“It’s no big deal,” he shrugged as he looked out the window.
“Yeah, it kind of is; well, to me, anyway,” I continued. “I didn’t mean to shut you out when you were trying to help me, and I didn’t mean to shut you down after last night.”
“It’s not a big deal, I’ve been through worse,” he mumbled.
“What?”
“Nothing,” he replied.
“I’m just saying, it was silly of me to shut you out when you were only trying to help me.” I was desperately struggling to find a way to explain how important he’d already become to me, and I was making a mess of it. “I like you, Brian.”
“I like you, too, Ava,” he parroted back.
“Are you mocking me?” I asked incredulously.
“Whatever gave you that idea?” he grinned.
“Oh, you are so maddening!” I laughed as I balled up a piece of paper and threw it at him.
“I’m maddening? I’m maddening, you say?” he retorted. “I’ve got nothing on you, lady.”
“Oh! Is that right?” I laughed harder as I wadded up another piece of paper and threw it at him.
“Hey, hey, hey! Watch it, would ya?” he laughed as he pitched the paper ball back at me.
“Listen —” I began and was interrupted by the sound of my phone ringing in my purse. I quickly dug it out and looked at the screen. I didn’t recognize the number, but something told me to answer it, so I did. “Hello?”
“Are you alone?” the voice on the other end slithered into my ear, causing me to almost drop the phone.
“I’m—” I stammered as I looked across the room at Brian. He tipped his head in confusion, and then seeing the terrified look on my face, mouthed a single word, Dominic? I nodded frantically as I cont
inued to listen.
“Why are you dating that meathead, Ava?” he demanded. “You know that those kinds of guys are not at all your type. They can’t do the things I can do for you.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Dominic?” I said as the anger rose in my chest. “It’s none of your business!”
“Oh, but it is my business,” he hissed. “Everything about you is my business, if I’m going to get you back. Tell me, Kitten, why do you let such a boring gym rat follow you around? What’s he got that I don’t?”
“Well, manners and a brain, for one!” I shouted. The laughter that came from the other end of the line pissed me off, but Brian motioned to me to cool down while he texted into headquarters to have them figure out where the call was coming from.
“You’re hilarious, Kitten; absolutely hilarious!” he laughed. “That frat boy has nothing that I couldn’t give you 10 times over, and yet, you keep him around. Don’t you remember how our life used to be? How you spent your days and nights in luxury and wanted for nothing? Now you’re trapped in a tiny little dorm room with a guy who probably makes minimum wage bagging groceries. How far you’ve fallen.”
“Listen, you jerk, stop calling me that,” I growled in to the phone. “He’s a hundred times the man you could ever hope to be, so shut the hell up and leave me alone! Don’t you get it, Dominic? We are done! I don’t want you; not now, and not ever! Leave. Me. Alone!”
“I told you, darling,” he purred. “I will never leave you alone. You and I are meant to be together, and I won’t allow that steroid-sipping numbskull to get in our way. I will get rid of him; by any means necessary.”
“Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!” I screamed into the phone as Dominic’s sinister voice dragged me back to a place I was sure I’d left long ago. “Leave me alone! Leave me alone! Leave me alone! Leave me alone!”
Brian frantically gestured for me not to hang up, but I was so far beyond angry that I didn’t see him until it was too late and I’d already slammed the phone down on the couch. I wrapped my arms around my upper body and tried to hold back the tears as I sat shaking and tried to remember to breathe. Am I ever going to be free of him? Am I ever going to feel safe again?
*****
“Are you okay?” Brian asked as he frowned at his phone. I hadn’t kept Dominic on the line long enough to give them a good idea of where he was calling from, but in my mind, that was the least of our problems.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I sighed. “But you might want to rethink this whole bodyguard thing. He’s going to go after you, you know.”
“Whatever,” he rolled his eyes and waved me off.