Chapter Thirty-Four

“You gonna stick by me?”

“Maybe…”

**

“What the fuck was that, Letty?” Leon demanded as soon as we were outside, his arm still wrapped around my waist. “Amber’s doing you and Dom a favor and you go and say that shit to her?”

“Yeah…some favor,” I muttered lowly, pushing him away from me. “We shouldn’t have done this, Leon…we never should’ve let Mia talk us into this…”

“Shit, girl!” Leon said loudly, nodding towards the house so I knew he was saying it in case anyone could hear us. “You and Dom broke up. You can’t just go after any chick he’s with now!”

“They were practically fucking in the middle of the goddamned street, Leon!” I screamed back at him, hoping Dom could hear me. “And then he can’t even shove his dick back in his pants long enough to talk to me for five seconds?”

“What’d you expect, girl?” Leon asked, quietly. “How’d you think it was gonna be?”

“I don’t know, but…not this,” I whispered, all the fight suddenly gone out of me. “I didn’t think it would be like this… Take me home, Leon…”

“Okay, Letty, okay,” he said quietly. “Lemme just go tell Mia we’re leaving… You gonna be aight out here by yourself?”

“Aren’t I always?” I laughed harshly, sitting down on the front steps as Leon went back into the house… I just stared off into space, completely zoned out… Barely even noticed when the door opened and Dom sat down next to me.

“You okay?” he asked after a few minutes, his voice sounding silky and slightly worried.

“Okay…not exactly the word I would choose…but…yeah. I guess.”

“You wanna tell me what that was about in there?”

“Heh,” I laughed, rubbing my hands over my face. “You wanna tell me what that was about back at the race, with your hand up Amber’s skirt?”

“You’re not gonna believe me…” Dom muttered, reaching over to me but stopping just short of my face, like he was scared of how I would react if he actually touched me.

“Oh?” I asked, laughing again. “Lemme guess. You realized tonight how hot Amber is, and how many chicks you’ve been missing out on since you’ve been with me, and you just couldn’t stop yourself from practically fucking her on the hood of your car… And now you’re just trying to figure out a way to end this for real…”

“How could you think that, baby?” he asked, rubbing at his eyes with one hand like he was getting a migraine or something. “It was all fake…you know that…”

“Looked pretty fucking real to me,” I muttered.

“And how could you even think I would want anyone but you?” he continued, like he hadn’t even heard me. “You’re beautiful, you’re sexy as hell, you make me laugh, you know cars practically better than I do… You’re perfect for me… I love you. And…I know you prolly aren’t gonna believe me, ‘cause it sounds so dumb…but I really thought that Amber was you, when I was talking to Hector. It’s always you, there next to me… I just wasn’t thinking… I’m sorry…I’d take it back if I could. So…we okay?”

“Whatever, Dom…” I said, looking away from him, trying as hard as I could to remember that I was pissed at him. “Could you just go tell Leon to get his ass out here and take me home already?”

“I’m not goin’ inside until you say we’re okay, baby…”

“We’re fine, Dom. There, happy? We are perfectly fucking fine… I just need some time to calm down. This is all just…harder, than I thought it would be…you know?”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” Dom whispered, leaning over and brushing a kiss against the top of my head before getting up and going back inside the house.