Best Friend's Ex Box Set

pulate people and make it all about himself. I just wanted to put it all behind me and move on with my life.

“You’re sure about that?” he said as he turned into the drive of the hotel and pulled up to the front door. He put the SUV in park, but left the engine running. He opened the door and got out, but before he shut the door, he quietly said, “Because I’m not.”

It didn’t take long for Brian to register and since I didn’t have any luggage, we were soon on the elevator headed up to a large suite on the top floor of the hotel. I watched Brian out of the corner of my eye as the elevator ascended. Although he seemed calm on the outside, I could see him scanning the interior of the small space the same way he’d done down in the lobby, on the track, and everywhere else.

“What’s up with the scanning?” I blurted out.

“Huh?” he seemed genuinely confused by the question.

“I’ve noticed that you are constantly in scan mode” I said cautiously. “Even when it’s not really necessary, like now.”

“Oh,” he dropped his eyes to the floor and didn’t look up.

“I’m not judging or anything,” I offered. “I’m just asking why you’re constantly doing it.”

“Dunno,” he shrugged as he stared at the floor.

I could see that a wall had gone up, but I had no idea how to scale it, so I stopped asking and went back to analyzing my own situation. Figuring out what Dominic was going to do next wasn’t going to be easy; he’d become less predictable since I’d left and it scared me to know that he had tracked me down on campus. How else would he have known where to find me? And as I thought about it more, I realized that the only way he could have found me would have been if he had been following me. The thought made me shudder.

“You cold?’ Brian asked as the elevator doors slid open. He stepped out into the hall and scanned the corridor before motioning me forward.

“No, just thinking,” I replied as I stepped in behind him and followed him down the hall to the suite. He unlocked the door, held up a hand indicating I should stay in the hall, then quickly made his way through the rooms, turning on lights as he went. Thirty seconds later, he was back at the door motioning me to come in and shut the door behind me. It all felt very covert, and I looked at him skeptically as he moved toward the windows and pulled the curtains closed.

“Your room is over here,” he opened the door connecting one of the bedrooms to the main area and waved me over. “You’re probably pretty tired, so I’ll let you get some sleep.”

“Okay,” I said as I headed toward my room. Once inside, I turned and called out, “Brian?”

“Yes?” came his immediate response.

“I don’t think I can…I mean, I’m not…Would you just stay?” I stammered.

“Sure thing,” he smiled as came back into the room. He pulled the curtains apart a bit and checked outside before sitting down in the big chair by the window. “What’s on your mind?”

“Why do you always do that?” I asked.

“Do what?”

“You’re always scanning and checking and looking for things,” I said.

“Well, it’s part of my job. I’m supposed to make sure that any threat is neutralized, and that you’re safe.”

“But it’s more than that,” I argued. “It’s like you’re never not on.”

“I guess I always am,” he shrugged. “But that’s not what you want to talk about is it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why is Dominic after you? What happened between you two?” His honest question caught me off guard, but I quickly recovered and began telling the story that I’d told everyone who’d ever asked.

“Yeah, well, I’m not entirely sure what happened aside from the fact that I broke up with him when I caught him cheating on me,” I recited the scrubbed version so many times that it felt like the truth. “We were fine until that happened, and then he just kind of lost it. He started writing me and following me around trying to convince me to come back, and when I refused, he started to get more forceful.”

Brian sat watching me from across the room, his eyes like lasers, and I suddenly felt more exposed than I ever had in my life. I looked away, focusing my gaze on the couch in the other room as I talked. I told him about how Dominic had shown up in my dorm one evening, pleading and begging.

“He’d wanted me to come home with him, but something felt off, and when I said no, he became enraged. My suite

mates had finally called the police and they’d hauled him out the dorm, but didn’t arrest him because his father had even more money and power than mine, and was a big university donor.” I rolled my eyes dramatically to show him how little respect I had for all the money and power. “The next day, I went down to the court and filed a personal protection order, but I knew that it was just a piece of paper and that if he really wanted to get to me, it wouldn’t stop him. And then Dominic disappeared. I had no idea what had happened to him, but when my father got wind of the incident and asked about what had happened, I told him. He didn’t say anything more about it, and then he hired you. And that’s my sad tale of woe. Poor little rich girl, eh?”

“That’s a lovely story,” Brian said.