Chapter Three
Heading for the door earned me a glare from the Evol. Either it had very good hearing, or it understood that I was taking away its prey.
It followed us to the exit, bobbing and weaving between unsuspecting people. A few times when I looked back, I noticed it had to fly above heads or low to ground. Someone’s foot came precariously close to stepping on him and I had to fight a grin. Wouldn’t that have saved me a lot of time?
We made it to the exit a few seconds later, and to my dismay, the little bugger almost caught up with us. Aaron pushed the door and held it open for me, and as I walked outside, the Evol tried dodging his way past. I flicked him, sending him flying in a backward spin.
Aaron looked me at me with an eyebrow raised. “Mosquito,” I lied easily. It wasn’t really that far from the truth, I didn’t think. The Evol was a little sucker (though it sucked love and not blood) and it was a pesky flying thing. Maybe they were cousins or something.
I glanced over my shoulder as we walked and he was still fluttering around, trying to find a way out. With any luck, it’d take him a while.
At the end of the block, Aaron stopped abruptly under a streetlight. Dingy, yellow light washed the sidewalk beneath us. He turned to face me, his face impassive. “Why?”
A chill crept down my spine. “Why what?”
“Why did you break up with me?”
We were standing on a corner, under a streetlamp. Besides making us the butts of so many bad jokes, he really wanted to have this talk now? I spread my arms. “You want to have this conversation here?”
“Fine.” He turned a slow circle, his gaze falling on the park across the street. “We’ll go sit over there, then,” he said and stalked off before I could respond.
Defeated, I frowned and followed. This wasn’t going at all as planned. Not that I’d had a plan, but if I’d had, I was sure it wouldn’t have been this. And Aaron definitely wouldn’t have been the guy whose love I was supposed to save.
He stuffed his hands in his pockets and entered the park ahead of me, his walk slow and casual, controlled. Stopping shy of the entrance, I released a deep breath and continued to watch him, trying to ignore the pangs in my heart. Tonight wasn’t supposed to be like this. We were supposed to be together together. We were supposed to be celebrating and having a good time, instead of heading for…I didn’t know what. A fight? A can-we-still-be-friends talk? I didn’t want to be a party to either of those.
I ran my hands through my hair and let out another deep sigh as I pushed myself forward. The wind blew, and a bone-chilling cold sent a shiver down my spine. Unable to stop it, I shuddered. It wasn’t only from the cold, though that seemed to suit my mood. Things were all screwy and I didn’t have any idea how to fix them.
Maybe, just maybe, they weren’t meant to be. Everyone said things happened for a reason, so maybe tonight was one of those things. Maybe our breaking up had been one, too.
By the time I caught up with him, he was already sitting on a swing. I sat down on the free one next to him and, more out of the habit than want, slowly began rocking back and forth.
The silence was thick and closing in on me. Keeping my gaze straight ahead, I said, “What did you want to talk about?”
“I’ve missed you,” he said, his tone soft.
The snort left my mouth before I could even think to stop it. “You what?” My voice was a complete squeak but I didn’t care. I turned slowly, and stared at him openmouthed. “You cannot be serious.” He couldn’t be.
His eyes locked on mine and I couldn’t force myself to look away again. “I am. I miss you.” He sighed. “I’ve missed us.”
“There is no us,” I replied coldly. “Not since you lied and cheated on me.” My lips curved into a sneer. “Or did those pesky details slip your mind?”
“Damnit!” His hands tightened around the swing chains like he hoped to strangle the life out of them. “I’ve never lied to you, and I sure as hell didn’t cheat on you! And for the life of me, I don’t know why you think it.”
The boom in his voice almost made me jump. I’d known Aaron for three years and not once in that time had I ever heard him sound like that. He rarely even raised his voice. “I don’t think it—I know it. Unless, of course, you have an evil twin.”
“How? When did I cheat, Amelia?”
I stopped swinging and set my jaw. “We had plans to go out for the weekend. Then you canceled, claiming you had to go with your sister somewhere. Which, by the way, was all fine and good. But then,” I continued, my tone getting increasingly louder, “when I went to the store, I saw you. Only you weren’t with your sister.”
He shook his head. “I don’t remember that.” All anger died away from his face and voice, and he sounded confused. He looked it, too. I had to give him credit for that. But then, he’d been playing innocent since it happened and I didn’t really expect him to quit now.
“I saw you, Aaron, with my own two eyes! You were with Inez. At the jewelry store. Two weeks ago.” Man, was I playing verbal Clue?
He scrunched his brows together. “Amelia, the only place I went that weekend was to the—” He broke off abruptly, as if some light bulb had just flashed on in his mind. “Oh.”
“Yeah. Oh,” I said, giving him a nasty smile. “Forget that already, too?” I didn’t know what was worse—him lying and cheating on me, or him needing the reminder about it. And for a second, I almost—almost—felt bad for Inez, which ticked me off even more.
His eyes widened so much I thought they’d pop clear out of his skull. Within seconds, he was smiling and doubled over from laughing. “Wait.” He sat up, holding his sides. “That’s what this whole thing is about? Because you saw me and Inez together?”
I frowned. “What the hell is so funny about cheating on me?” He wasn’t helping his case any that was for sure. After I’d seen him, I’d barely resisted the urge to walk straight up to him and punch him. But if he didn’t stop laughing, I was seriously going to rectify that decision.
When tears started rolling from his eyes, I stood up and shoved him. The laugh died as he fell backwards from the swing and landed with a dull thud that sent clouds of dust flying up. I turned and walked away. Stupid, no-good, cheating jerk!
“Amelia, wait!”
I spun around as he ran towards me and as soon as he was within striking range, I shoved him again. “You—you—” I couldn’t find an adequate word for what he was. Shaking my head, I sighed. “Just leave me alone, Aaron. I want to hit you, but I really don’t want to.” Never mind the fact that made no sense. I didn’t care.
“Amelia.” He grabbed my arm. “Amelia—let me explain. I did not cheat on you with Inez, and I didn’t even lie to you.” When I glared, he cleared his throat and muttered, “Okay, technically I did lie, but not about anything important.”
“Oh? And what exactly is your definition of ‘important’?” I asked quietly.
He took a quick step backward when my hands went to fists again. “Just let me explain. Please?”
I crossed my arms over my chest. The first thing he said that I didn’t like, I was out of there. Love be damned; his or mine. “You’ve got two minutes, Aaron. Make it good.”
“Can we sit down? Okay,” he said when I continued to glare, “sitting is a no.” He dragged his hands through his hair. “I did not cheat. On that I never lied. Yes, I was at the jewelry store and yes, Inez was with me, but so was my sister. We met her there; she was already inside.”
I raised my eyebrow. “Okay…?”
His gaze lowered as he reached into his pocket and jiggled change. “I went in there to…” He sucked in a breath and then exhaled it deeply. “I went in there to buy you something.”
What?
I blinked once. Then twice. “Huh? What?”
“I wanted to get you something for our anniversary, and for Valentines Day.” He looked up. “I didn’t know what you would like, so I asked my sister and Inez to go with me. I want
ed to make sure I didn’t buy you something stupid. This,” he said, pulling a velvet box from his pocket. He shoved it at me awkwardly, like it might self-destruct.
I opened my mouth to say something but no sound came out. When I tried again and still no sound emerged, I gave up and looked down, running a finger over the surface of the case. I pulled the lid up. And then I burst into hysterics, laughing and crying at the same time. It was a silver necklace with a pendent. The pendent was…I couldn’t fathom the words. It was a small silver heart. Shooting through the heart was a single arrow, the tip made of a black stone.
Onyx.
My heart leaped and I wasn’t sure my ribs could contain it long. “I’m sorry,” I sobbed, the word bubbling out of nowhere. “I don’t know what to say.”
It was beautiful and ironic. And I didn’t deserve it.
“You should have trusted me.”
The words, spoken so softly, hit me like a lead fist and went straight through my chest to my heart. He was absolutely right. I should have trusted him.
It was a sorry excuse, but because he’d never lied to me before, when I found him in the middle of one I just…went crazy. I turned into one of those chicks I disliked—the jealous ones who never trusted their boyfriends and always thought the worst for absolutely no reason. This would have been avoided—could have been—if I’d just listened or at least given him a chance to explain before I went nutso and broke up with him.
“I know,” I sighed. I looked up, met his gaze and, knowing I had to do it, closed the gift box and handed it back to him. “I don’t deserve it.”
He gave me a crooked smile that made my heart tumble. “No, you probably don’t.” Reaching out, he took my hand and then yanked me forward. “So you’ll just have to spend a lot of time making it up to me, won’t you?” I stared at him, speechless, which only made him laugh. He ran his fingers through my hair and gave me a noisy kiss on the forehead. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. Half a beat passed and then snatched the box back, immediately putting it behind my back and out of reach. “Too late. It’s mine now and if you want it back, you’ll have to pry it from my cold, dead fingers.” Was I romantic or what?
He held me close, his arms wrapping around me, and leaned his face into the side of my neck until I could feel his breath on my skin. “Do you like it?”
Smiling, I said, “Would you help me put it on?”
He leaned back. “I would love to.”
I opened the box and gently pulled the necklace away and handed it to him. He walked behind me and brought the chain over my head as I pulled my hair up. It should have been cool against my skin, but it wasn’t. It was warm. And it felt…right. There were no other words to explain it.
It was perfect. He was perfect. Everything was perfect.
Until I spotted the Evol entering the park fifty feet away.