Tucker followed before I could close the door on him. Too bad for that bit of shit luck. Once he was inside, he locked the door behind him and then glanced around, taking in the whole of the room. It had one bed, a queen, and a little table with two chairs off to the side. Then it had the standard nightstand on one side of the bed. An outdated floor lamp on the other and a dresser with a flatscreen television on top of it, were situated in front of the bed. Just beside the TV was a little refrigerator with a microwave on top of it and a single-cup, drip coffee maker was nestled in a tray on the microwave, which rounded out the ‘kitchen’ part of the room. Off to the side of that was the sink and mirror with a little door that led to where the tub-shower combo and a toilet were contained in their own itty-bitty space. When I say contained, I meant it. The space was so small that I had to practically stand inside the tub in order to get the door shut before I could use the toilet. Thankfully, since it had just been me staying there, I hadn’t needed to shut the door for privacy.

“You’ve been staying here?”

“Obviously,” I called back as I moved through the room and picked up my dirty laundry that had been scattered around the floor. It wasn’t like I had to care what anyone thought of my housekeeping skills, and honestly, I usually made a mess when I overslept and was running late for school. That always happened when I stayed up too late writing on my story.

“Mina, why didn’t you just stay at the apartment?”

“Because I didn’t want to see you, and since I asked for an annulment, it didn’t seem like a smart thing to do to stay in an apartment that didn’t belong to me.”

“I told you, I don’t want an annulment.”

“And I told you, that you don’t always get what you want.”

“Can you at least let me explain?”

“Why? What’s the point in doing that? It happened. You were very publicly with someone else,” I accused, and he didn’t deny it. “You were seen carrying on with another woman. There were tons of pictures, and then there was the article that followed it up about how someone in your company, or was it your family, basically told that girl to seduce you. That was a lot of fun to read, especially knowing that her hard work definitely wasn’t for nothing.”

“Mina,” that time, his voice came out on a defeated sigh. “I spent an entire summer with Venla last year. She was the one person, from my past, who I thought might be the one to settle down with.”

“Great. Fantastic. Then you already have my replacement picked out, only you already know that you’re at least attracted to her. So, even better for you.”