He stepped back and to the side but kept his eyes locked to her.
“Now get the fuck outta my house and do not ever come back. We are done, Mia.”
She didn’t move an inch, not even her gaze from his.
“I love you,” she whispered.
The last five years, he’d lived for her to say those words.
Now they meant nothing.
He shook his head.
She had no clue.
“Love is facing head on somethin’ that threatens it and not bending, sure as fuck not breaking, when that thing leans on you to let go. You don’t have that. In your way, I know you loved me. My way of lovin’ you was just as fucked up. We screwed that up so badly, there’s no goin’ back. At this point, the best we got is not jackin’ our shit again with someone else. I got every intention of not makin’ that same mistake twice with what I’m starting with a good woman who means somethin’ to me. I’m pissed as hell at you right now, but I hope you find you got it in you to do the same with your man. The one thing I’m certain about is that there’s nothin’ left between you and me.”
“I refuse to believe you mean that,” she replied earnestly.
He stared at her.
Yeah, she had no clue.
And at that point, he had no options, so he put his hands on his hips as he looked to the floor.
“Merry,” she called.
He lifted his head. “Get out.”
“But…Merry—”
He leaned her way and clipped, “Get…the fuck…out.”
She studied him, and when his body shifted, she said quickly, “Maybe we should find a time to talk when we’ve both calmed down.”
“Fuckin’ shit,” he muttered and moved, taking the only option she was giving him.
He went to his jacket and shrugged it on. He grabbed his phone, shoved it in his pocket, and nabbed his keys.
He then went to the door and looked back to his ex-wife, who had only moved a few feet from the wall.
“I’m goin’ out,” he shared. “I don’t got much I give a shit about, though it’d suck havin’ to buy a new TV. Now you can either get out so I can lock up and keep that TV, or you can stay until you finally catch my drift. All I ask is you close the door. If you’re here when I come back, I’ll go to a hotel. What I am not gonna do is spend more time with you. You got five seconds. What’s it gonna be?”
“Merry, you can’t just…”
She kept talking, but Garrett didn’t listen.
He counted to five.
Then he walked out, closing the door behind him while Mia was still talking.
* * * * *
Garrett got fast food for dinner, trying to calm down before he hit J&J’s.
He would find he didn’t succeed when he opened the door, his eyes going behind the bar to see Cher there with Jack. She took one look at him and her face shifted from the grin that was starting into a freeze.
She began walking down the bar.
He moved in, taking it in.
It was relatively early on a Saturday night, but the place was in full swing. Darryl was there and Dee was working the floor.
Jack and Cher had the bar.
But the stools at the end were all empty, waiting for the men who usually claimed them. None of them were there mostly because all of them had women they preferred to be with on a Saturday night, so they wouldn’t be at a bar unless their women were with them.
Except Merry.
Like Colt, his woman worked there.
He hit a stool and she was right in front of him.
He barely had his ass on the seat before she remarked, “I’d say this was a nice surprise except you look like you wanna kill somebody.”
“Mia’s heard about us.”
She stared at him before she turned and reached to the top-shelf whisky.
Yeah, they knew each other. This wasn’t just starting out. They’d laid the foundation. They’d just added fucking fantastic sex and expensive dinners and him getting more of Cher’s smart mouth.
And her sweet.
“Baby, aim lower. I got a taste for the good stuff, but my budget’s bein’ revised,” he said.
He saw her body jolt, she gave him a look over her shoulder, then she reached lower.
As she poured him his drink, he took in her tight red top, her ass in her jeans, and her high heels. Finally, he felt himself calming.
“Good news is, the talk me and her had to have is done,” he shared.
She set the bottle aside and leaned in to her forearms. “Yeah?”
“Not the way I wanted it to go,” he said.
When he took a sip of whisky and didn’t elucidate, she prompted, “Talk to me, gorgeous.”
Garrett shrugged slightly.
“Said what I had to say,” he told her. “Seein’ as she came in pissed as all hell, thinkin’ me goin’ out with you was me testin’ her, not sure she heard. She said a few words. I returned a fuckuva lot more. Not thinkin’ she got me seein’ as I told her to get her ass out, but she didn’t leave, so I did. She might still be at my place. Or, alternately, she left, leavin’ my pad wide open and I’ll get home later to find I need to go out and buy a new TV.”
As he spoke, he watched her eyes get big, and when he was done, she asked, “You left her there?”
“Yeah. Closed the door on her, she was still talkin’.”
“Holy shit,” she whispered.
“She wouldn’t leave and I was done, so I had no choice.”