“I meant—”

“You’ve been having coffee and catching up with the whore you once hooked up with.” She slipped on her sandals.

“Sofie, don’t say it like that.” He walked around the bed towards her. “I got coffee and she hadn’t started her shift yet, so I sat with her for a little bit. That’s all.”

Eric tried touching her arm, but she pulled it away. “Don’t touch me!”

“Sofie, baby.” He took her arm again, even though she tried pulling free. “Why are you getting all worked up? If I’d have known how upset this would make you, I would’ve never—”

“Told me?”

“No, I would’ve never even talked to her.”

She tried to pull away from his hold, but he held her. She took a few steps backward in an effort to get away from him. Eric kept up with her until they were against the wall.

“I’ll find another coffee shop, okay?”

She squirmed, but her struggle with trying to get away from him, had lost a little fuel. He took advantage and pushed his body against hers, letting her feel the rise she’d given him from just seeing her naked even after being with her all night.

“How many times?”

He licked her bottom lip. “How many times what?”

“You said you had coffee with her a few times.”

“Twice.” He kissed her.

He wouldn’t be stupid enough to tell her the truth now. He’d done nothing wrong, but the fact that he knew Asia’s schedule and he was beginning to look forward to chatting with her, had already started feeling wrong. He had no idea Sofia knew about him and Asia back in high school.

“Promise me you won’t talk to her again.”

He pulled her dress up, spreading her legs. She drew in a sudden breath.

“I promise.”

She wrapped one arm around his neck and pulled him out of his underwear. Within seconds, they were making love against the wall. He listened to those soft pants of hers he’d grown to love. He may have enjoyed catching up with Asia again, but where Sofia would get the idea that anyone else would ever do was beyond him.

***

Monday morning, Sofia stretched as she walked through her backyard toward the back gate. Wh banbsen she got out, she held on to the gate with one hand and stretched her leg behind her with the other.

The conversation she’d had with Eric that weekend still lingered in her mind. Even though she gave into him and didn’t storm out of there like she had intended after he admitted to having coffee with Asia, the doubt still loomed. She’d hardly slept the night before just thinking about it. Eric could continue to talk to Asia every day and she’d never know about it. He still hadn’t mentioned anything about her going out to visit him.

After stretching a bit more, Sofia began running. She’d only been running for five minutes when Brandon was by her side. Sofia smiled, looking down at Troop. He’d finally started walking on his leash without Brandon having to drag him.

The sweat dripped down Brandon’s face. “You’re late today.”

“Yeah, I slept in,” she said. “It felt good, too.”

“Late night?”

She shook her head. “Actually, I was in bed early, but I had a hard time sleeping.” She considered taking off in a sprint to beat him to the park, but she didn’t think Troop would be able to keep up.

When they finally did get to the tree, Sofia bent over to pet Troop.

“You gotta hurry back again, or do you have a few minutes to talk?”

His eyes gave Sofia that funny feeling she got from him on Friday. The dark stubble on his hard chin made the blue of his eyes that much more piercing. She glanced away, petting Troop some more. “I have a few minutes.”

Brandon sat down on the grass He pulled a few blades of grass out of the ground, then looked back at her. “I wanted to thank you.”

“Thank me?” Sofia searched his eyes.

“Yeah, there’s no way you’d know this, but you’re the reason I enlisted in the Marines in the first place.”

She shook her head. “Me?”

“Yeah, you,” he smiled. “Remember when we used to talk in Geometry class and you would talk about doing whatever it takes to reach you’re goal, and never give up?”

Sofia remembered the conversations. But she was so into trying to keep her spot on the relay team back then, most of her motivational speeches were geared by that. She sat down across from him, but not too close. “Yeah, I remember.”

Brandon smiled and gazed at her for a moment, making her avert her attention back to Troop. “Back then, my life at home was crap. Always had been, actually. My dad had always been abusive, mostly to my mom, but on occasion, he turned it on me, too. I hated life—I hated everyone. I talked to nobody, and I mean nobody. I had no friends and wanted no friends. I think you were the only one I ever opened up to. I thought it was ironic too ‘cause I’d been such a jerk with you growing up.”

Troop jumped on Sofia’s lap. She hugged the puppy, petting him all over. “You weren’t so bad. I thought maybe you just did it to get to my brothers.”

Brandon look> Blocked at her incredibly. “Why would I want to do that? Alex has always been a monster, and he wasn’t even the biggest one back then.”

“So why did you?”

Brandon glanced away. “I don’t know. I think I just didn’t know how else to react to you. Anyway,” he lifted a shoulder. “I thought a lot about what you said back then. You were always so cheery and optimistic about everything and it sort of motivated me to do something with my life. I hated school but I hated coming home even more. Then one day you talked about the career center at school. Did you know I never even knew our school had a career center until you brought it up?”