.

That’s when it became clear, the tingly feeling you get when you’re crazy about somebody. That’s common sense leaking out.

We had chemistry, and that was what he was trying to hang on to.

My brain and body were bruised like torn flesh. I snuck into my quiet house, grabbed my pajamas, tossed Gabe’s sweatpants and hoodie into the trash compactor where they belong, and took a shower to wash him off of me. His scent, his kisses, and hopefully his memory.

I’d done it again. I’d chosen a man who was a lover of women. One woman would never be enough. For God’s sake, he had dated celebrities, models, and a hot redhead with a perfect set of knockers.

I crawled into bed exhausted and certainly out of tears.

But of course, I was wrong. Nothing new, I was wrong about everything.

Former boyfriend Brock, the doc who played me for a fool when he was married, and now me thinking I’d be able to handle a hook-up, well, multiple hook-ups, believing I could walk away unscathed.

“Fern?” I jumped when I heard my mother whisper from the side of my bed. She sat down, and, as hard as I tried, the damn tears showed up yet again. Fuckers.

“I’ll be fine, Mom. Really.”

“I know, honey.” Her warm hand rested on my back. “Everything is going to be all right. Your favorite Elmo used to say that when you were little, and it still stands today.”

I sat up, and she hugged me. But do you know what? Sesame Street didn’t teach me half the real shit it should’ve. Fuck you, Big Bird.

I plopped back down on my pillow, and she lay next to me, not saying a word, and rubbed my back lightly as I cried my heart out.