When You Were Mine (Moreno Brothers)

Chapter 6 - part 2

Valerie had been working in a real estate office for months now, shadowing other real estate agents. Alex already knew she'd been scheduled to take her state license exam soon. He just found out yesterday from Angel that she had and had told Sarah she felt real good about it. She'd already mentioned to Alex that, as soon as she was licensed for the required minimum two years, she'd be taking the broker's test. The girl was a force to be reckoned with. He was as proud of her perseverance as he was turned on by it. She had her shit together, and when she set her mind to something, she accomplished it. She'd even gotten her AA early, and when she'd moved out of her dorm and into her own place, she'd done it all on her own. As far as Alex knew, she had no help from her daddy. He remembered her saying she'd surprised him by taking him to her apartment and saying "Ta-da!" It was just one more thing he loved about her.

No way was he telling her about his struggle to keep his grades up. It'd be fucking humiliating. But he would be honest about something else—at least as much as he could be. It's what he expected from her when it came to this kind of stuff.

"It was just a baseball game, Val. I didn't even stay for the whole thing. We got there late and left early."

He left the rest out. She didn't need to know about them going back to his place afterward.

"You made time for a baseball game during a week you didn't have time to so much as text me? Gee, I wonder why that is," she said, and Alex knew he was seconds away from getting hung up on. "Oh, wait, I remember now. Because she's smexy, right, Alex?"

"That was just a—" He stopped suddenly as he heard the unmistakable click on the other end.

With a long flustered deep breath, he continued to drive. This wasn't the first time she'd hung up on him, of course, but this worried him more than the all the other times. Alex knew she'd always been hurt in the past when she'd suspected him spending time with other girls. But she'd never asked him outright about them.

Something had definitely changed recently. He'd felt it. It'd been over a year now that they'd both started to become a little more demanding of the other. Their time apart consisted mainly of a few days a week at the longest like this week. And like tonight the hurt had started to weigh heavier, causing more damage than it ever did before. She was getting tired of this game, and Alex didn't even try to hide his feelings of entitlement to her, even though they'd never formally declared themselves a couple. It was the main reason why he'd decided he was going to step things up with her.

Alex felt the urgency to do something soon. The spats and falling-outs they'd had most recently had the explicit feel of verging on the irrevocable now. Tonight she'd actually asked him about the girl Sarah overheard him on the phone with. As angry as Alex had heard her in the past, this was by far the worst. She'd been livid. Apparently, Sarah had asked Valerie if she'd talked to him this week, and Valerie told her no then tried to excuse him for disappearing on her because of how busy he was. That's when Sarah had informed her about the call she'd overheard. She said it was humiliating to have to admit that, as usual, he was just too busy for her.

He hated to hear the hurt in her voice. It scared the hell out of him now. It was why he decided he'd do something he didn't do often—show up at her place without warning. He'd been dying to see her. Just hearing her voice after not hearing it all week had been heaven.

Until she started going off on him.

His parents were finally home, and Sal had come down to help out for the weekend with the restaurant. They all knew Alex needed a break. Even if it was just for a couple of days—maybe less. No way was Alex passing up the chance to spend the whole weekend with her. He knew she was mad, and he understood why, but if he could just convince her how much he'd missed her all week and that he wanted nothing more than to make it up to her, she might forgive him. He had to at least try because he had every intention of making up to her not just for this week but for all the times he'd hurt her in the past.