Total pages in book: 218
Estimated words: 209489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1047(@200wpm)___ 838(@250wpm)___ 698(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 209489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1047(@200wpm)___ 838(@250wpm)___ 698(@300wpm)
“I don’t need you to buy anything for me,” he said in a tone I hadn’t heard in some time.
One of my eyes went squinty. “Good, I’m glad I didn’t call then,” I told him a little sarcastically.
Some way, somehow, his face went even more crabby. “You shouldn’t have been gone all day.”
“No, I shouldn’t have, but I had a lot of things to buy. I don’t have anything but the clothes I took from the first cabin and what you let me borrow, and I still wasn’t able to buy a phone. I need to order a replacement through my insurance and figure out how to get another ID and access to my bank account,” I told him in a rush. “Do you think I can borrow someone’s credit card so I can order a phone? If I can get to a laptop, I can transfer money over.”
He’d slowly started narrowing his eyes while I talked, and alarm bells went off in my head, but I ignored them.
At least I did until he opened his mouth a moment later.
“I’m not buying you a cell phone.”
I blinked. “Did I ask you to?” And hadn’t I literally just said I needed to order one from my insurance? Pretty sure I’d said I would pay him back too.
“I want to make sure your expectations are in the right place.”
I opened my mouth, then gritted my teeth.
“You can live here until we sort things out, and I won’t let you be harmed, but I’m not here to take care of you,” Alex griped, sounding like he meant every word.
Okay, I was pretty sure he had implied just that at some point, but it wasn’t like I’d seriously been about to hold him to it. Give me fucking a break. It was insulting, honestly, after everything.
“Did I tell you I needed you to take care of me? I wouldn’t ask you to spot me money if all my stuff wasn’t gone. I’ll sort out getting access to my bank, okay? I’m good for everything. I can sign an IOU if it’ll make you feel better.” What the hell had crawled up his ass and died? He’d been in a bad mood when he’d been at my house but not this bad. He’d been a little grumpy since but not anything I couldn’t handle. It had even grown on me.
I’d had the nerve to kind of miss him today, and now that pissed me off.
“Good. Sort it out sooner than later,” he grumbled.
I bit my bottom lip for a moment and told myself to let it go.
Just let it go. He was in a bad mood, and there was no point in making it worse. I hadn’t done shit to cause it.
But…
I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t. Just because he’d had his moments of being so nice to me didn’t mean he got a free pass to being an extra jerk.
But didn’t friends talk to each other when they were mad? Didn’t friends try to understand when something was clearly wrong? I figured they did.
And just because he was being a butthole didn’t mean I had to come at him like a wrecking ball right back.
Even if I really wanted to.
“I told you that, if I did something to irritate you, to tell me. I’m not a mind reader. You said I could stay here,” I reminded him, since he’d obviously forgotten, trying to use a borderline polite voice. “I didn’t ask.”
I instantly knew that my “nice” voice hadn’t done shit.
Alex’s head cocked to the side at the same time his jaw went tight. “No, you didn’t ask, but you took me up on it immediately.”
Was this son of a bitch serious? “Is that really what you think?” I asked him, not fucking believing this shit.
He glowered as he shrugged. “You did what you had to do to help yourself.”
I wanted to jab him in the throat, I really did. “Okay, sure. To an extent, yes, but I didn’t ask to be put into this whole situation. I didn’t shoot you down from the sky and catch you or lock you up in a cage. I could have easily gone the rest of my life never meeting you, and that would have been exactly how I liked my life.” Quiet and uncomplicated.
He better not even get me started on it being his grandma’s fault—or whoever the hell it was—that wanted him to “get me” or “meet me” or whatever the hell it had been.
He straightened off the doorframe and uncrossed his arms, looking like… like such a good-looking shithead that needed my foot up his tight ass. Alexander watched me for such a long time that when he finally shook his head, I knew I definitely wasn’t going to like the rest of this conversation even though I wasn’t in the wrong. I sure as shit wasn’t going to let him make me feel bad. He had offered. He could have left me. If he was changing his mind now….