Flirting With Destiny: Aedyn Book 1

Chapter 10

Lauren 

"I can't believe you'd do that!" I screamed, angrier than I'd been in my life. My heart was pounding and my blood pressure was probably through the roof. "You had no right looking at my cell phone. That's private. You're crazy." 

 "Why don't you just admit your guilt then? Save me the trouble. Privacy equals secrets. What don't you want me to see?" He voice was low, controlled, each word ground out in a staccato. "Is it the guy you talked to at the sandwich shop? Who is he, Lauren?" 

"I'm not guilty of anything. You take everything I say and twist it around and use it against me. You've got me so mixed up. I don't know what to say or what to do anymore. I feel like I can't do anything right in your eyes." 

 I'd gone over to Chip's house after work for our usual night together. Things went downhill fast. We'd already been over this a minute ago when I came out of the bathroom and caught Chip with my cell phone in his hand, searching for something—evidence to fuel his jealousy of some imaginary guy I was seeing—and the argument just kept going in circles. I was drained. 

 "I can't do this anymore. All we do is argue, then you get angry and things spin out of control. I'm sick of it."

"If you love me, you wouldn't have anything to hide. You wouldn't care if I look at your phone. We're in a committed relationship. Lauren, you should trust me. Obviously, I can't trust you. What are you hiding?" 

"I can't even talk to you anymore." What an asshole. I wanted to pull my hair out. Here we go again—blame me; yell; punch something to show what a big man you are... hell no, I'm out of here before I let that happen again. Asshole. I snatched my phone and grabbed my purse. 

"I'm leaving." I spat. 

With my hand on the doorknob, I took one last look back at him standing there by the sofa. His expression had changed. His entire demeanor was transformed. His anger had melted into resignation, and in a pathetic attempt to beg for forgiveness, he said, "Lauren, wait. I love you. I'm sorry."

He ran his hands through his hair and took a step forward, but I wasn't about to wait for the pendulum to swing in the other direction. I slammed the door and tore off down the sidewalk, tears blurring my eyes. I cursed myself for not driving over earlier and, instead, allowing Chip to pick me up. Fine, I could walk. It wasn't that far. 

 My mind was exploding with explanations and it was a wonder I didn't trip over the cracks in the sidewalk. Again, for what seemed like the millionth time, Chip's anger led us into a heated argument. It wasn't my imagination, it wasn't his testosterone, and it wasn't too much stress from his job. For him to get this crazy all the time, there had to be something else triggering his behavior. It had gotten to the point where even little things set him off. Hell, the string could have broken off his tea bag this morning and he'd go into a rage.

But this time, I wasn't sticking around. I would stop the damn argument before it escalated into something physical. He hadn't hurt me... yet, but we seem to be headed in that direction, although a small part of my brain rationalized that if he wanted to hurt me, he would have done so by now. He didn't work out at the gym, but he was strong and he could easily do damage if he'd wanted. Plus, every time his temper got out of control, he'd say he was sorry afterwards and promise it wouldn't happen again. 

 In any case, it was a good thing I'd left. If he'd looked at my text messages to Jules, he would have found the ones I sent her about Aedyn. We'd texted that day about the hot guy stepping out of the limo, my curiosity about his identity. Then we'd texted after I'd ran into him in the sandwich shop. Although they were innocent, Chip would have read them as dirty and wrong. I had no way of knowing how he'd react.