CHAPTER 24

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Dani

When I walked into the apartment, Maria was standing in the kitchen—dripping wet—holding a bath towel around herself. “There you are.” She placed her phone down on the counter.

I peeled off my coat, tossed it over the side of one of the kitchen chairs, and gave her my strongest smile. “Here I am.”

On the counter, there was a brown paper bag with my name written across the side of it. She looked down at it and smiled. “Looks like you whipped Eros into shape real quick. He’s baking for you and everything.”

“Baking for me?” I asked, grabbing the bag. Inside, there were six freshly baked Fervor Crisps. “Eros brought these over?”

“A few hours ago, said he’d be back later to see if you got them.” She winked and walked toward the bathroom. “So, you better be ready for when he does!”

I pulled one out of the bag, sunk my teeth into it, and sighed. My heart felt fuzzy just thinking about him making these for me. It was definitely needed after watching someone die right in front of me.

Someone knocked on the door, and I immediately jumped up. Eros. He was here already, and I looked like I walked straight out of Hell with my puffy eyes and smudged mascara. I ran my fingers through my hair, hoping that I would look somewhat presentable, and hurried to the door.

I couldn’t wait to finally see that damn sexy smirk after a week of being ignored; I couldn’t wait to tell him about today either, to get it off my chest.

When I pulled the door open, my eyes widened. Not Eros. Definitely not Eros.

Trevon was standing awkwardly in the hallway, his hands stuffed into his pockets. “Dani,” he said. “Can we talk?”

All I wanted was to slam the door in his face and give him what he deserved, but I also wanted to know why he was here. Why now? Why more than two weeks after cheating show up at his ex-girlfriend’s front door?

“We’re not getting back together,” I said, grinding my teeth together.

He took off the baseball cap that I bought him, and I noticed the dark circles under his eyes. “I know.”

For a good minute, I just stared at him. Trying to figure out why he was here. Wondering if I should really let him in or just let him wallow in his own misery.

“Zane, is that you?” Maria asked, walking out of the bathroom with a mascara stick in her hand. When she saw Trevon, she dropped it, eyes widening. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m just here to talk,” he said, fiddling with the hat.

Maria picked up the mascara and pointed at me. “Don’t let him fool you into thinking he wants to get back together. He’s still screwing Javier.”

There was no way in hell that I’d ever go back to Trevon.

“Maria, I’m sorry,” Trevon said. When she walked back into the bathroom and slammed the door, he sighed. “I really screwed up, didn’t I?”

I stood there, nostrils flaring. “Yeah, you did.”

He sat on a stool and rested his elbows on the counter, then pushed his head into his hands and took a deep and shaky breath. For some stupid reason, I had the urge to comfort him, but I kept my distance. He wouldn’t fool me again.

“Dani, I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you.” His gaze remained on the counter. I walked around it, so I was standing across from him. “It never should’ve happened. I should’ve broken up with you when it first started happening.”

I pressed my lips together. So, it had happened more than once. “Trevon, if you’re going to apologize to me, look at me when you do. At least give me that much respect.”

He picked up his head, and I noticed that his eyes were darker than they usually were.

“Are—are you okay?” I asked.

“I need to tell you something. I need to let you know all of it. I need to get it off my fucking chest.”

“Okay,” I said quietly.

“It started when we went out with Eros, Javier, and Zane for dinner. I didn’t have to work that night. I was going to meet him at my place,” he said. Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes. It had been going on since they met?

“I don’t know why I did it. I just couldn’t help myself. In my heart, it felt wrong—so wrong. But I couldn’t resist him.” His chin trembled. “I never had that type of experience before—man on man—and I didn’t even think I was going to like it.”

“But you did,” I said.

“Yes, with him.”

“Have you tried with others?”

He looked away from me. “After you found out… but… I didn’t enjoy it as much. Maybe not at all.”

I paused. “How many times did you cheat on me?”

“A few.”

My heart ached. Did that mean three, ten, twenty times? I didn’t know. And that was just with Javier. Who knew if there were other women. A tear slid down my cheek, but I wiped it away with the back of my hand. “Who else?”

Trevon lifted his gaze and looked me right in the eye. “No one.”

I stared at him. “No one?”

“Samantha had flirted with me and tried to get with me, but I would never do anything with her.” He said it with so much honesty that I actually believed him.

He hadn’t been this open with me since the weeks before we met my new next-door neighbors.

“If you didn’t do anything, why’d you fire her?”

“Eros told me that he thought she spiked your drink during the party, so I reviewed our surveillance cameras and found that she did.”

What a damn bitch. That’s the only word I had for her. She deserved to be fired. She deserved to be put in jail for the rest of her life. She deserved to rot in Hell. I couldn’t believe that she did it, and her end goal was to get with Trevon—a guy who didn’t even want her.

So many emotions were rushing through me. I was angry at Trevon and at Samantha and at Javier, but all I could think about was that Eros believed me that night. He had cared for me when I was puking up my stomach on the side of the road and in the pouring rain.

Trevon fiddled with his fingers. His nails had grown longer since we had split. And as much as I hated feeling like this, I really hoped he was taking care of himself.

“So, are you with Javier now?” I asked.

He cleared his throat. “Kinda.”

“Kinda?”

“I haven’t been feeling like myself for the past few weeks.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Nothing. It has nothing to do with it.” He snatched his hat and stood. “I should go.”

I walked him to the door. “Before you go, I have a question,” I said. He gazed down at me. There was so much pain on his face, so much heartbreak. “Have you always been curious about other guys?”

“No.”

I frowned. It didn’t make sense. If he was curious about guys, how could he want to have sex with him the first night that they met?

“But you were curious when you met Javier? How’d you know you wanted to try something with him?” I asked.

Trevon paused and scratched the back of his head. “It’s… stupid.”

“I don’t care.”

He lowered his voice. “I had a dream about him a few nights before I actually met him.”

My heart raced. “What kind of dream?”

“I really don’t think you want to know,” Trevon said, grasping the door handle.

I shook my head. “No, I need to know, Trevon, please.” Not only for my own sanity, but for another reason entirely.

“We were… uh… hooking up.”

I sucked in a breath. It was like the ones I had of Eros and the ones Maria had of Zane and Javier. Why were the guys next door suddenly in everyone’s dreams?

“Did you just have one dream?” I asked.

He put his baseball cap on and stepped out. “No,” he said. Okay, this was getting weirder by the moment. “Thanks for listening to me. I know you didn’t have any reason to. I just needed someone to talk to.” He nodded. “And good luck with Eros.”

I smiled softly. “Thanks.”

He turned and walked down the hallway; shoulders rolled forward—looking defeated.