Finally, he whirls around, giving me the chocolate eyes I crave. “This isn’t me walking away. This is me leaving so I can get my fucking head straight before I say something I’m going to regret.”
With that, he rips my heart from my chest and walks out the door.
I stand frozen as Noah climbs into his car, and somehow, I manage to keep myself under control until his taillights fade into the night. But the moment they disappear, the world crashes down around me. I fall to my knees, the weight of what just happened too much to bear.
My heart breaks and while every part of me wants to blame Mathis and my mother, I have to own some of this too.
Mathis—fucking prick—must’ve called the media. By the time I hit my front door, I’ve had two calls from local reporters wanting a statement on my “love affair with New York’s hottest socialite.”
I hung up both times.
“Nova’s asleep.”
I nod. “Thanks, Mikey.” I shut the front door and kick off my boots.
“Charlotte called me two hours ago and said you left the shop. She wanted to make sure you made it home okay.”
“Charlotte needs to mind her own goddamn business.” Grabbing the remote, I shut off the TV and move into the kitchen, hoping Mikey will catch my drift and get the hell out.
He doesn’t.
“Wanna talk about it?”
Grabbing a beer from the fridge, I twist the top and chug, not stopping until the whole damn thing is drained. All the while, Mike watches silently from the doorway. After I’m finished, I toss the bottle into the trash, grab another from the fridge, and walk back to the living room, stopping in front of Mike.
“What do you want to discuss, Mikey? That the entire world knows who my girlfriend is except me? That she knows everything about my life, and yet I know nothing about hers?” Mathis’s words rotate over and over in my head, taunting me. As much as I don’t want to believe them, I can’t get them out of my fucking head.
Kind of surprising that you’d choose another druggy after Kim.
Druggy? Lennon?
My heart doesn’t want to believe it, but my heart has been wrong before, and I sure as hell don’t want to go down that road again.
I won’t go down that road again—and neither will Nova.
“Or do you want to chat about how, apparently, our dear, sweet Lennon has a past with drugs?”
Mikey’s lips part, and shock—similar to the way I feel about it—crosses his face. His mouth opens and closes several times as he shakes his head.
“Noah, man, I don’t even know what to say. You know Lennon. Do you really believe she’d do drugs? She certainly doesn’t seem to be using now.”
Opening my next beer, I take a swig and shrug. “I don’t know what to think. She lied to me about her family. Why the hell wouldn’t she lie to me about something else?”
“Have you asked her?”
His words light me up like a fucking bottle rocket. “I don’t want to fucking talk to her. I trusted her, Mikey. Gave her every last fucking piece of myself, and she gave me nothing. Nothing!” I yell.
Mikey’s eyes dart down the hall and then back to me. “Quiet, man. I know you’re upset, but you don’t want to scare Nova.”
He’s right. I don’t want to scare her. It’s bad enough that I might be ripping someone she loves from her life.
And this is exactly what I didn’t want to happen.
Stalking toward the front door, I yank it open. “I wanna be alone.”
He nods, walking toward me, stopping when we’re shoulder to shoulder. “Talk to her, Noah. I know you’re hurting, buddy. Maybe she kept some serious shit from you, and I’m on your side, but don’t shut her out without hearing what she has to say.”
“You done?”