“Hey, bro, how’s it han…”

Nix’s head snapped back, because the second I could get my body through his front door, my right arm pulled back and I slammed my fist into his face. I watched as spit and blood sprayed from the cut I put in his lower lip. There was an odd, detached fascination in watching the destruction I caused, yet no feeling of satisfaction came from it, which was disappointing.

“What the fuck, Dane?”

Nix stood, glaring at me with his hand pressed to his lip. He pulled his hand back and cursed when he saw the blood on his fingertips.

“Have you lost your fucking mind? What the fuck is wrong with you?”

I continued to just stand there, glaring at him, not trusting my mind and my mouth to form the words that were necessary to let him know exactly what his gloating texts had cost me.

I exhaled, opening and closing my right fist as I forced my arms to stay by my side. I was itching to take another swing. I was dying to lay him flat and keep hitting until my pain stopped. I would have enough to answer for with that split lip.

I saw him eyeball my hand, shake his head as he headed for the kitchen. Instead of grabbing a bag of frozen peas or something to hold against his lip, he grabbed two beer bottles and popped them open.

“I don’t know who pissed in your cornflakes, cocksucker, but why don’t you take a long drink from this and let me know what the fuck is wrong.”

I glared at the beer, and then swiped my hand out to grab it from him. He flinched when my hand shot out.

Good.

He held the iced bottle against his lip, hissing when the cold touched the spot where I took out Mari on him.

I tried to swallow my beer, but for some reason it had turned to sludge in my mouth. I looked at the bottle in astonishment. It said Sam Adams. I took another sip… sewage.

Fuck me. The situation was worse than I thought. My heartbreak was ruining my favorite beer.

I exhaled and slumped into a chair.

“Ith it thafe for me to approth, or thould I get a can of mathe to protect mythelf?”

Nix eyeballed me warily, his speech already effected by his swollen lip.

I must have hit him harder than I thought, because I got the distinct impression that his tongue was swelling

Fuck.

There was going to be no hiding that from mom. The panic of the hurricane force that was that my mom dampened my rage significantly.

“Naw, you’re safe. Sorry, dude.”

“Fuck.”

I looked up and saw that he was staring at his fingertips, which were stained with red blood. He glared at me and held up his hand so that I could fully understand the damage I had done.

“What the fuck is wrong with you, man? You never coldcock someone in the face. Not cool.”

I tossed him my phone, gently. Nope, I didn’t aim for his head at all. The text messages from that morning when Mari walked out on us were open.

Hey, Bro – I’m thinking you’ll be hearing from that hot little number of yours, I sent her a letter that we’ll be exterminating her apartment, and dealing with ‘mold’ and stuff. You can thank me later.

???

LOL, dude. I’m sure you haven’t gotten around to telling her that you are now the guy running McCallum, so she won’t put two and two together. Thank me later. Right now, put the phone down and get ready to get back in the saddle. Your epic and ball-shriveling dry spell is about to end. You’re welcome.

He read through the messages, as a smile grew on his face, which was quickly followed by a look of confusion.

“So, what gives? Are you pissed because she didn’t come over and put out? I don’t get it.”

He held out the phone to me, just seeing an exchanged that appeared to be between him and I, and not comprehending that he had single handedly ruined what could have been the best thing that ever happened to me.

I hurled a balled-up piece of paper at him, the note I found awaiting me when I went into the kitchen.

I will always love you, but I don’t think I’m strong enough to be in love with you, now that I know I can’t trust you.

I can’t stay, wondering how long it will be until we break again.

So I’m gone.

Oh, by the way, your brother sent you a few interesting texts. Congrats on the new job.

His eyes widened when he read the last line, and he looked up at me with a hint of fear and understanding.

“Oh, fuck, dude.”

“That’s putting mildly, asshat. You ruined everything. Your little high school prank ruined every fucking thing.”

He raised an eyebrow at me and lobbed the paper back at me.

“So, you’re saying you have absolutely no fault here? No ownership at all?”

“Dude, I’m not the one who decided he had to run a victory lap after pulling a stupid stunt like this.”

“No, you’re not. But you are the fucktard who thought it was a great idea to withhold information from a chick that had self-proclaimed trust issues. Really important information, like the fact that your dad was her landlord. Something you should have disclosed up front when she nearly sprung a cow from her uterus when she thought you were here landlord. So, I’ll ask the question again. You have no fault here?”

“Fuck you.”

Yup. Mature as hell. But, he was right. I brought this on myself. I knew better than to go cry on my baby sister, Cheyanne’s, shoulder, because she told me straight up that this would happen.

“Okay, so you are admitting it. Listen, I’m sorry. Sorry if I had any part in Mari walking away. Again.”

“Thanks, man. And sorry about your pretty face.”

He shrugged and smirked at me.

“No worries, I mean, you hit like a girl and now you’re going to have to deal with mom.”

I flipped him off while I drank from my bottle.

“Was she any good? Like in the sack? Was it worth it?”

He looked out the window as he asked those questions. Normally, I would have been willing to put an identical split in the other side of his face, but something about the tone and the fact that he looked like he wasn’t even in the room with me anymore stopped my overreaction.

“It was everything.”

“So, what are you going to do?”

Fuck if I knew. I couldn’t keep chasing her down, could I? She’d already let me know she was probably able to forgive me, but was unwilling to ride the roller coaster that we’d become.

“I don’t know.”