her. “I need my shirt,” he said in a weirdly flat voice.
“Holly, I’ve got to go,” Mia said as she looked up into his cold expression. While she was saying goodbye to her sister, he walked away and started putting on his socks and shoes. Mia set down the phone and got to her feet, approaching him warily. “Is everything okay?”
“Fine.” His voice cut sharper than a knife. “Can I have my shirt?’
“You don’t have to go.” Mia reached for him, but he jerked out of her grasp.
She was so surprised, all she could do was stare at him. Something had obviously happened to upset him, but she had no idea what. He’d seemed fine when he went to take a shower. What could have happened while he was in the bathroom? Had he gotten a call or a text from someone?
A spike of panic stabbed through her gut. “Josh, what’s wrong?”
He refused to look at her. His gaze stayed locked on the hardwood floor between them as he spoke. “Is that what you really think of me? ‘Pretty but dumb’?” He spit the last three words out like venom.
Mia blinked in confusion. “I don’t—”
“There’s no use denying it.” His eyes flashed with anger as they locked on hers. “I heard every word you said.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She started to reach for him again, but the cold fury in his face stopped her. The air around them felt spiky. Like there was barbed wire everywhere and if she moved the wrong way she’d get cut.
“Just now. Talking to your sister on the phone.”
Oh. Okay. Now she understood. He must have overheard her talking about Noah and thought she’d been talking about him. Which was ridiculous; she’d never say all those things about Josh. As soon as she explained that, they’d both have a big laugh over it and everything would be fine again.
“Josh, no.” She shook her head, smiling in relief. “I wasn’t—”
“Meaningless sex?” His voice shook with a mixture of raw pain and restrained anger. “That’s all you think I’m good for?”
“Of course not. I wasn’t talking about us.”
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised,” he bit out as if he hadn’t even heard her. “You never bothered to pretend any of this meant anything to you.”
She recoiled at the harshness of his accusation. Was that how he felt? When she’d been agonizing for weeks over how she was going to give him up and trying to figure out how to spare him pain?
The unfairness of it left her shaken. She thought he knew her better than that. He’d always been so good at reading her. At understanding her. How could he believe he didn’t mean anything to her?
“That’s not fair.” It took all her effort to keep her voice steady. “I swear I wasn’t talking about you.” She was trying to stay calm and be patient, even though it hurt that he would say that about her. Or that he could even think it.
Josh dragged his hands through his wet hair as he paced away from her, his footfalls heavy on the wooden floor. He wore shoes but no shirt, and she saw his back muscles contract just before he spoke. “Did it really not occur to you that I’d overhear everything you were saying? Or did you want me to hear it?”
“Why would I want you to hear something like that?” Mia trailed after him as he stalked around the apartment like a caged tiger. “Why would I talk about you when I know you’re in the next room?”
Nothing he was saying made any sense. It was like he’d been possessed. Whatever had gotten into him had turned him into someone she didn’t even recognize.
He rounded on her, his face twisted with a bitterness so strong his whole body seemed to vibrate with it. His voice came out like a snarl. “Did you get off on humiliating me by trash-talking me to your sister where you knew I’d hear it? It’s not enough that you’re using the dumb redneck to scratch an itch while you’re slumming it in Hicksville—you’ve got to make sure I know that’s all I am to you, so you can watch me squirm.”
“Hey!” she snapped, losing her composure as his words ripped through her. “That’s not me and you know it!”
The way he was talking to her—the way he was looking at her—it was like he thought she was someone else. Like he was looking at her and seeing