Not Us: Cash & Devin

Chapter 10

Devin POV

It'd been two months since the divorce started. I literally wanted nothing from him, but he wouldn't agree to even that! The mediator was getting annoyed at his constant objections and attempts to stall and drag this out.

"Mr. Dennison, sir. If you and your wife don't agree today, I'll be forced to send this to court. The last three meetings you've scheduled, saying you're ready to resolve this, and then you change your mind about something while we're all here. I've bent over backward to be accommodating to you. What do you want to do? Go to trial for divorce? Or settle it all here and now?" The poor exacerbated man looked at Caleb. Both of them looked annoyed and just wanted to not be here. I couldn't blame them. I was in the same boat.

Thankfully he was smart enough to decide to settle. He finally gave me the divorce. It was also confirmed the baby was indeed his. He was suing for full custody, and he was also working with the police to press charges on her for rape because he had no knowledge of what was happening, nor was he in the right state of mind to consent. The same things that apply when a woman is raped, and by her own admittance, he didn't know it was her he was fucking. She'd also alluded to using illegal drugs on him so he wouldn't put up a fight. She was almost halfway through the pregnancy now. As far as I knew, they were thinking her trial was going to be starting in a few months.

Clint and I had become better friends over the last two months. He let me stay with him when my real estate agent was showing my apartment. I wanted this place gone. Soon. I couldn't take too many more of the memories that would hit me at random times and just make me burst into tears.

I was working with therapy too. I'd had seven sessions so far and I was feeling like I wasn't crying as often or as much when I did cry. I took both of those things as a positive sign that it was working. I did have bad days, but those days, I had Eddie and Emilia. And now Clint. He'd opened up to me about why he decided to step in and tell me when he usually stays out of the gossip. He was a great guy. The kind of guy I could see Eddie with forever. But I'd let them figure that out together. I had enough going on.

They'd been tip-toeing around each other the last couple of weeks, and every time they would look at each other, they would flush bright red. It was hilarious to watch. At least one of us was having good luck in love, between all three of my parent's kids. Emilia was being dodgy about who she was seeing. If she was seeing someone. It was weird. I let it go, but Eddie was relentlessly questioning her.

Clint had started inviting me out with his group of friends. I brought Eddie with me several times, including the first night, and someone asked if we were together. We laughed and explained as briefly as I could that we were siblings by choice after my parents helped emancipate him from his hate-filled home life. Clint listened to everything diligently, almost as if he was listening to a college lecture and was taking notes. I half expected a notepad to come out at some point. Eddie and Clint ended up walking off one night and I saw them talking in a corner of the patio. Eddie put his hand on Clint's and they smiled at each other.

They made my hurt heart happy.

I turned back to the crowd of people that were currently sitting in Clint's living room. He was having his annual Anti-Valentine's party. Black dress code, broken hearts, and all. There were all kinds of people here. All friends, or friends of friends. Everyone was having a great time talking, laughing, and flirting in the penthouse. I wove my way through the crowd trying to get myself into the kitchen to get another drink. That was the trick. Getting from the patio to the kitchen, and back out to the patio, where I could get a little reprieve from the loud music and bodies pressed against each other, proved more challenging than I'd thought. I'd just made it to the kitchen and found the small cooler Eddie and I had brought. Emilia was on an actual date on Valentine's instead of being dateless like us love pariahs. I grabbed one of the mixed drinks in a can that I'd brought because I didn't know these people that well, so no way was I getting date raped. Not that I think that would happen, but you could never be too careful.

I was looking around the kitchen trying to find the best way out when it felt like time was coming to a standstill. There, across the kitchen, smiling at a group of men, stood possibly, the most beautiful man I'd ever seen. Like, hands down, jaw-dropping, finger-lickin'-good beautiful man. He was tall. Probably close to Eddie's height with blonde hair that was short on the sides, and longer on top. He had it slicked back. You could tell he worked out by the way that black V-neck shirt clung to his thick biceps, muscular chest, and those abs. You could see the outline of them through his shirt. He was standing partially facing me, but it looked like he'd never missed leg day, that's for damn sure!

My breath hitched in my throat as his gaze moved to mine. His light grey eyes connected with mine and suddenly, the twinkle in them felt like it was for me. Just as I went to smile back, his face froze. He stared at me for a while, almost like he'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. I started to feel quite fuckin' awkward so I hurried and turned out of there like my ass was on fire.

Again, getting through the crowd was proving to be a challenge, but I managed to sneak out. I shuffled around the people on the patio, hoping tall, dark, and handsome would get lost in the crowd and I could sit here, drinking my canned mixed drink, overthinking and telling myself it's not happening. Because it wasn't. It was only February. I'd only been divorced for maybe, five minutes. I'm not looking for a rebound or anything. I don't want to put myself back out there. The Anti-Valentine's party is my party.

For life.

Taking a drink, I then proceeded to overthink everything about that interaction. He probably had a girlfriend. Or boyfriend. Or both. Who knows. I felt something slide over my shoulders. Looking up, I saw Eddie and Clint. They draped a blanket over me.

"It's pretty cold out here. You comin' in any time soon, Fia?"

"Yeah," I said, looking out at the lights across the city, "Soon. Just thinking."

"Uh oh. I'll check back in on you in ten minutes, little sister!" Eddie shouted at me, the further toward the door inside he and Clint got. I just smiled. That's my brother. Days, literally, older than me. So not fair. Our parents still called us the twins though.

Just as the nip in the cold started to get to my fingers, and I seriously considered giving up and going inside to find Clint's library or call a cab home, a throat cleared behind me. Turning my head to the side, I saw it was the hottie from earlier.

"Shit."

"Not the usual response, but hi to you too. I've been hoping to see you again since the Christmas party." He walked closer to me, a nice beige cable knit sweater now on overtop of his all-black get-up. He stuck his hand out to me, his deep voice adding another layer of goosebumps, on top of the goosebumps I already had. Maybe it was the cold. Maybe.

"Name's Cash."

I stared at him for a moment, considering. I reached out and shook his hand, "Devin, but my brother calls me Fia." He flashed a smile at me and, stick a fork in me. I'm done.

He had dimples.