“Valerie, wait!” Panicked when she spun around and stormed away, Alex rushed after her just as his f**king ankle nearly gave out on him.

Recovering from his near fall, he took her hand as the pain in his ankle began to throb. At the moment, that was the least of his worries. He’d seen Valerie angry plenty of times, but this scared the shit out of him.

Fuck his pride. He had to tell her the truth now. “Baby, listen to me,” he pleaded, looking her straight in the eyes. “She’s a tutor.”

Her laughter sounded almost hysterical. “Wow, Alex, the lies wearing a little thin finally?”

“No, she really is,” he insisted, feeling like an idiot for letting it come to this.

“Is that supposed to make it better, Alex?” She was screaming now. “That you’re f**king a tutor!”

The hurt she was obviously feeling over this was being drowned out by anger. It was a living thing and it radiated off her. Her face was completely flushed, and for a moment, he even saw the terror in her own eyes. Fear that even she realized she might become hysterical.

She scurried off, but Alex chased after her, his own heart pounding as he tried to explain about the tutor and how he stupidly didn’t want her to know. This was so much worse. But she wasn’t listening.

He reached for her, but her reaction to his touch was as if she were reacting to an assailant. She spun around, screaming and flailing her arms in the air wildly. “Get away from me!”

Her screaming was so high-pitched that anyone watching from a window nearby would certainly think he was attacking her. But it was the look in her eyes that stunned him most. She hated him at that moment. Of that he was sure. At that moment, she truly hated his guts.

“Do you care about me at all, Alex?”

Her chest heaved, and even as the makeup stained tears streamed down her face, she still looked beautiful. Yet he couldn’t get over the utter detestation in the way she was looking at him. He was suddenly filled with a paralyzing fear. Had he really f**ked up this bad? Had he really driven her to hating him?

“Do you at all?”

Finally able to speak, he took a step forward and reached out for her again. “Baby, of course I do. I—”

She slapped his hand away instantly. “Then stay away from me! Don’t ever call me again!”

Valerie, don’t—”

“Please, Alex!” Her words were verging on the hysterical again as she got in her car. “Promise me, Alex,” she pleaded. “I don’t want you to call me ever again.”

She was out of her mind if she thought he’d promise her that. He stepped closer to the open window and spoke with conviction. “No.”

“I need you out of my life!” she begged in tears as she fumbled to start up the car.

Alex hated seeing her like this. Hated knowing that he’d done this to her. The window started going up, so he began explaining again frantically. “Valerie, listen to me!”

He shouted out about the tutor, about what a f**king idiot he’d been not to tell her about it. But she wasn’t listening. She was still sobbing when she drove away, leaving him there standing in the middle of the street.

His attempt to run in the house to get his keys so he could go after her was thwarted when the sharp pain in his ankle shot up his leg, nearly making him fall. He limped the rest of the way in, cussing under his breath.

“Your phone’s been ringing nonstop,” Gwyneth said as soon as he walked in, handing him his cell phone.

“Thanks,” he said, taking it, hoping that by some miracle Valerie decided she did want to hear his explanation for Gwyneth being at his place tonight.

“Was that Valerie?” Gwyneth winced.

Alex nodded. The irony was as infuriating as it was painful. The first person he’d actually told about Valerie being his girlfriend was the same girl Valerie may’ve finally given up on him for.

“I thought about going out there to help you explain, but she seemed hysterical.”

“She was,” he said simply as he hit the keys to play his voice mails back.

“I’m sorry,” she said almost in a whisper.

He shook his head and offered a small smile, bringing the phone to his ear. “Not your fault.”

All the missed calls were from Sal and Sofie. Normally he’d just call them back, but he was in no mood to talk to anyone. So he called his voice mail instead. He’d be sending Gwyneth home just as soon as he got off the phone, because he had to get Valerie to listen to him one way or another.

He typed in his voice mail password the second it began to prompt him and listened.

“Alex, this is Sal. We’ve been trying to get a hold of you. Abuelito’s back in the hospital. It’s not looking good at all. Mom and Dad are already heading out to be with him. The contractors are scheduled to get started this week. It’s gonna be a long job as it is. We don’t want to reschedule unless we absolutely have to. Angel has a couple of crucial classes he can’t miss this week. I needed to check with you before I start rearranging my schedule. Call me ASAP, man. And you might wanna call Dad.” There was a sudden silence for a moment, and Alex thought maybe that was the end of the message until Sal added in a lower somber voice. “He’s a mess.”

Alex closed his eyes, bringing his hand to his forehead as Sofie’s message started up. As if he didn’t already have enough going on emotionally, she was crying. “I’m so worried about Daddy, Alex. He looked so sad when they left, and on top of it all, he’s worried about the restaurant and the construction.” She took a trembling breath. “When Angel told him he could drop this semester, Daddy nearly had a conniption since this is his last year.”