“Please, just let me talk to you.”
I shake my head. “I’m with someone.”
“Correct, she is.”
Travis’s voice comes from behind me, stern and unwavering. I don’t turn, but I can feel him behind me, his presence so intense that I know he isn’t happy. Dan’s face changes slightly, and I know that he is fully aware of who he is looking at. Unfortunately, Dan saw the worst of me when I was heartbroken over Travis.
But he goes on, undeterred.
“Violet, just a word—”
Travis’s growl behind me is a warning. “She’s taken. What part of that don’t you understand?”
“You’re seeing him,” Dan spits, unbothered by Travis. “After everything he put you through.”
“Yes. And I don’t regret it.”
He shakes his head. “After what he did, I never thought you’d stoop so low, but you always were weak when it came to him.”
“He’s changed, not that I owe you an explanation. Besides, you’re hardly one to throw around judgment. After all, you’re the one who cheated on me.”
He flinches. “I was a fool. I know that now. If you’ll give me a chance...”
“She said no,” Travis barks, his voice firm.
People all around us have stopped. Another one for social media.
Dan glares at him, then looks to me. “I hope I’ll run into you again, alone.”
“I don’t,” I mutter.
He turns and leaves, and Travis and I get the hell out. When we’re back at my car, away from everyone, I turn to him. “What were you doing in there?” I ask.
He shrugs. “Was getting lunch.”
“I’m sorry that’s what you walked in on,” I say, shrugging. “I didn’t know he lived here.”
His eyes are flashing, a storm brewing behind his gaze. “Will you see him again?”
I shake my head. “No.”
He leans close, curling his hand around the back of my neck. “Good, because you’re mine, Violet.”
He doesn’t say another word—not in public, not in the car, not all the way back to his work. He keeps a hand on my thigh the entire drive, holding so tight I’m sure his fingerprints will rise in my skin by morning. He turns to me when we arrive at the record label, his eyes searching my face.
“You ever think about him?”
I shake my head. “Not since we ended.” Lie, but only by omission; I don’t think of Dan as Dan, I think of him assomething I never want to be again. I think of that part of my life as over, and I’m grateful for it.
“He’s not going to be a problem, is he?” Travis’s thumb draws slow circles on my knee.
I shake my head. “No one’s ever going to be a problem for you.”
He gets out of the car after a hot, long kiss, and goes back to work. I make my way home, needing to unload everything on the one person I know I can turn to. My mom. As soon as I am inside Travis’s house, where I have been spending far too much time, I dial her number.
“Hi sweetheart.”
“Hi Momma. Sorry, I know you’re probably busy. I just needed to hear your voice.”