For the first few minutes in the company of my brother, Jordan, and my disgustingly-skinny ex, all I can do is growl. Scream. Threaten to tear my hair out.

“Okay, Paul,” says Alex, “Calm the fuck down. Tell me again: what happened? Why are you like this?”

I whirl on him. “Mariah’s pissed. She fucking hates me, Alex!” I jab an angry, murderous finger at Darla, who has the nerve to be here right now. “And all because this bitch decided to blindside and then corner me in the hot tub!”

Darla clicks her tongue irritably. “Excuse me! I wasn’t the one running away from a simple conversation, Paul!”

“Shut. Up.” I say this through a clenched jaw at her, hoping she won’t encourage me to throw her out of this room — or worse — out the window.

“Mariah saw Darla hanging on me and got the wrong idea,” I continue, bringing my eyes back to Alex. “And, rather than let me explain that I want nothing to do with her any longer and that I didn’t invite her into the hot tub, and instead she just jumped in and sat on me and right as I was telling her to get off of me, Mariah walked in and saw us, and then hightailed it out of here.”

I drop my head down, feeling the urge to run out of here and track her down. Climb on top of her car, block the windshield and force her to listen to me. To reason.

“As far as I know, she’s on her way home,” I complain.

“Oh, stop being so dramatic, Paul,” says Darla, pulling her robe around her more. “You don’t need to worry about her. You don’t even need to contemplate being with that fat cow anymore, because I’ve decided I want you back. I want us to be together again.” Her brave mask crumbles, and I actually see tears in her eyes. Actual tears! And when I thought she was nothing more than a robot dressed up in a nice pair of tits. “I want you back, baby,” she whimpers. “We were good together. So good together!” She sobs her fake sobs, sucks up her fake snot. “I see that now.”

She comes close to me, looking to grab all of me. I don’t let her, and this only makes her act out more. Cry and fall over, as if I’m the big brute intent on harming her. “I’m so glad I got into that hot tub and sat on your lap. I’m so glad I didn’t listen to you telling me to get off of you. Because otherwise that bitch would have come between us, and we can’t have that. I need you, baby! No one is as good as you.”

I glower down at her the way I would a bug. But even that is too good for her. “You had your chance. You fucked it up, Darla. Just like you fucked up my chance to see Mariah again tonight.”

Darla gives me a smug, gloating look, and I know it doesn’t matter what I say. She intentionally tried to screw up my life and now she’s glad her plan worked. When she sat on my lap, she started telling me about her dad, who had been battling cancer, and how he was sick again. So obvious it felt like the wrong time to tell her to get off my lap but I still fucking did. I told her I care about her father and would like to go visit him, but that she and I are over for good and she needed to get off my lap and quit hanging on me. She hadn’t, of course, and just then is when Mariah walked in, and got the completely wrong idea.

“Or,” adds Jordan, as if the whole rest of the conversation didn’t happen, and he’s stuck back at the very beginning, “Don’t let one bad thing ruin the rest of a good night.” He steps a handful of obnoxiously-strong taco-flavored chips in his mouth. “Mariah was just for a bit of fun, yo. The idea was not to get serious about her.”

“Unless he already has,” murmurs Alex. A pause, then the sound of him holding Darla up on to her feet and showing her the door. It seems my brother actually gets it. Maybe he really is into Mariah’s friend Jane, for real. “It’s time for you to go, Darla. Go be with your boyfriend, or whatever he is.”

I hear him open the door to our suite and shove her out, despite her protests in the form of an overly dramatic wail.

“Oh, Darla,” Alex sighs. “I never did like you. And you might still be able to pull off the helpless kitten in the tree at with Paul, because he once loved you. But he doesn’t any more, and I never did. So I’m making sure you stay out of both of ours lives from now on. As I said, go be with your boyfriend.”

“He’s just a tourist,” Darla screams, as Alex begins closing the door on her. “We’re not really going out. I just got with him to make you jealous!”

The door slams shut on her a moment later.

The scenario would have made me laugh, had my head not been swirling with fucking regret. I stalk away from all of them, agonized by visions of Mariah. The feel of her soft and supple skin. The unique kiss her pussy gave me, and the way she totally and completely submitted to me. The way she enjoyed being challenged and dominated by me.

Mariah’s the only one for me now. I see that now. I wander to the window, hoping no one hears what I can feel in my voice, or what’s building in my throat. Tears that I’m not supposed to have.

“Hey.” My brother puts a tender hand on my shoulder.

I cough. Suck in some snot and phlegm, pretending I’m coming down with a cold, not a heart or feelings. “What?”

“She’s the one, isn’t she?” he asks.

I don’t answer him immediately. For the first few seconds, I think about pretending differently. Acting as if Mariah doesn’t mean that much to me. That I really don’t care that much about her. That I would be a total idiot to fall for a girl I fucking bought at an auction. But, as I lose myself in my memories of her, I can’t do that beautiful spirit such an injustice.

Besides, it’s not about not committing anymore.

I just want to get out of here. Get Mariah back in my arms and my bed as soon as humanly possible.

“Yeah,” I say, turning to him. My traitorous lips tremble some. Jordan gets up slowly from his perch on the edge of the couch, looking like Jesus has descended.

“Holy shit, yo,” he says. “You’re really fucking serious.”

“Yep. She’s the one.” I grab my clothes and start stuffing them into plastic bags. “And I’m going to get her back, Alex.”

My brother nods, as if he thinks this is a good idea. Even Jordan nods.

I grab up my plastic bags and head for the door. “I’m getting her back if it’s the last thing I do.”