50 Shades of Drake 3 and 4

Torn: Chapter Seventy-Five

    "Go home, Bernice."

    "You shouldn't be alone tonight, Aubrey."

    Aubrey stared after the limousine cruising down the street. Its tail lights flashed shortly before rounding a corner. That limousine, the one that was completely out of view now, carried his heart inside of it. His heart was sitting in the backseat of that town car. He wished for the car to return, but after the brief flash of pain in Destiny's eyes, he doubted that the car would be returning any time soon. She saw me kissing Bernice, and now she's probably off to do... He stopped himself from completing the thought.

    Bernice tugged on his hand. "We should go upstairs."

    "We aren't going anywhere," Aubrey said, swiveling his gaze back in her direction. "I'm going to go upstairs. Probably drink quite a bit more. Maybe smoke a little something, if I can find one of my old stashes. Relax. Meanwhile, you are going to get in your car and go home. On second thought, maybe I should call you a taxi."

    She frowned. "You saw who she's with. Three guesses as to what they're going to do tonight and how many times they're going to do it."

    "And that is supposed to make me want to invite you upstairs?" he queried with an arched brow.

    "That's where we were headed before we found them spying on us," Bernice pointed out.

    "True. But things are different now." Now I have to sit up in that condo and pray that Destiny comes back to me Sunday night.

    Bernice pouted. "Are you serious?"

    "Yes."

    "Sometimes I don't even know why I put up with you," she cried out. "All you do is yank me around."

    "And all you do is continue to come to me whenever I request you," Aubrey said, his eyes frosty. "I think I've made it abundantly clear that I don't love you. Not in the way you love me. I never will."

    "But you love her?" Bernice demanded.

    He shrugged one shoulder. "I am starting to believe she is the only woman I'm capable of loving. Yes."

    Bernice shook her head. "You love her so much that you're willing to let her walk all over you? Date another man? Sleep with another man? Choose another man over you, when you're obviously hurting?"

    For the longest time, he'd wished that he felt the same way about Bernice than she'd felt about him. There was no arguing the fact that she was beautiful, extremely easy on the eyes. Stacked like a brick house. She was a bartender and hosted events at nightclubs even though she was well into her thirties, but it was what she loved to do. She was also great at it. In addition to her club event work, she was working on getting a lingerie line up and running, and taking care of her family, some of which still lived in Puerto Rico. As much as he'd wished he could return the love she felt for him, it was simply something he was incapable of doing. He had love for her; he always would. She was a treasured friend and a trusted confidante. She was someone that he found he could always lean on. But she wasn't someone that he saw himself in a serious relationship with. Not in this lifetime. Not in a world where Destiny existed.

    "I never thought I would see Aubrey Graham allow a woman to walk all over him," she spat at him.

    "You think pissing me off is going to result in angry sex?" he asked calmly.

    Her eyes widened slightly, but she quickly recovered. "No...I think that angering you will result in us standing in this lobby for another three hours."

    He withdrew his cell phone from the pocket of his dress pants. "I'm going to call you a cab. And then I am going to stand here and wait for the cab to arrive."

    "You're pathetic."

    His brows furrowed. "Pardon?"

    She poked him in the chest. "I said, you are fucking pathetic!"

    "Lower your voice."

    "You don't tell me what to do!" she shouted at him. "Only mi novio gets to tell me what to do. You're not mi novio, are you? No. You're just some sick, twisted fuck who screws me twice a year, whenever he can't handle the loneliness anymore."

    Aubrey stared hard at her.

    "The truth hurts, doesn't it?" Ferocity blazed in her brown eyes. "You think that she is going to come back to you? When she has that fine, sexy piece of white chocolate on her arm? When he's sweet enough to actually watch out for her, and protect her from the likes of you? You, who are so fucking broken, I couldn't even figure out how to piece you back together if I had all of the fucking pieces?"

    "Watch your mouth," he said in a low, trembling voice.

    "If I were her, I would run away with him," Bernice went on, backing away from him. "We would just...disappear. You would never see me again. He has a good heart, but your heart? It's black. It's as black as the tops of my Louboutins. As black as coal. You're damaged. Do you hear me? Damaged goods."

    He advanced on her and pushed her against the wall near the elevators.

    She gasped and zipped her mouth shut.

    "You think I'm broken?" he growled at her. "Like I said before, you've chased a broken man for years. I guess you didn't mind my brokenness then. This bullshit psychological manipulation you're trying to attempt, with making me think that Destiny wouldn't ever come back to me? It's your jealousy, your envy of her, talking. I'm smart enough to see through that. Are you forgetting that I know you?"

    Anger and pain mingled in Bernice's eyes.

    "Tonight, I felt bad for you," he said. "I felt bad for you because I realized just how often I've used you as an emotional Band-Aid. That isn't fair to you. It's not even fair to myself. After the emotional blackmail you just attempted to pull on me, I no longer feel bad for you. I no longer feel anything for you." He braced an arm beside her face and leaned in close to her. "What I mean by that is, we're finished. I won't ever be calling you again. I will allow you to get back to bar tending, or dancing on tables, or...whatever the fuck it is that you do. Have a nice life, Bernice." With those words, he pressed the elevator button. The doors slid open, and he stepped inside.

    Bernice turned to face him with tears frozen in her eyes.

    "I trust that you can call your own cab?" Aubrey asked, tilting his head to the side. "I would call one for you, but that's not something a man with a black heart would do, now is it?" The doors slid closed, hiding her from view. He was thankful for that small blessing.