At eleven at night. The roads were less busy when it was late. She wanted to catch him at home. He was either gone out of town for business and he’d lost his phone and her number, or he was avoiding her. It was easier to do that when a person was busy during the day. It was much harder at night.
As Teela pulled up to Ross’ house, she cut the lights and parked by the curb. His SUV wasn’t in the driveway, but then again, he probably wouldn’t park outside when he had a perfectly usable two car garage. She was tempted to go and try the man door and look inside, but she was worried about tripping some security alarm or something, so she skipped out on the break and enter urges and went straight to the front door.
The house was quiet. The whole neighborhood was quiet, but then again it was just about the middle of the night.
Now that she’d driven all the way, she felt silly. It was probably nothing. The house was dark. Ross probably had been called away on some emergency. Maybe he had lost his phone or couldn’t use it and couldn’t remember her number. It was possible.
Teela sucked in a breath and debated about turning back around, getting in her car, and going back home. She hesitated. She turned and faced the opposite direction. She stared her car down. Finally, she sighed and whirled all at once and before she could talk herself out of it, she rang the bell.
And again. And again. And a fourth time for good measure. A fifth, because she really, truly, needed to make sure Ross wasn’t there.
Just when she was cursing herself out for being silly and paranoid and all sorts of insecure, a light snapped on in the hall and Ross was there, dressed in a pair of faded jeans and a black t-shirt. The image was skewed by the glass in the door, but she didn’t need to see him in full detail to understand that his t-shirt was too tight in the sleeves and strained across the chest and his jeans were worn in select spots that made select spots of hers tingle, or that they hung on his hips just right.
He hesitated, but when she rang the bell again, he decided she wasn’t going away.
When he pulled open the door, he had a pissed off look on his face. His features were pinched, his lips thinned out, his jaw clenched, his nostrils flaring slightly when he breathed. Those eyes she once thought were warm and full of life were flat and hard and cold. Just like when she’d first met him, and she didn’t know that there was a different Ross hiding underneath the asshole layers.
“What the hell?” Teela breathed. “Where have you been? Why haven’t you answered your calls or your texts? I’ve been worried about you! It’s been ten days!”
Ross’ knuckles whitened on the door, where he held it open only a few inches. “I knew you’d turn up here sooner or later. Honestly, I was hoping it would be later, but I guess it doesn’t matter.”
“What doesn’t matter?” Teela asked, trying to keep the wounded sound out of her voice.
“This. Us.” Ross waved a hand, indicating her. “I know what this is. I’ve known from the start, but I guess I tricked myself into thinking that maybe for once there was a single genuine person out there. Don’t worry, I don’t blame you. I’m the stupid one. The one who falls for this shit every single time.”
“What- what are you talking about?”
“You. Your friend. I came to your condo. I was going to surprise you and take you out, but I guess you were already busy. I know why she did it. Why she picked my sample. I know what your plans were. You wanted to be set for life, and this was the best way to do it. This way you didn’t even have to spread your legs for me.”
Teela’s heart sunk. She was so shocked all she could stammer out were words she wished she could snatch right back. “I- what? If that’s true, then what we were doing? Why would I sleep with you if I didn’t have to?”
“I don’t know. Just another part of your plan. Get me willing. Make me think… it doesn’t matter. You know what, if you wanted the money, you could have just asked for it. You didn’t have to whore yourself out for it. I’d already changed my mind. You didn’t need to go that extra step.”
“Ross- if you heard that, what Amy said, then you must have heard me telling her I couldn’t believe she’d do something like that! I was mad at her! I couldn’t believe that she’d think I wasn’t capable of raising a child by myself. I- I made her leave. She… I didn’t have any part of that. I didn’t know! That should have been pretty obvious.”