He looks like death warmed over as he opens the door, but my hoo-ha still wants some action. Down, you horny bitch!
“Hey,” he clears the gruffness from his voice. “What are you doing here so early?”
I force my way through the door. He closes it behind me and looks at me expectantly. I don’t even know where to start.
“You’re an asshole!” Okaaay, I guess that’s one way.
He blinks a few times. “Huh?”
“Why did you have to fuck everything up, Brody?” I push his chest to emphasize my point. “Why couldn’t you leave it alone?”
He holds one hand up and pinches the bridge of his nose with the other. “Just hold on a second, will you? I’m still trying to wake up. I had a lot to drink last night; it’s going to take me a sec to figure out why you’re acting like such a crazy pants right now.”
“Crazy?! I’m not crazy! You’re the one who’s crazy!”
“Says every crazy person ever,” he mutters.
I start pacing around his foyer. “Why’d you do it, Brody? Why’d you say those things to me?”
It takes him a minute but I can see the moment his hangover fog clears.
“Ah...I see you got my voicemails.”
“Oh, I got ‘em, all right!”
He rubs a hand over his hair before lifting his chin and looking me straight in the eye. “What do you want me to say here, Rainey?”
“Oh, I think you’ve said enough. Don’t you?”
“I’m not going to apologize for it, if that’s what you’re looking for.”
I glare at him. “Brody, you don’t tell someone that you love them and want to spend the rest of your life with them on a voicemail!”
He mirrors my expression. “It’s not like you gave me much of a choice with all of your avoidance. It needed to be said, Rainey.”
“No, it didn’t!”
“And why the hell not? Please, tell me why the fuck it’s so difficult for you to hear?”
I throw my hands up in frustration. “Because this isn’t what I signed up for!”
“Well, too bad!”
“Too bad? That’s all you have to say?”
“I fucking need coffee for this,” he murmurs.
I follow him as he heads toward the kitchen and pops a pod in the Keurig. I get the feeling that he’s choosing his words carefully because he’s completely silent as it brews. The only sound in the room is the coffee percolating and my foot tapping impatiently on the tile floor.
I wait until he takes his first sip. “Is your break over yet? Are you ready to have an adult conversation?”
He ignores my jibe and takes another sip before speaking. “Look. That’s not the way I wanted to tell you everything—I can’t imagine how jumbled my speech was considering my state of drunkenness at the time. But I was fully cognizant, Rainey. I meant every single word. I won’t take them back. And if you’d be honest with yourself, you’d see that you don’t want me to.”
“So, you’re a mind reader now?”
He sighs. “Rainey—”
I panic when he attempts to cross over to the other side of the kitchen where I’m standing. “Stay right there, mister! I can’t think straight when you’re close to me.”