Page 70 of Praised
CHAPTER23
FLYNN
I was gettingready for bed when someone knocked at my front door. I knew it wasn’t any of my friends because they would have barged right on it with no preamble. I hadn’t ordered food and I didn’t have plans with Rose, so finding him on my porch just shy of ten on a Sunday night caught me a little by surprise.
“Is everything okay?” I asked in lieu of a greeting.
It was out of character for him to just show up, and I worried he was going to try and break up with me again.
“Did you know Grayson was coming to my work?” he asked.
“I did.”
“Did you ask him to?”
Dragging my tongue across the front of my teeth, I shook my head. I stepped out of the way and gestured for him to come inside, which he did. That had to be a good sign, right? Rose toed off his dirty work sneakers and kicked them into place in the corner, dumping his phone, wallet, and keys on top of them.
“Did he say something stupid?” I asked
Rose exhaled the beginnings of a laugh. “He does talk a lot, doesn’t he?”
“He has his moments, but he means well.”
Rose nodded and closed my front door behind him, then reached for my hand. His palm was cool and clammy, his fingers thin against my own. He led me into the living room and sat us both down on the couch, turning our bodies so our knees bumped together.
He looked worried, a stray curl loose across his forehead. I reached up to push it back into the tangle on top of his head, and Rose closed his eyes with a quiet—if not resigned—sigh.
“I haven’t been fair to you,” he whispered.
“I think we had this conversation the last time you tried to break up with me.”
I fucking knew it.
“We need to have it again,” he said, taking both of my hands. “Because I still haven’t been fair to you.”
“You’re giving me a chance,” I reminded him. “Which is all I asked for.”
“It’s not, though.”
I never would have admitted it out loud, but I was scared to open my mouth lest I start begging and pleading him to change course.
“What are you saying?” I finally asked.
“I don’t want to do thirty days with you.” Rose caught my stare and held it, his eyes looking anything but sad. I hadn’t imagined him to be so heartless, so jovial at the prospect of breaking my heart. “And I don’t think that’s what you want from me either.”
“I’ll take it,” I rasped, fingers tightening around his.
“Do you remember the night we met?”
I didn’t imagine there would come a day when I ever didn’t remember the night I met Rose. From my failed attempts with Frankie to the dare that had absolutely changed the course of my life. I’d always remember the way Rose’s body felt against mine, his tongue in my mouth and his legs around my waist. And later still, taking him back to that hotel and letting him rut into me the way he had. There were a thousand memories wrapped up in those few hours and I’d never forget them for the rest of my life.
But I didn’t want to say all that if he was only going to walk away from me, so instead I told him, “Yes.”
He nodded, straightening his shoulders and turning up his chin. It was a pose I’d seen on Grayson more than once and I fought back the urge to laugh at the comparison between the two. What I would give to have been a fly on the wall for whatever Grayson had said to him that made him realize he didn’t want to be with me anymore.
I couldn’t be mad at Grayson, though. Even if my first instinct was to drive over to Rob’s and throw Grayson out of a window. If anything, he’d expedited the inevitable. Better to break my heart now and not later.
“I told you I wouldn’t settle for less than I deserve,” Rose went on.
