“Don’t throw that at me, Maggie. Don’t hide behind some bullshit rules that you invented to make yourself feel better for wanting me.”

“Screw you, Cooper.” She pulled on her pants and snatched up her clothes.

I stepped toward her, chin down. “I know you’re afraid of me, of this. You’re lying to yourself, and you’re lying to me. You want me just as much as I want you.”

“Don’t tell me how I feel.” She threw my words back at me and stormed out of the room, pulling on her shirt and shoes as I followed her through my apartment.

No way was I letting her walk away that easy. “Do you think this is some sort of game to me?”

She kept walking. “Track record, Cooper.”

“And you honestly believe that I put you and them in the same category? That I feel for you what I feel for them?”

She reached the front door and turned on me, face hard, eyes steely. “How the hell should I know? I’m just another girl in a long line of girls. You can tell me I’m different until the end of time, and I don’t know if I’ll ever believe you. You don’t love me. You don’t love anyone but yourself.” She shook her head at me. “This was a mistake. The whole thing was a mistake, and I should have known better.”

There it was. The truth. I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak as bitter cold blew through me. I watched her for a moment, trying to breathe. There was nothing left to say.

I swallowed hard. “You should go. Bobby’s downstairs — he’ll take you home.”

She watched me, emotion passing across her face. “Cooper—”

“Just go, Maggie. You said it yourself. I’m just a bad decision you made. A mistake. A distraction. I don’t mean anything to you, so just fucking go.” I opened the door.

She took a breath and stepped into the entryway. I closed the door just as she looked back over her shoulder.

My hands trembled as I walked back into my apartment, paced from one end to the other with my mind spinning so fast, I couldn’t catch a single thought.

She didn’t trust me. She didn’t believe me.

I didn’t know how it was possible after everything, after all the change in my heart and mind and life. I couldn’t comprehend how she didn’t see it. How something that was so true to me could be lost on her, the one person who I needed to understand.

She had changed me on the molecular level, and she had no idea.

In my entire life, she was the one thing that I was certain of, and I’d do anything to keep her. She was scared and confused, but I wasn’t. I knew exactly what I wanted, and it was her.

I would spend the rest of my life trying to convince her that I wasn’t a mistake at all. I’d convince her that she was the only girl in that line of girls. I’d convince her that I loved her far more than I could ever love myself.

I had to tell her. I picked up my phone, pulling up her contact before I realized her phone was missing.

“Fuck.” I muttered and paced back through the room. Bobby. I pulled up his contact and called.

“Hey, Coop,” he answered.

“Is she with you?”

“No, I’m still outside,” he said, confused. “She never came down.”

I ran a hand over my face, wondering where she’d gone. “I’ll be right down.”

Seconds later I was headed out the door. The doorman said he put her in a cab and sent her home, and I thanked him before trotting through the lobby and out the back door. And then we drove to her as I stared out the window, thinking of all the things I needed to say, hoping I wouldn’t find West there.

I wasn’t afraid of him.

I wasn’t afraid of anything but losing her.

Maggie

The tears didn’t stop in the elevator or as I climbed into a cab, not as I rode through the park with the sky on fire as the sun set. I’d stopped trying to wipe them away. More always came.

What have I done?

It was the question that rolled through my mind in a loop.

I shouldn’t have gone there, not in the state I was in. I shouldn’t have slept with him, but in his arms, I was safe, even if just for a moment. It was a mistake, but not like it sounded. It was a mistake because I’d hurt him.

He told me he loved me. He said it with his voice tight from his pain, his face bent in emotion. He said the words, and I threw them back at him.

I pushed him away because he was right. I hurt him because I was afraid.

Fucked up. Broken. Smashed. I couldn’t be trusted with his heart. I couldn’t even be trusted with mine.

The cab stopped in front of my building, and I paid him, thanking him quietly before climbing out. I walked to the building feeling like my world had stopped turning, though everyone else went about as if things were fine, normal. I climbed the stairs and knocked on my door.

Lily answered, and her face fell when she saw me. She pulled me into the apartment.

“Maggie, what happened?” She looked me over. “Where’s your stuff? Why are you wet?”

“I …” I squeaked.

West stood when he saw me, flew across the room, held me by the arms and ducked down to look me in the eye. “What happened, Mags? Are you all right?”

I nodded, but my face twisted as I tried to hold in a sob, any composure I had gone. He tucked me into his chest, and I felt Lily’s hand on my back.

“Where are your things?” he asked gently.

I took a breath as hot tears rolled down my cheeks. “They went missing at work.”

His body tensed. “Someone stole them? Dammit, I knew that job was going to be dangerous for you.”

Lily’s voice was soft. “Not now, West.”

He let out a breath and squeezed me tighter. “I’m sorry, Maggie. I’m sorry this happened.”

I looked over at Lily, feeling her questions. I gave her the slightest nod, and she closed her eyes for a brief moment.

“How did you get home?” West asked and let me go.

“I walked.”

“Why didn’t you call me?” His dark brow was low, and he shook his head.

“Because I knew you’d lose your mind.”

“You make me sound like a tyrant.”

I gave him a look.

His face softened with his voice. “If you need me, call me. Don’t walk home again with no money, no phone.”

Someone knocked on the door, and shock shot through me as I spun around, staring at it like it might explode. It was him. I knew it, and when Lily looked at me, I knew she knew too. Her eyes darted to West before she walked to the door and pulled it open.

Cooper was a burning man, the pain on his face unmistakable. His eyes found mine, and my heart stopped dead.

“Cooper?” West asked, confused. “What’s up, man?”

But his eyes were on me, and mine were on him. I shook my head.

“I need to talk to you,” he said.

West looked down at me. “Talk about what? What’s going on?”

“You shouldn’t have come here.” My voice trembled. Our eyes were still locked as panic rolled through me.

“Please. You have to hear me out.”

The tears were back, burning my eyes. “You told me to leave, so I did.”

“I was wrong.” He walked into the room and toward me like nothing could stop him.

But there was one thing that could. West stepped in front of me, cutting Cooper off. Lily flanked West, eyes wide and bouncing between the two men.

West’s jaw was set. “I said, what the fuck is going on?”

Cooper finally looked away from me. “I need to talk to Maggie.”

West folded his arms across his chest. “What about?”

“Let it go, West.” He looked to me. “Come with me, please.”

His shoulders were square, body tight. “She’s not going anywhere until you tell me what the hell this is all about.”

Cooper’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not your decision to make.”

Lily touched West’s arm. “Guys—”

The tension crackled between Cooper and West, and I was the only one who could defuse it. I had to defuse it. I put out a hand and stepped forward.  “Stop it, both of you. I’ll come with you, Cooper.”