Page 214 of Bad Attitude
“Of course not, babe,” Tasha says patiently. “Kurt says you’re coming in tomorrow?”
“Yeah.”
“Then I’ll see you then.”
“Cool.”
“Unless you have somewhere else to be,” she addspointedly.
“Nowhere else to be.”
“Mmm hmm.”
“Meaning?”
“Nothing.”
“Tasha, I really don’t care what Declan does. I’ll see you at the unit.”
“You don’t want to say goodbye to him?”
I was in the process of reaching for the end call button, but my thumb pauses. “What?”
“Well, he’s going to leave, right? He has nowhere to live. Can’t stay here, can he? Where do you think he’ll go?”
“I really don’t care,” I say, enunciating every word, then end the call.
Drop the phone on the floor and pick up my comfort cushion again.
Clutch it to my chest as I stare at the ceiling.
Declan is going to leave.
Good. That’s as it should be. There’s no reason for him to hang around.
Hell, if he even cared about me one iota, hewouldn’tleave. So hedoesn’tcare. That’s good to know. Closure, after a fashion.
Maybe I should rock up and help him pack.
I wonder where he will go. No job, no apartment. Nowhere to live.
It’s really none of my business. Kurt will give him his diamonds—unless Declan leaves before then, because he doesn’t know they’re coming his way.
Still not my problem.
So why am I feeling guilty?
Shit.
No, it’s worse. It’s not just guilt and a misplaced sense of responsibility. I don’twantDeclan to leave.
“Fuck!” I push myself up, throwing the cushion across the room. It bounces off the side of the TV.
I stomp off to bed, even though it’s still early.
That man is the most aggravating, irritating,lyingson-of-a-bitch that ever walked the Earth. He can go to hell without his goddamn diamonds, and I won’t lose a wink of sleep over it.
Forty
