Perfect Together by Kristen Ashley

“You didn’t use it,” he stated flatly. “You used me.”

She sucked her lips between her teeth.

“You were supposed to be saving to get your own place,” he reminded her.

She let her lips go and replied, “When you didn’t, you know, push that or even really mention it again after I moved in…” When he opened his mouth, she quickly said, “At least not after the first few months, I thought…I mean, I figured…”

She trailed off.

So Remy finished for her.

“You decided to read our relationship how you needed to read it, and then you took advantage of it.”

Softly she said, “I didn’t do it to be mean or a mooch, I really was crazy about you, Remy.”

Remy didn’t trust himself to speak.

“The thing is, I knew before you knew. You know…about Wyn.”

He spoke then.

“That I still loved her?”

Looking miserable, Myrna nodded.

“You kept going over to her house. Any excuse, you were over there. You’d come home, all amped up.” Her lips tipped at the ends in a melancholy way. “I knew you, baby. I knew every inch of you. Every tone of your voice. Every smell you gave off. That amped up you were, it wasn’t about being pissed, though you were telling yourself that. You needed to get laid. But,”—she drew in a huge breath—“even so, you never touched me after. Not when you got home, not for days. You missed her, you were like…pining for her, and I wouldn’t do.”

Fucking hell.

I wouldn’t do.

Christ, he was an ass.

He sunk back down on the piano bench, muttering, “Jesus, Myrna.”

“So, I panicked,” she said. “I panicked because I loved you, and you loved her. I don’t even know what the fuck was wrong with me. I tried to get pregnant when I knew you didn’t want it. I guess being crazy about you made me crazy. Because I was acting crazy. And I panicked again when you got so mad about it and told me I had to leave. But that wasn’t just because I was losing you. I got even crazier because we were over, and I didn’t want that, and because I didn’t have the money to go.”

She sucked in a breath, and when Remy remained silent, she carried on.

“I asked to go back to full-time, but they gave that position to someone else, and they couldn’t swing it for me. I needed to find a new job or another one to add to what I had, not to mention a deposit and first month’s rent. But you didn’t give me enough time.”

“It wasn’t my responsibility, considering you didn’t tell me your employment had changed. If we were living together as you thought we were, as partners, this was something I was entitled to know. But regardless how we were living together, considering the fact I was footing the bill, I simply was entitled to know. Can you explain why you didn’t do that?” Remy requested.

“Because I knew it would mean you’d make us end,” she admitted. “I knew that would shake your shit, you’d reflect on that request, and know we weren’t there, and then we’d be over. Obviously, I wasn’t letting myself understand what was behind the shit I was pulling then, but upon reflection, I understand it now. I didn’t want to face it, so I just rode the wave I was on, even knowing on some level I was headed for a wipeout.”

She gave it a moment to allow that to sink in before she tried to joke.

“I can share with some authority that sitting in a jail cell for two days while you beg your really ticked-off mom to bail you out is a pretty hefty wipeout. And as you know, she liked you. So when I confessed to how jacked I’d been behaving, she wasn’t doing cartwheels of joy at the adjusted child she’d raised.”

She was being honest, and amusing, but all of this was eerily familiar.

Myrna was a thirty-nine-year-old woman who thought work was a drag, lied or held back important truths to get what she wanted, and threw tantrums and acted out when she didn’t get it.

In other words, this all seemed too easy, so he wasn’t ready to buy it.

“What did you come into this house thinking was going to happen?” he asked.

Now she appeared guilty, but she said nothing.

“It can’t get worse, Myrna,” he pointed out.

It probably could, but for fuck’s sake. She’d tried to trap him with a child, stalked his son, broke into his home and used him for his money.

So she’d have to get creative to top all of that.

“I thought you’d make a deal with me. If I left you alone, you’d drop the charges.”

Remy sighed.

She went to the couch, but she didn’t sit in it like she owned the place this time. She rested her ass on the arm like she was ready to spring up again if he so demanded.

“You don’t have to drop the charges. I have no priors. The lawyer Mom got me said if I plead guilty, he can swing a deal so I’ll do community service and probably get a year’s probation. It sucks, but I’ll have a record. That said, it is what it is. I did it. If you can be a big enough person to say what you said to start all of this off, I can face the consequences of being a huge moron.”

“Are you going to leave my family alone?” he asked.

She lifted a hand his way.

“You need to know, the last part, it wasn’t about Wyn. After I did that thing to Sah I realized how fucked up I’d been behaving and refocused my energies.”