Chapter Twenty-One

WELL, FUCK.

Rosie was still asleep when I woke up, and guilt swiped through me like an angry earthquake. What the fuck was that all about yesterday? One second I was entertaining her friend in one of Manhattan's finest joints, the other I was fighting her on the ottoman while smacking her sweet little ass like it had tried to run over my puppy. Apparently, there was no middle ground when it came to her. Either I tried to pull the type of Hugh Grant shit that wasn't me or I showed her all of me, in all of my fucked-up glory.

Not that this was who I was. But that was the part Nina left behind and I never bothered to fix.

Yesterday drove me insane and right into the arms of the brandy. I wish Rosie hadn't seen it, but at the same time, I was kind of relieved she stuck around after all.

Peeling myself off of the bed and feeling a blooming headache pounding its way out of my temples, I sauntered to the kitchen to make scrambled eggs, bacon, and coffee. Fuck if I knew where all the shit I needed for it was, but I had to show her that I could do this. The whole boyfriend mumbo-jumbo.

What was I even saying? If Vicious could do it, I sure as fuck could, too.

Last night's conversation with Nina played in my head as I cracked the eggs and poured the spicy grains into the coffee machine. She called me from a New York number, so I thought it was one of the many lines from my office and picked up. Totally by accident. Totally a train wreck.

"I'm here," Nina said when I answered the phone. Fuck my life sideways. Not even the complimentary hello.

"You're here where? Hell?" I asked-slash-hoped. That was where the bitch belonged. If she ever came there, she would probably take over and become president.

Nina's flirty laugh assaulted my ears.

"I'm here in New York, silly. I told you I would come for you. You need to meet him."

"Didn't I tell you I don't wanna see his face?" I gritted, walking to the bar and leaving Rosie and her friend, Elle, behind. I'd signaled the bartender to pour me a drink. So she was in town. Of course, she was. Why the fuck not? I gave her the money, after all, right? So why was I even surprised?

"All you have to do is wire me the money and I will leave you alone, Dean."

"Nina." I chuckled, loosening my collar. "I'm not going to give you six hundred K just so I can see him. You're fucking tripping. Babies are usually made by two people, right? Hence, both parents hold the responsibility. You fucked it up," I ground out. "Now you clean that mess."

"I'm thinking of pulling this offer off the table, Dean. You're terribly snarky with me nowadays."

"When have I ever been anything but a complete asshole to you?" I retorted, downing my drink and pointing at the empty glass, asking for another. "Because I would like to turn back time and rectify that if I was ever anything but."

"There was a time." Her sugary voice reminded me. "There was a time when you'd do anything for me."

Worst part? The bitch was not wrong about that one.

"How's your husband?" I changed the subject.

"Still alive," she huffed. "Unfortunately."

At least we could agree on one thing.

"How's your new girl?" It was Nina's turn to ask.

"Why are you asking? Think you could fuck that up for me, too?"

"Now, now." She chuckled. "Come on, Dean. Don't be like that. I'm happy for you. All I want is to secure my future and leave my goddamn awful husband behind. You've got plenty of money. I have what you want. Why are we running around in circles?"

"Because I want you to stay poor and miserable." There. I said it. "And, because, apparently, I don't mind paying the price to keep you that way. Enjoy your filthy motel, Nina. Bye." I hung up and downed three more glasses of liquor.

As I was making breakfast, I heard Rosie shuffling in my bedroom. My heart sank. If I scared her away by being an aggressive asshole, I had no one to blame but myself. Was she buying time to try to avoid me? I made out the sound of her turning on the faucet, flushing the toilet, and wondered how much longer she could postpone facing me.

"Good morning." I heard her gruff voice and turned around from the stovetop to watch her walking around in my dress shirt, her light brown hair a hot mess. She smiled at me, a toothy one from the heart, then turned around when she found her jeans. Her bare ass—I tore her underwear last night—peeked from under my shirt when she bent down to pick them up, and fuck, her skin was red and raw. It was bruised down to her inner thighs, and there were streaks and little cuts from the broken glass I cleaned this morning. I wanted to throw up, but held myself together, turning off the stove and piling scrambled eggs and bacon onto our plates.

"Hungry?" I cleared my throat.

"Famished," she said absent-mindedly, pulling her jeans on. "But I need to go down and put on my percussion vest, take my medicine, all the rock ‘n' roll stuff. My own version of breakfast of champions." She pretended to flex a non-existing bicep.

She wanted to go. Leave. Of course, she got scared. I showed her the ugliest side of me and expected her to just…what? Roll with it? It was too soon. Way too soon. Frankly, when you're my type of fucked up, the best time to show your significant other your inner scars is never o'clock.

"I can bring them to you," I said, hoping to fuck I didn't sound too desperate. She flashed me an odd look.

"You don't know what I need."

Right. I had no fucking clue. Other than that ugly-ass vest. I recognized it from Todos Santos.

"I made you some breakfast." I tilted my chin to the dining table I'd never used. I usually sat at the island when I ate, and even that was rare. In fact, I didn't remember the last time I ate at my apartment. Every time I was there, it was a protein shake and fruit to keep me going until my next meal. I was pussy-whipped to the max here, with a table full of whatever-the-hell I could find in my fridge. I bet Rosie didn't have the greenest clue I'd never done something in my life for anyone. Anyone but her.

Her baby blues scanned the table, a smirk on her face.

"Hey, Dean?"

"What?"

"I'm just going down to get my meds and vest, then I'm coming back up. You know that, right?"

"Of course." I snorted. No. No, I didn't know that.

My face must've given away a peek into my inner shitshow, because she giggled as she tiptoed to me, pressing her lips to mine as she wrapped her arms around me in a hug. I gathered her and squeezed, this time careful not to hurt her.

"Are you enjoying my morning breath?" she droned, exhaling on my face on purpose.

"I want to bottle it and make all my employees wear it as their new perfume," I retorted, kissing the side of her head. "But just in case, I'll buy you a toothbrush so you don't have to go downstairs when we have breakfast. Ever. Bring your meds. Your clothes. Your vest. Do you want a drawer?" I refrained from asking if she wanted my whole fucking closet, although I did think it'd be fun to have her shit around. All those secondhand, tattered shirts and Forever 21 skinny jeans in my nickel hardware, black imperial walk-in closet that was the size of her whole living room.

"Mmmm." She leaned forward for another kiss, and my hands itched to clutch her ass and throw her on the counter for a morning fuck, but she needed her medicine, and I needed to not make new marks on her before the day had started.

"Maybe?" she purred. "I just don't want to take things too fast."

"I think we're taking it a little too slow," I admitted. "What's fast about what we're doing? I want you. Always have. I know who you are. You know who I am." Though, really, she didn't know all parts of me until last night, and my Nina secret was like my dick—big and long and certainly uncomfortable if you weren't ready for it. "This is not two people dating each other for the first time. We have history. Chemistry. And a shit-ton of sentiments toward one another. I'm serious as hell about this," I said, in case a thousand roses, dinner with her friend, and making her breakfast didn't tip her off.

"Sold." She smoothed my unbuttoned shirt, reminding me that I needed to get dressed for work—and shit, I never stayed home beyond eight o'clock in the morning. People at work must have thought I was finally murdered by one of my flings. And I bet Sue was already planning the party memorial. "I guess a drawer would be nice. Thank you."

"Do you have a shift today?" I found it hard to let go of her waist.

"Not at the café." Rosie shook her head. "But I'm going to the children's hospital for a shift later this afternoon."

"Can I visit you there after work?"

She laughed. "I don't think it's a good idea. New parents are a little icky over strangers hanging around their premature newborns."

"Go figure." I rolled my eyes, ignoring the stab in my chest when she said that.

"Yeah. Tomorrow?"

"It's a date." I nodded, watching her walk toward the door, the realization that the decision whether she came back up or not was completely hers hitting me in the gut.

"Oh, and Dean?" she said when she was at the door. I looked up.

"Yeah?"

"I really enjoyed last night. You can let your inner Pierrot come out to play more often if you'd like."

I bit my fist as she closed the door behind her, knowing for a fact she was going to come back up.

Well, fuck indeed.