The Man I Thought I Trusted - E. L. Todd Page 0,31
he wanted to be with Denise. Are you a psychopath?”
“Of course not—”
“I just feel completely different now. I don’t trust you. I’m embarrassed. I don’t want anything to do with you or Charlie…or the gorgeous Denise. Just move on with your lives and forget about me. Not a single one of you ever really cared about me anyway.” She turned to walk away.
“That’s not true.” I grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her back to me.
She twisted out of my grasp and backed away. “Don’t touch me again.” The threatening look in her eyes was brand-new, a look she’d never given me before, like she really hated me. “And don’t bother me again either. The three of you can live happily ever after…”
When I walked in the door, Charlie stood in front of the stove in sweatpants as he cooked dinner. “We’re having chicken parmesan.” His bare back was to me as he stirred the sauce in the pan.
I dropped my computer bag on the table and walked away. “Cool.” I went straight to my bedroom and took off my clothes and put on my pj’s before I got into bed. I shut the blinds, turned off the light, and just closed my eyes.
I felt so shitty right now.
I wanted to burst into tears and cry.
My bedroom door squeaked open a few minutes later. “Everything alright?”
“I’m fine.”
Footsteps didn’t sound, so I knew he continued to stand there. “You don’t look fine, Carson. What happened?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
He sighed loudly before he stepped farther into the room and took a seat at the edge of my bed. The mattress creaked and shifted under his weight. “Talk to me.”
“I said I’m fine…” My tears were loud in my words, and that was when I realized I was crying. My lips trembled, and my eyes streamed with tears. I pulled my arms closer to my body to stop myself from shaking.
“Carson…” His hand moved to my back, and he started to rub me as he came closer. “Come on, talk to me. I’ve only seen you cry a couple times, so I know it’s really bad.”
With my face close to my bedroom wall, I continued to cry quietly, my eyes hurting as they became puffy.
“Did something happen with Dax?”
I sniffled before I gave my answer. “No.”
His hand stopped moving on my back because he figured out the subject of my misery. “Kat?”
I sniffled.
He pulled his hand away altogether and sighed. “What happened?”
“I tried to talk to her after work. She said none of us ever cared about her and she wants nothing to do with me. She called me a psychopath. She doesn’t want to be friends anymore.” I didn’t want to tell Charlie any of this to make him feel bad, but I couldn’t keep it from him, not when we lived and worked together.
He went quiet like he didn’t have anything to say. He continued to sit on the bed.
I took a couple deep breaths to stop myself from crying. The pain was too harsh to feel, so I did my best to pull my heart out of this darkness.
“You have no idea how sorry I am…”
I could hear the pain in his voice, feel the guilt in his energy. I knew he would do anything for me, and it was so hard, but there was nothing he could do now. “I know.”
He rose off the bed and headed to the door. “I’m going to finish dinner. Do you want me to bring you a plate?”
It was the first time in my life I wasn’t hungry. “No.”
I lay there and stared at the wall, the bedroom becoming darker and darker as the sun set over the city. My phone was in my bag out in the living room, so I didn’t have it on me.
I didn’t want to talk to anybody anyway.
The front door opened and closed, and two voices came from the living room. It was hard to make it out, but it sounded like two guys were talking. It could be Charlie and Matt, about to watch a game or something.
But then footsteps sounded down the hallway, and my bedroom door opened.
His voice was deep and affectionate, as if it pained him to see me balled up in bed like I didn’t want to get up again. “Sweetheart…”
I took a deep breath when I heard his comforting voice, my eyes becoming wet again instantly.
After he undressed, he pulled back the covers and got into bed