Playing (Inked Hearts 2)

She moves up the steps and to the door.

I slide my key into the lock and turn the handle. "You can go first."

"Okay." She moves through the living room and goes straight to the bathroom.

I press the door closed and lean against it.

This is bullshit.

I'm better than this. Stronger than this.

A few moments later, Iris steps out of the bathroom. She moves into the kitchen with careful steps. Focuses all her attention on filling her water bottle.

I head to the bathroom, piss, wash my hands.

When I step into the main room, she's sitting on the counter, tapping her feet together, sucking on her water bottle.

"If you want to know something, you can ask," I say.

She shakes her head. "I tried that. You fed me a line."

I don't have a comeback.

"It's fine, Walker. This is supposed to be easy. Casual. Whatever it is that's going on with your friend or your sister is none of my business."

"But you want to know?"

"It doesn't matter." She looks at her blue and grey sneakers. "It's none of my business."

"You can want to know."

"Okay. I do. There's a story there. And I don't like you pretending there isn't."

"And that shit about your breakup?"

Her blue eyes bore into mine. "That isn't shit. I left Ross last December. Or maybe it was mutual. It's hard to say."

"How?"

"I made a choice. He couldn't live with it."

"What choice?"

"To change my life."

"That's bullshit."

"No, it's true."

I move toward her. "Yeah, it's true. I believe that." I stare back into those blue eyes as I place myself between her legs. "But it's half the story. And your breakup isn't why you're doing all this self-help bullshit."

"Don't call it bullshit."

"You did first."

"Even so." She presses her knees against my hips. "We should head out."

&nbs