Sighing, I resumed my thoughts while cleaning up tables before I heard loud curses and turned to see what the commotion was. I blanched at the sight of Carter shoving Peter back.

“Got a problem with me?” he growled at him. “Because you’re looking at me like you do, tough guy?”

Peter’s drunk friends stood up to defend him, and Carter barely paid mind. His eyes stared fixedly at Peter as he got closer to him, standing face to face, poking him in the chest as he said something to him in a low voice. I couldn’t hear anything, but Melanie was standing behind them and her jaw had dropped.

“Man, what the fuck is your problem!” I heard Peter shout.

“You’re the fucking problem!” Carter seethed. “Don’t think I didn’t hear what you said, you little shit!”

“Then don’t fucking eavesdrop –”

Carter grabbed hold of his shirt and shook him. And then it turned ugly fast. Peter tried punching him, but Carter blocked him with his left arm and swung at him with his right, landing a punch across the face, knocking Peter back. I heard shouts as Rome and Leo intervened immediately, untangling his fist from Peter’s shirt. Rome turned to Carter, looking angry as he shoved him out of Peter’s face, ordering him to let go. Carter continued holding his ground until Peter motioned for his friends to go.

“Pussies!” Carter hollered at them.

They hurried out of the bar and then Rome dragged Carter into the back office. Before he disappeared down the hall, Carter looked back over his shoulder. My chest tightened when I met his gaze.

He was beyond pissed.

*

“What happened?” I demanded after the customers had gone and the boys were getting ready to leave.

Carter still hadn’t emerged from the backroom, but Rome had, and he didn’t look at me once as he helped the boys out. I’d dragged Melanie into the ladies room just to get an explanation.

“Carter said he was walking to the bar to get some drinks when he heard those guys talking about you,” she explained. “They said something very crude, and when Carter approached them to repeat it, Peter asked him why it was his business. That was when I stopped to listen in. Carter didn’t like being spoken to that way, and he kicked Peter’s chair back. Peter got up and Carter started goading him. Shit went swiftly downhill after that.”

“Christ,” I cursed. “Do you know what they said about me exactly? Carter wouldn’t have just flown off the handle without good reason.”

She shrugged. “He wouldn’t tell Rome. And even if he did, Rome refused to divulge with me. Asshole.”

“You know, this would have been completely avoided if you didn’t get him to approach me, Mel!”

“I did it for you, Leah!”

“Why?”

“Because you’re being walked all over by Carter. You need to be woken up. I thought he’d see you with that guy and start to realize what you meant to him. He needs to face reality that you won’t be waiting around for him.”

I frowned at her and crossed my arms. “I’m not being walked all over.”

She sighed in defeat. “Friends with benefits never works out for anybody, not unless one party agrees to give the other more.”

“You’re under the assumption that one of them will always want more.”

“Leah, sex with a random stranger or someone you know lightly can come with no strings attached. But sex with the same guy that you live with and spend almost every moment with can’t. You have a history with the guy. You started this off feeling for him. He’s exploding in popularity. Girls are drooling at their tables just to get near to him, and it’s only going to get worse.”

“What does that have anything to do with my relationship with him?”

The concern poured out of her eyes as she placed a hand on my shoulder. “Imagine girls putting their hands all over him, and him allowing them because he’s technically not doing anything wrong. That’s essentially what’s happening, right? You see the girls rubbing their chests against his shoulder and leaning so close, he could probably feel their breaths against his face. It’s hurting you, and that’s because you’re in love with him. He needs to know that. It’s only fair on him that he keeps proceeding with this arrangement if he knows how you’re feeling. You have needs too and you’re settling for less. Guys like the one you danced with tonight would bend over backwards to have a chance with you. Stop undervaluing yourself.”

With that, she gave me a hug and said good night, leaving me to mull her words over in the restroom alone. I stared at myself in the mirror for a while, fighting back my emotions.

She was right, wasn’t she?

I couldn’t keep doing this.

Sixteen

Carter was in a mood. A very dark mood.

Understandably.

I was in one too.

He hadn’t said a word to me after we got home. He just shut himself up in his room for a long while. I showered and got ready for bed, deciding I was most definitely going to leave him alone.

I was just about ready to crawl into bed when his door opened. He came bursting in a few moments later, standing in the middle of my room, staring at me with hard eyes and a mouth pressed in a line.

Hesitantly, I turned to him. The air was charged, that feeling of a confrontation was thick in the air.

“Did you do it on purpose?” he suddenly demanded solemnly, breaking the silence.

“Do what exactly?”

“Make me jealous, Leah. Did you do it on purpose?”

My eyebrows shot up. I was pissed. “I’m insulted you could think that low of me.”

“I’m feeling a little insulted that you thought you could chat some guy up just to piss me off.”

“I didn’t chat him up.”

“You certainly didn’t shut him down, either, did you?”

My body tensed and anger shot through me as I icily retorted, “I did nothing wrong! He came to me and we talked a little.”

“And you danced.”

“It was harmless. You’ve misunderstood the situation, Carter.”

He chuckled scornfully. “Fucking hell, Leah, you are naïve. I didn’t misunderstand shit! That guy was all over you because he wanted you to spread those legs wide for him. I saw him sitting there all night looking at you, practically humping the chair he was sitting on.”