The Rival Roomies Page 20

  “How was work?” She drops her bag on the floor.

  “Fine.”

  “Fine?” She crosses her arms and pins me with a stare.

  “Yeah. Fine.”

  “Showered and changed already?”

  I can’t help but feel like this is an interrogation. “It was a long day and I needed to clear my head.”

  “Or clean off the smell?”

  “What?” I walk toward her.

  “Put on a shirt. I can’t think with you looking like that.”

  “I’m not doing anything until you explain to me why you’ve been crying and what has you so riled up.”

  She plops down on the couch and tosses a pair of panties onto the coffee table. Panties that look similar to the pair Nell put in my desk only weeks ago that I threw away. Tell me that woman isn’t up to her old tricks again.

  I squeeze my eyes shut. “Where did you—”

  “Are they hers?”

  “Yes, probably but—”

  “Were you with her tonight?”

  My eyes snap open. “No.” I sit next to her. “I told you I stopped that when you entered my life again. She left those in there on her own accord.”

  “It’s coincidental, right? That you didn’t show up tonight. Said you had to work late. I find a pair of panties in your drawer with a note from the woman you used to fuck saying that you know where to find her. Tell me how this doesn’t add up to what it’s equated to in my head.” She heads into the kitchen.

  “It might look that way, but that’s not what happened tonight.” I follow her, my temper simmering.

  She grabs a glass and pours herself a triple scotch. She’s going to spit it out. She’s not a fan of hard alcohol.

  “Then enlighten me. Why was work so much more important than Ryder and me tonight?” She sips it then turns and spits it into the sink.

  I shake my head and grab a bottle of white wine from the fridge, but she snatches the bottle from my hand and pours it down her throat without a glass.

  “Well, if you must know, I was running late, but I got to the field right before kickoff.”

  The bottle drops from her mouth, hanging from her hand at her side.

  “I searched the bleachers and there you were—all cozy with your ex.”

  “We were talking. I told you he got engaged.”

  “You were sharing a blanket and laughing at whatever stupid thing he said.”

  “So you left?” she asks.

  “I didn’t like it.”

  “That’s so juvenile. What are you, a jealous sixteen-year-old?”

  I down the rest of my drink and grab the bottle of scotch. “I don’t trust him.”

  “You don’t trust me.”

  “And you don’t trust me.” If I haven’t convinced her over the past couple of months how much she means to me, I don’t know how I ever could.

  “I—”

  “What? You found a pair of panties from a woman who’s trying to get me to sleep with her. There’s no proof I was sleeping with her. I told you I was at work because I was embarrassed by how it cut me to the quick, watching you with him. He’s stolen you from me twice now. Who’s to say he won’t do it again?”

  Her shoulders slump and she steps back. “He didn’t steal me from you. You pushed me away and then I got pregnant.”

  “I told you not to marry him. That you didn’t need him.” My eyes narrow at her.

  “And who was going to help me? You? Mister ‘I’m not ready yet but give me a few years to conquer the world and then we can be a couple’? I was young, with a shattered career, and pregnant. My parents were embarrassed enough as it was. Could you imagine what it would do to them if I hadn’t married him?”

  “Look at what it did to us.” I pour scotch into my glass then down a healthy amount, desperate for anything to relieve this clawing pain in my chest. We’re right back where we always are. “All that has nothing to do with the fact that you thought I was fucking around on you. I told you I didn’t want the annulment. I’ve been honest about my feelings for you.”

  “You took the ring with you this morning. You didn’t call me all day. You haven’t repeated the ‘I love you’ since the night Ryder returned. You didn’t even take me on the counter this morning when I offered myself to you.”

  I run a hand through my hair and take another swig of scotch. It’s time to lay everything out for her. “I didn’t call you because in order to leave early, I had to work every minute of the day. I didn’t want to disappoint you. I worked all day with a half-hard dick because I didn’t sleep with you this morning only because again, I had work to finish so I could be there for you tonight. I’m scared to tell you how much I love you because I don’t want to scare you away and because I’m pretty sure I care more than you do. And lastly, I took the ring because I bought you that ring last summer. I was going to ask you to be my wife that morning when Max showed up!”

  She’s silent, wrapping her brain about everything I just said. “But you said you hated the ring. You asked me to take it off before we had sex. I figured—”

  “Because I only ever wanted you to wear it when it was real. When I had the jeweler design the ring, it was meant to symbolize that we’d finally live our lives together. I knew you’d have to have the ring for my cousin’s wedding, but I hated looking at it knowing that it wasn’t a promise of our future, it was a promise of our end.”

  “Dom,” she sighs and steps forward, but I put up my hand.

  “Don’t.”

  She stops, tears in her eyes. “All we do is hurt one another. I hurt you.”

  “I’m fine. I’ll be fine.”

  “We’ll figure this out.” She touches my hand, but I pull back.

  “No, we won’t. Neither one of us will trust the other long term.”

  “That’s not true. I had no idea you were going to propose. I was mad that you didn’t fight for me. Why didn’t you fight for me then?”

  I stare at her. “Because you had a family. And a son who deserved to have his parents back together if it was possible. I couldn’t take that away from Ryder.”

  “But you have to know it’s always been you, Dom. Always.”

  I press my hand to her cheek. “And it’s always been you, but we’re no good for one another. Our love was tainted from the moment I let you go, and you ran into Max’s arms. I don’t see how we can ever get back there.”

  “Isn’t it worth a try?” she says, stepping closer, a lone tear running down her cheek.

  “I’m not sure anymore.”

  She inhales a deep breath, steps away from my touch, and turns on her heels. Grabbing her purse, she pulls out a stack of papers and tosses them on the breakfast island before swinging the purse over her shoulder. “Fine, have it your way… again.”

  I have no fight left in me to stop her, so I let her leave and slam the door, acting as her final goodbye. I walk right by the annulment papers. Go figure she had another set printed and ready to go at a moment’s notice. She wants me to fight for her? Yeah, well, she should try the same sometime.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Valentina

  * * *

  “Congratulations!” I said, coming up to Dom at the small graduation party his parents were having for him. “You’re a college graduate.”

  “For about a millisecond until my job starts, and then there’s graduate school in the fall.”

  “Always a man with a plan.” I smiled at him. We’d been on and off all through college. I figured graduation was a good time for us to figure out a way to be together permanently.

  “Without a plan, we’ll be poor.”

  Dom talked about our future a lot. How we’d get married at thirty, kids at thirty-two, once my dancing career was drying up. We’d stay in Manhattan and raise our kids in the city. Close enough to both sets of grandparents that we could visit, but far enough away to have our own lives. But as much as he liked to boost me up with hopes of a future, he was always quick to take
away that hope with details of whatever his next plan was.

  “What do you want to do?” I ask.

  “Let’s go eat. I have something to talk to you about.”

  “What about the party?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “I’ve said hello to everyone. No one will notice if we slip out for a bit.”

  We headed to the diner we often went to pig out after finals or on our rare nights out. He slid in across from me and we each ordered fries and shakes, his strawberry and mine chocolate.

  “Just spit it out.” I wasn’t going to play his game of waiting until the end of the night when he’d drop something huge on me then go home.

  “Graduate school is intense. I barely had time to see you during undergraduate. Not to mention my job. We have a plan and I think we should put us on pause until I finish. Without you as a distraction, I’ll take an extra course load and graduate sooner than—”

  “And then what? You tell me you have to work a few years? By pushing your life off, you’re pushing mine too. I don’t understand why we can’t be together while you accomplish everything you want to.”

  “Because I’d rather be with you than study. It’s distracting. Only because you’re so hot.” He smirked, but I didn’t return his smile.

  “And what if I find someone else?”

  He leaned back, a perplexed look on his face. He hadn’t thought about that. Should I join the nunnery while he became the success he wanted to? “Do you want to find someone else?”

  “No. But I’m sick of spending Friday and Saturday nights watching you study or saying you have a paper due and we’ll have to postpone whatever plans. I’ve been out with Lulu and Vinny more than you recently.”

  He sighed and mulled over my words. I thought he was changing his mind. That he’d pick up his head, grab my hand, and say I was right. He was being stupid. How could he decide to put me on a shelf until the perfect moment arrived?

  But he didn’t. “I know we’re sacrificing a lot, but the payoff will be worth it. I promise.” He reached for my hand, but I slid it off the table and tucked it in my lap. “Don’t do this, Val.”

  “Why is being successful so important to you?”

  He blew out a breath. We each thanked the waitress when she set our fries and milkshakes in front of us.

  “Well?” I prodded.

  “I don’t know. It just is. I want to have money. Look how hard our parents work for almost nothing. I want to have savings and not sit with my wife at the dining room table, wondering how we’re going to pay for the air conditioning that just quit. I want to look my kids in the eye and say I’ve got you covered for college. I want to be able to travel with my family and spoil my wife like she should be.”

  His reasons held weight. I’d seen my parents struggle for years. Witnessed Ma’s tears because she couldn’t afford to go visit her family in Italy. I understood the reasons for him wanting to be financially secure. But I didn’t understand why we couldn’t do it together.

  “If you love me, why are you so willing to set me aside and chance losing me?”

  He took a straw out of the holder and put it in my milkshake. I wanted to stab him with it. Tell him not to do nice things for me when he was in the process of breaking my heart.

  “Because I trust that you love me as much as I love you. I trust that we’re meant to be together. Forever.”

  I smiled because he’d been so forthcoming with his feelings. Sometimes he was better at it than me. But I was bitter and mad that he’d risk losing me and our future over money. Money couldn’t buy happiness.

  “Have it your way, Dom.” I picked up my milkshake and poured it into his lap. “Have a nice life.”

  I walked out of the diner. He didn’t chase me, and I didn’t stop to second-guess myself. I didn’t see him until six months later when I had to tell him I was pregnant with Ryder after spending one night with Max.

  * * *

  I slid out of the taxi with my arms wrapped around myself, the anger from that moment resurfacing. In my condo, I sit on the couch and tell myself that this is for the best. Dom doesn’t cherish anything but the numbers in his bank account. That sweet kid who promised me the moon and stars is now a bitter man who holds grudges for the consequences of his own decisions.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Dominic

  * * *

  Two weeks later and I’d like to say my life is better than it was with Val in it, but it’s not. Thoughts of her consume me, but that’s no surprise. She’s not been mine more than she’s been mine over the years. I should be used to it by now.

  “The final paperwork is here.” Ash sets the envelope on my desk. “You’re officially single again.”

  “Thanks.” I nod toward my inbox, not taking my fingers off the keys.

  “Can I just say—”

  “No. I know you’re Team Val.”

  “But—”

  I stop and lean back in my chair. “It’s over. We’re not good for one another.”

  “Are you sure about that? Because you’re always the happiest when she’s in your life.”

  “And look at me when she runs out of my life.”

  Ash sighs. “The two of you need a big long talk.”

  “We had one of those and now we have these.” I pick up the envelope and drop it into the trash basket.

  “Hey, Ash!” Carm bursts into my office with Enzo right behind him. Carm gives Ash a quick hug. “I’m assuming the dickhead here has time for us?”

  “He has all the time you want.” Ash smiles and leaves, waving to Enzo.

  My brothers each take a chair.

  “You didn’t rock, paper, scissors on who was going to talk to me, did you?” I eye Enzo since he always loses.

  “We figured this would take both of us,” Enzo says.

  “You’re being a jackass,” Carm says.

  “You don’t have to concern yourself with it.” I glance at the clock. “It’s Thursday. Why aren’t you at the Trading Post?”

  “We came to pick you up and we might hijack the taxi to take us to Val’s.”

  “I invited Blanca.” I stand, grabbing my jacket, and put it on.

  “You what? Why?” Carm says with a look of horror.

  “Because she’s a Mancini and she’s old enough to be at our Thursday lunches.” I open my office door and signal for them to leave.

  “I can’t talk about Bella and me screwing in front of Blanca, and I sure as hell don’t want to hear about her sex life.”

  “Good, then I did us all a favor,” I say and follow them out the door.

  “Relax. It’s Blanca. It’s only fair,” Enzo says.

  Twenty minutes later, we’re at the restaurant. Blanca’s already arrived and has her drink. She’s not at our usual table, but that’s okay. We can fill her in on what we usually do.

  “I thought you assholes stood me up. Like some lame initiation thing,” she says.

  “Sorry.” I slide into the booth next to her. “They tried to ambush me at my office.”

  She raises her hand for a high five, which Carm and Enzo return. “Seriously, you need to clear up this thing with Val. She’s miserable.”

  I spin in Blanca’s direction. “You saw her?”

  She points at me. “See? That right there. That face says you need to stop this charade and just figure it out. You’re perfect together.”

  “You lied?” Enzo asks, smirking.

  Blanca shrugs and nods.

  Enzo high-fives her. “Well played.”

  The waitress comes over and we all order.

  As soon as she’s stepped away from the table, Blanca starts in on me again. “Seriously though, you love her. Why are you doing this to yourself and her?”

  “I feel like I’m on repeat. We’re not good together.” I push a hand through my hair, sick of this line of conversation.

  “Give it another try,” Carm says.

  “I fuck it up with her every time. I stupidly let her go when we were
young and lived thirteen years without her. Just when I had her back, I let her go again to give her a second chance with her ex. And this time…”

  “You’re letting her go. It’s on you. You’re not fighting to keep her. For someone so smart, how do you not learn from your mistakes?” Blanca throws her hands into the air, apparently exasperated.

  The boys let her take the lead, which makes me wonder if they actually did the rock, paper, scissors thing.

  “It’s too late,” I grumble, looking around for the waitress and wondering where my drink is.

  “I get it. It’s scary to put yourself out there. And I’ve never met anyone worth it but look at these two.” She motions to Carm and Enzo. “Look how happy they are.”

  They both put on exaggerated grins.

  “I’m happy.”

  “You’re not happy,” all three say in unison.

  “You were when you were with Val.” Blanca pulls out her phone and her thumbs run over the screen until she thrusts it in my direction. “Look at these fools in love.”

  I stare at a picture from Luca’s wedding. Val in my arms, smiling, and the two of us looking at one another. I was happy. Happy to have her back in my arms where I always thought she belonged.

  “Cut the bullshit and go get her back,” Carm says.

  “She’ll never take me. I accused her of wanting Max back. I didn’t show up at Ryder’s game. She doesn’t think I believe in us.”

  “Funny you should mention Ryder.” Blanca looks away from the table.

  All three of them get up and head over to the bar. Ryder turns around on a bar stool then makes his way over and sits down across from me.

  “Shit, my siblings schooled me.”

  He nods. “They did.”

  “Does your mom know you’re here?”

  He shakes his head.

  “You shouldn’t be involved in this.”

  “I reached out to Blanca on Instagram.” He stares at the table for a minute then looks at me. “I get that I have no idea what your history is with my mom. I know there’s something, because my parents fought about you a lot. My mom has a shoebox on the top shelf of her closet, filled with pictures of the two of you. She has letters and notes that you guys wrote to each other in high school. There was a time I wished my parents could stay married, but not now. They’re not the ones who should be together. That’s you and her. If it’s about me, I’m going to college in two years.”