Adria let out a small, humorless breath as Jason repeated what Andrea had probably hoped all along. โShe figured we needed to talk,โ she echoed, lips pressing into a line as she looked down. Her fingers toyed with the hem of her blazer, a quiet tremor in her hands betraying how not-okay she actually felt. The truth was, she wasnโt ready for another round of arguing. The last time theyโd spoken, it had gutted her. Their voices had been raised, accusations hurled like knives, and it wasnโt just the anger that stuck with her, it was the way theyโd looked at each other, like strangers. It was the way she had walked away that night, heart in her throat, too stubborn to turn back and too shattered to try again. She didnโt have another argument in her. Not with him. Not with the one person who could unravel her with a single sentence. Without responding right away, Adria stepped forward, slowly, and leaned past him to grab a beer from the cooler sitting on the counter. Her arm brushed against his as she pulled back, and the contact jolted her like static, sharp, immediate, charged. Her breath caught, and she exhaled softly, trying not to let it show. But God, her body remembered him. Every nerve ending still woke up when he was near. She popped open the beer and, with nowhere else to go emotionally or physically, hopped onto the kitchen island behind her. She needed the height, the grounding, maybe just the illusion of a little power in a situation where she felt entirely exposed. Her eyes locked with his again, vulnerable, searching. โIs there even anything else to talk about?โ she asked, her voice not accusatory, but open. Honest. โBecause if there isโฆ then okay.โ She took a sip of the beer, almost like she was bracing herself. โI just canโt argue with you again. I canโt do it, Jase.โ Tears filled her eyes quicker than sheโd hoped. She blinked them back, refusing to let them fall. Not yet. She tilted her chin up, pressing her tongue to the roof of her mouth like sheโd read once, it helped keep the tears in. โDo you even know how it felt?โ Her voice cracked, and the emotion that had been sitting in her chest like a stone finally started to rise. โWhen Kate told me about you and this other woman?โ Her throat tightened, her breath catching somewhere between grief and disbelief. โMy entire world came falling apart.โ Without thinking, she shrugged off the blazer, suddenly overwhelmed by how suffocating it felt. The room felt hot, like her skin couldnโt breathe. โIf weโre going to talkโreally talkโwithout turning it into another war,โ she said, steadier now, even if her voice was thin, โthen I just need to know why. Help me understand. Was I not doing it for you anymore? Did I stop being what you needed?โ She shook her head, more to herself than to him. โI just need to know what made everything fall apart.โ Her voice was barely above a whisper now, but her eyes never left his. โPlease. Just be honest with me.โ
Jason raised a brow at her humorless laugh and the way she echoed his words of needing to talk, because he was pretty sure it was obvious they needed to talk. Too many things were left unsaid because they fought instead of truly listening. Jason had been so hurt by her accusations, he hadn't really calmed down enough to truly talk to her; he just went right into defense mode. It had broken his heart, though, to have the one person he thought could trust him for everything and anything pretty much state that she didn't trust him. It broke him down, and when it broke him down, he just snapped and fought with her, and when she walked away that night, Adria took a big chunk of Jason with her because he truly meant it when he said it felt like so much of him was missing without her. His eyes tracked her as she moved forward and past him to get a beer. He sucked in a breath when her arm brushed against his, and there was a part of him that hated that such a simple contact would cause that kind of reaction from him. God, she drove him crazy in the best way and the worst way. As she opened her beer and then hopped up on the kitchen island behind her, Jason focused on her again, his eyes staying on hers, and he didn't pull them away. He tilted his head a little at her next words, and he read behind the lines of what she was saying, and he was about to snap at her but didn't; instead, he reined in his temper and just looked at her sadly. "You still think there's someone else?" His words had a little bit of an incredulous tone to them, because he couldn't believe that she still thought he'd been with someone else, especially when Jason thought he always made it clear that she was it for him, that he loved her. "I don't want to argue with you again either, Adria; I don't want to see those tears in your eyes. But I do want you to trust me, and you don't know how much it's killing me that you don't." It took everything in him to not move forward to comfort her, but he knew that comforting her right now wouldn't be welcome, so he stayed back. Jason was really doing his best to keep his cool, but the minute she brought up Kate and the other woman, he had to let out a long breath before speaking. "Kate is full of fucking shit, is what Kate is, because she didn't see me with no other woman," and Jason did his very best to keep his voice calm. "So if you want to talk, really talk, and this not turn into a war, Dria, you need to listen to me. There is no other woman. I don't know why Kate told you there was, but there wasn't one. I would never lie to you, and you should know that by now, so I don't know why you can't believe me when I'm telling you this." His words were sincere, and he hoped that Adria could see that, could hear that, as he looked at her. "You're the only one that has done it for me for a very long time; I wish you would see that. You're the only one that I need. I love you. So tell me why you think I would screw that all up by being seen with another woman. That doesn't make sense." Jason finally moved closer then, moving until he was right in front of Adria, his eyes still locked on hers. "Everything fell apart because Kate lied to you and told you I was with someone when I wasn't, baby, can't you see that? I'm being honest with you. I've never lied to you before; why would I start now?"


















