The Same Place (The Lamb and the Lion #2) - Gregory Ashe Page 0,118

I don’t want to see you, but what are you doing here?”

Jem watched it all play out in his head. He tried to figure out how to stop what was coming next, but he was too tired.

“Ok, it’s a lame joke,” Ammon said. “I just wanted to say hi.”

“Hi,” Tean said.

Outside, sprinklers came to life, hissing, and someone swore and said, “No, not that one, the other one.” Then the sound of sprinklers died.

“It’s just not a very good time,” Tean finally said. “Can we talk later?”

The worst part was that Ammon looked genuinely hurt. “You’re just going to pretend—what? That this isn’t happening? That I didn’t do this for us? I’m not saying you have to jump up and down and celebrate, but a little acknowledgment would be nice.”

“You came over here, ok? I don’t know why. No, I think I know why. And I told you I’m not going to do that with you anymore while you’re married.”

“I came over here, Tean, because you haven’t said one word about me moving into the building. You won’t even admit that it happened. Maybe that doesn’t seem important to you, but it’s important to me. I want to at least hear you validate me on that.”

Outside, the woman was continuing her instructions: “Yep, that’s the switch. Now turn it off again.”

Turn it off, Jem thought. Turn it all off. Where’s the master switch to turn this shitshow off?

“What do you mean you moved into the building?”

Ammon drew a breath and then froze. His gaze cut toward Jem. And then, slowly, Tean turned. The look on his face was that of a man who’d already stepped off a cliff and was just now realizing it.

“Make him go away,” Jem said, “and I can explain.”

“Explain what?” Tean asked.

“I can explain. I can explain. Just—just tell him to leave, and I can explain.”

“Explain what?” Then a spasm contracted Tean’s face, and he said, “Scipio, shut up!”

The dog whined and curled up on his bed.

“I live here,” Ammon said. “I moved into this building to be close to you, so we could try to do things right. I left you a note. I left you a key. I wanted you to have time to process it before we talked about it, which is why I didn’t call.”

“I don’t understand,” Tean said quietly.

“It’s simple. He was here that day; I saw him in the parking lot. He came upstairs. He found the note. He destroyed it. What’d you do with the key?”

“I don’t understand,” Tean said, blinking rapidly and then dashing one hand across his eyes. “I don’t understand.”

“It’s simple,” Ammon said again. “He did this.”

But that wasn’t what Tean meant, of course. And, of course, Ammon hadn’t understood what Tean was saying. Had never understood. But Jem did. Jem knew that what Tean was really saying was, I don’t understand how you could do this to me again.

And Jem couldn’t bear the look on Tean’s face. He grabbed his sneakers, his wallet, his keys, and his phone. He jammed a finger against the screen until the music stopped. Then he made himself look at Tean and say, “You deserve better than him.”

“Get out,” Tean said.

“You don’t believe me, not yet. But you’re starting to realize it. Part of you has always known you deserve better than this.”

“Get out of my apartment right now.”

“And you deserve better than somebody like me too.”

For a moment, it looked like Tean was about to cry. Then he nodded and said, “Yeah. I do.”

It hurt so much that anger was the only defense. Jem dropped his sneakers. He tossed his wallet and keys and phone on the table. Pulling the rental application from his back pocket, where he’d carried it since the day Tean had left it for him, he said, “Good. Good. Glad you figured that out. Because it was fucking unbearable having to deal with all your Boy Scout bullshit. Do you have any idea how demeaning it is to be your fucking charity case?”

Ammon surged forward, but Tean caught his shirt. “You need to go,” Tean said to Jem. “Right now.”

“Do you even know how stupid you are sometimes? Cosigning something for me? Jesus, do you know how easy you are as a mark? I could have gotten you to cosign a car. I could have gotten you to cosign a house. Fuck, Tean. Open your fucking eyes.” Jem ripped the rental application into pieces, letting them flake down to the floor. He was vaguely aware