A Different Man

(Violet)

I got the check and tucked it into my pocket. After all the fees and nonsense was settled up, I got like three hundred dollars back. It was amazing that just a short while ago, three hundred dollars was an almost life-changing amount of money.

Truthfully, I didn’t need the three hundred bucks. I didn’t need to waste my time driving back to the apartment complex. I could have been meeting with Victoria. Or meeting with the investors. Or just working on my own stuff. Or maybe just relaxing and enjoying life. What both Victoria and I made off the first app was enough to last us a long time. And with the right financial advice, the money could last me for the rest of my life.

I left the office and felt somewhat satisfied that all ties were finally cut.

When I got to my car I froze. I bit my bottom lip and glanced over at the buildings. The apartment complex had seven buildings. I couldn’t see my old building, but it was there. And my gut was screaming at me, telling me to just get in the car and go.

But my heart and head had other things in mind.

I slipped my keys into my back pocket and went for a walk.

I felt guilty.

I kept looking over my shoulder like someone from the office was going to rush over and kick me out. I was technically trespassing, but oh well.

Somewhere inside my heart, I thought about fate.

It was risky to tempt fate. But it was also lazy to just let it slip away. I thought about going back to my new apartment, the one where Davis sort of just set himself up inside, calling it his home, too. I thought about Dad fighting cancer, accepting treatments, trying to find common ground between sickness and survival. And then Mom, the rock through the entire thing. She never missed a meal, a pill, a smile, a joke, nothing.

Life had become such a mess since those three words shook everything up like a snow globe.

I’m his wife.

The words angered me. So much. Yet at the same time, I was angry with myself. I rushed out of there so quickly I didn’t get the entire story. Then again, did I want that story? I had been sleeping with a married man and didn’t know it. I had fallen in love with a married man. I let a married man inside me… for the first time ever…

I saw the building and kept walking.

There was no sign of Mason though. No truck. No motorcycle. My old parking spot was empty, too. So that meant he wasn’t torturing some new neighbor with his asshole attitude.

When I entered the building, my heart raced a little.

I went to my old floor and went to my old apartment door. I thought about that first time I met him, carrying boxes, spilling boxes, a joke sex toy hitting the floor. Mason telling me to clean it up before I used it.

He was so blunt and seemed to care about nothing…until I cracked him a little. He was showing me a side of him…

I slipped down the hall and stood at his door.

Knocking was useless if he wasn’t home. I almost wished I had a piece of paper to leave a note. Then again, he hurt me. Why should I engage with him? He was the married one. And the fact that he didn’t chase after me probably just proved how much of a shit-head he really was.

I made fists and told myself it was time to go.

The door to the hallway opened, and I glanced over my shoulder and saw a man standing in the doorway.

He was big, strong, familiar.

I couldn’t take my eyes away from him. He had long arms with tons of muscle and tattoos everywhere. His hair was dark as night and long. Almost touching his chin. He was very rough, and he was very sexy.

For a second…I thought…

I shook my head and turned to leave. I looked down as I walked the hallway. The man didn’t move. The closer I got to him, the more I felt a sense of familiarity.

I paused at the door and looked up at him again.

That’s when I felt like a truck had hit me. The eyes. The face. The chin.

Then he grinned.

The second I saw the dimples, I stepped back and smashed my back against the wall in the hallway.

“Mason,” I whispered.

“Babe,” he said.

His voice. That voice. Smoky and rough, a deepness that rattled me to my core.

I couldn’t believe it.

The hair. The tattoos. He was Mason…but different.

A different man.

“You…” I pointed to his arm.

He made a fist with his left hand and flex his arm. His shirt sleeve stretched to the max. The tattoos were everywhere. Some bright and beautiful. Some dark.

“I got some ink,” he said.

“Some? That’s…”

I bit my tongue. I wasn’t here to catch up. Play nice. No. Nothing. None of that bullshit. It didn’t matter that he was still fucking sexy. That he was still strong. That the tattoos and long hair made him look like a different kind of badass.

“What are you doing here?” he asked me.

“None of your business,” I said.

“Were you trying to break into my apartment? I’ll call the police.”

I snorted. “You broke into mine. Remember that?”

“Yes I do, babe,” he said with a grin.

“Stop grinning. You don’t get to grin. Ever. Not for what you did.”

“Says the woman who took off at the first sign of a problem.”

I gasped. “Problem? You don’t know the half of it, Mason. I hate you. So much.”

“Good. I like that. Hate is my thing, remember?”

“Stop saying remember,” I growled. “I’m not here to talk memories.”

“Then why the hell were at you my door?”

“To slap you across the face.”

Mason leaned forward and turned his head a little. “Here you go, babe. You ain’t the first to slap me. You won’t be the last.”

I really thought about doing it. Slapping him. As hard as I could.

I held back.

“Yeah, this was a mistake,” I whispered. “I’m glad I saw you.”

“You missed me, huh?”

“No. I came to get my security deposit.”

“And detoured to visit me?”

“I guess I did,” I said.

“Why?”

I stared up at him. I could still see that burning in his eyes. That sense of need and want. A man who had been hurt and broken so many times that he would rather deal in hate than take the chance to love again.

But I took the chance and loved him.

Maybe I still…

“Can’t speak to it,” Mason said. “Right. Well, babe, you look beautiful. Real fucking beautiful.”

“Tell me why,” I blurted out. “You owe me that. To tell me everything. You know what happened. I’m not sure what you expected me to do.”

“I’m not sure disappearing was the right thing.”

“There’s been a lot that’s happened,” I said.

No. Don’t tell him about Dad and the cancer. He doesn’t deserve to know. I don’t want his pity. And as far as Davis went…

Mason touched my waist. His fingertips burned through my clothes to my skin. A tingling sensation rippled through my body, head to toe. It was a regrettable feeling since I technically had a boyfriend.

As he leaned in on me, I didn’t stop him right away. For a split second, I saw myself kissing him. I saw myself going right back in time to all lust, the wild passion between us. The things he taught me about my own body and the things he taught me about his body. And yet at the same time the things I taught him about opening up and exploring love. He showed me how good I could feel between my legs, and I showed him how good I could feel in his heart.

“It’s been months, babe,” he whispered, his lips way too close for comfort. “A lot has happened.”

“Mason…”

Before the moment could get any crazier, his apartment door opened. I looked to my left and saw a woman emerge. Her hair was messy like sleep and sex. Her face looked tired. Her eyes were totally hungover. She clutched a purse and some heels in her hands as she stepped barefoot into the hallway. She stopped walking when she saw me and Mason.

“Really?” I asked, looking at Mason.

“Old habits,” he whispered.

“Do you even know her name?” I asked.

“Leslie,” he said with a cocky grin.

Oh, those dimples…

They had an effect on me that wasn’t right or fair.

“Well, I guess you have changed,” I said.

“Um…I’ll head out the other way,” Leslie called out.

Mason looked at her. “Good thinking.”

“So, that’s it?” she asked.

“That’s it,” Mason said. “Have a great day today. Do you need money for a ride?”

“Scumbag,” Leslie said.

“Absolutely,” I said.

I slid along the wall and got away from Mason. Being too close was dangerous. As cute as his dimples were and as sexy as his new tattoos and long hair were, he was the same person. He just had a one-night stand leave his apartment while he was trying to kiss me.

Leslie walked down to the opposite end of the hall.

I looked at Mason, shaking my head. “And here I thought maybe you would give a damn about me. Show something that resembled care.”

“I did that already,” Mason said. “You left.”

“You had a wife show up.”

“You never let me explain.”

“Well, go ahead,” I said. “Explain away.”

Mason laughed. “I don’t take orders, babe. Not from you. Now, if you’d like, we can go into my apartment and I can get the smell of that woman out of my sheets. I miss the way you smell and taste, Violet.”

I gritted my teeth.

I’d never hated and wanted something at the same time so bad in my life.

Mason moved toward me again and my hand shot out. My fingers spread as wide as they could, feeling the rounded definition of his chest. Fuck, why did he have to be so strong? Built like a piece of a steel. Built to fuck like a woman could only dream of.

“I have a boyfriend,” I said. “I’m with someone now.”

Mason stiffened. Anger crawled across his face. I could feel the tension flood the hallway like someone broke a dam.

Shit. Maybe I shouldn’t have…

“That never stopped me before,” Mason said. “You came here. Maybe to get a check, but something tells me you really don’t need that money. Even still, you made the effort to walk here and stand at my fucking door. You’re already cheating on whoever this is.”

“Fuck you,” I said.

“That’s right, babe. Soon enough.”

“I hate you. I swear on my life, Mason, I hate you.”

Mason walked by me and went to his apartment. He paused for a second and then reached into his back pocket. He took out a small envelope and flung it toward me.

“That’s for you. It was good to see you. You look as beautiful as I could ever remember.”

Mason went inside, and I was all alone again.

My heart raced, fluttered, pounded. Rinse and repeat.

I looked at the little envelope on the floor.

I had to take it.

I had to see what was inside.

I had tempted fate…and it was going to bite back really hard…