“What about it? You can’t figure out what to get me?”
“I think I’m going to call my mother and see if she would have even invited me for Christmas. I feel bad not at least seeing first, you know. She will be alone.”
He doesn’t look thrilled, but he stays calm. “I understand.”
“I’m sorry about your phone.”
“It’s fine,” he says and sits at the kitchen table.
But then I blurt out, “I read a text message from Jace.” I don’t want to hide things from him, no matter how embarrassing the confessions are.
“You what?”
“It vibrated and I looked at it. Why was he texting so late, anyway?”
“What did you read?” he asks, ignoring my question.
“A text from Jace,” I repeat.
His jaw clenches. “What did it say?”
“Just to call him back . . .” Why is he getting so worked up? I knew he wouldn’t exactly be happy that I looked at his text message, but this is an overreaction.
“That’s it?” he snaps, which starts to get me annoyed.
“Yes, Hardin—what else would it have said?”
“Nothing . . .” He takes a slow sip of coffee, like it’s all suddenly no big deal. “I just don’t like you going through my stuff.”
“Okay, well, I won’t do it again.”
“Good. I have a few things to do today, so can you keep yourself busy for a while?”
“What do you have to do?” I ask and instantly regret it.
“Jesus, Tessa,” he says loudly. “Why are you always on my case!”
“I’m not always on your case. I just wanted to know what you were doing. We are in a relationship, Hardin—a pretty serious one, at that—so why wouldn’t I ask where you’re going?”
He pushes his mug away and stands up. “You just don’t know when to let shit go, is your problem. I don’t have to tell you everything, whether we are living together or not! If I would have known you were going to start shit with me today, I would have left before you even woke up.”
“Wow” is all I can say before I storm off to the bedroom.
But he’s hot on my heels. “Wow what?”
“I should have known that yesterday was too good to be true.”
“Excuse me?” he scoffs.
“We had such a great time; you weren’t an asshole, for once, but you wake up today and bam! You’re back to being a jerk!” I scramble around the room picking up Hardin’s dirty clothes.
“You forgot the part where you went through my phone.”
“Okay, and I am sorry for doing that, but it’s honestly not that big of a deal. If there is something on there that you don’t want me to see, then there is a bigger problem here!” I yell and shove everything into the hamper.
He points an angry finger at me. “No, Tessa, you’re the problem. You’re always making something out of nothing!”
“Why did you fight Zed?” I counter.
“We aren’t doing this right now,” he says in a cool tone.
“Then when, Hardin? Why won’t you tell me? How am I supposed to trust you if you are keeping things from me? Does this have to do with Jace?” I ask and his nostrils flare.
He runs his hands over his face and then up through his hair, leaving it sticking straight up. “I don’t know why you can never just mind your own damn business,” he grumbles and walks off.
Seconds later I hear the front door slam and I wipe the angry tears from my cheeks. Hardin’s reaction to me asking about Jace is gnawing at my stomach the entire time I clean the apartment. He overreacted; there is something he isn’t telling me, and I don’t understand why. I am fairly certain it has nothing to do with me, but it just doesn’t make sense why Hardin got so worked up. I have known since the moment I met Jace that he was trouble. If Hardin isn’t going to give me answers, I will have to go another route. I look out the window and watch as Hardin’s car pulls out of the parking lot before grabbing my phone. My new source answers on the first ring.
“Zed? It’s Tessa,” I say.
“Yeah . . . I know.”
“Okay . . . well, I was wondering if I could ask you something?” My voice comes out smaller than I intended it to.
“Um . . . where is Hardin?” he asks, and, given his tone, I suspect he holds a small grudge against me for blowing him off after he was so kind to me.