Page 88 of Scoring Destiny

“Treat you—” He turns to me, brows knitted together. “What are you talking about? You and Shandy are planning to go into business together and⁠—”

“Oh, no, you don’t get to do that!” I snap. “Whether that’s true or not, you didn’t know about it, and you showed up here ready to prove something to your ex. At my expense.”

He pauses. “What?”

“Do you deny it?”

“Deny what?” He looks genuinely confused.

“In all the time I’ve worked here, you’ve never come to visit other than the one day everyone brought family to meet the cast and crew. Not only that, you show up and immediately start making out with me. Something else you’ve never done in public!”

“I missed you!” he snaps. “Is being horny a crime?”

“No, but using me as a fuck toy to give your ex a close-up and personal view of how much you’re over her was humiliating!”

He stares at me.

I stare back.

The car behind us honks.

Slowly, I lift my foot off the brake and am mortified that there are tears in my eyes. And I still have a death grip on the steering wheel.

Because he didn’t deny it.

I was holding out hope that he would swear up and down that he didn’t do such a thing, but he didn’t.

And that hurts even more than my initial realization.

“That isn’t…” He clears his throat and then reaches for my hand, but I continue to hold on to the steering wheel like a lifeline.

“Maya, that’s not what happened.” He says the words but there isn’t an iota of conviction in them.

“That’s not true,” I whisper. “Or you wouldn’t have taken a full thirty seconds to answer me.”

“It’s true that there was a tiny bit of truth to what you said, but it wasn’t like that in my head.”

“No?” A tear slides down my cheek and I swipe at it angrily. “What was it like?”

“I missed you, wanted to see you. I had no idea if Shandy would be around or not. In the back of my mind, I guess there was a part of me who thought it would be fitting if Shandy and Jake saw us together, but I swear to you, honey—there is no universe where I would have done what we did if I knew she was listening.”

“I don’t believe you,” I whisper, as more tears slip down my cheeks.

“Please don’t cry, baby.” This time he grips my hand and doesn’t allow me to take it away. “I don’t know what I can do to convince you, but I never would have let anyone listen to us like that.”

“You did at the party.”

“With your permission! I would never do it without asking you.”

I pull in a shaky breath, trying to focus on the road.

“Baby, will you pull over? Please? You’re crying and it’s starting to rain. It’s not safe. Please?”

He’s right, and there’s a gas station just up on the right, so I pull in and park in one of the spots off to the side.

“Maya. Look at me.” He waits, still hanging on to my hand a little harder than I like, and I finally lift my head.

“I wouldn’t do that. It was West’s idea to come to the set—you can ask him! Call him now if you want. I’m no saint, and yes, somewhere deep down I wanted Shandy to see us together. But not like that. Never like that. Not with you, not even with a woman I’m just hooking up with. That’s not the kind of man I am. I need you to believe that.”