At Once

by Mindy McKinley

  He had to get out of there; he had to get as far away as he could. He dropped her roses and stumbled back down the stairs with Gabi’s hysterical cries and Matt’s cold laughter trailing after him.

  Gabi

  Tears running down her face, Gabi turned on Matt with a ferocity she didn’t know she was capable of. “Get out of here,” she ground out.

  He laughed. “So that’s Mason, huh? He’s a big guy, but I bet his cock is ...”

  She reared back and slapped him so hard across the face he couldn’t finish his sentence. “Get the fuck out of here, Matt! You have no business here.”

  “Of course I do, baby,” he said, recovering quickly, his voice changing to that manipulative drawl that used to make her agree to whatever he wanted. “I love you; you’re my wife.”

  “I AM NOT YOUR WIFE!” she screamed. She had never been more livid, more angry, more terrified than she was at that moment. Not of Matt, but of losing Mason. She had seen the light die in his eyes, and it made her wild with fear and anger. “That’s what divorce means, Matt. I don’t love you anymore. I’m not even sure if I ever did.”

  He reached out to touch her face. “You don’t mean that, baby girl.”

  She ducked his hand. “If you don’t get out of here right fucking now, I am calling the police. And you can bet your sorry ass that I’ll get a restraining order tomorrow.”

  He laughed. “I like you all riled up like this, it’s sexy.”

  “GET OUT!” she screamed. She was just seconds away from losing her mind. She didn’t know what she would have done had Cruz and Kylie not just stepped off the elevator.

  She heard Kylie say, “Oh, fuck,” and before she knew what was happening, Cruz had Matt up against the wall and was landing a punch straight across his jaw. The sound of fist against bone was raw and sickening. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as Matt slumped down to the floor.

  “Get out,” Cruz warned him, helping him to his feet. “And don’t come back.”

  Matt mumbled something, spat blood on the floor, and stumbled into the elevator. Just before the door closed, he looked Gabi right in the eye and said, “This is not done.”

  “Like hell it is, you motherfucker!” Kylie screamed.

  Gabi just gasped and crumpled to the floor feeling like the life had been sucked right out of her.

  Kylie ran to her and gathered her in her arms. “Oh, Gabs,” she soothed as she rocked her back and forth. “What happened? Where’s Mason?”

  She couldn’t talk, all she could do was cry into Kylie’s shoulder as the sobs wracked her body.

  Cruz was prowling around the hallway like a tiger, fists clenched, ready for Matt to show back up. “Who the fuck was that?”

  Gabi just shook her head.

  “Gabi’s ex-husband,” Kylie explained calmly. “He’s the most worthless fucker that ever existed. Made her life a living hell for five years.”

  Cruz shook his head and let out a string of curses in Spanish. “Where the fuck is Mason? He should have been here.”

  At that, Gabi let out another wail. Oh, God, she had lost Mason. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t fucking breathe. “He was here,” she sobbed, “and Matt ...”

  “What?” Kylie asked. “What happened?”

  “Matt made him believe he was still my husband before I got to the door, and he just...” She was shaking with sobs.

  “He what?” Cruz demanded.

  She took a deep, shaky breath and sobbed. “He left.”

  “He left you here with him?” Kylie gasped. “Alone?”

  She nodded and felt her entire body go limp as her friend held her.

  “Cabrón,” Cruz spat out. “Let’s get her inside,” he said. “I think it’s best if she stays with you for the night.”

  “Of course,” Kylie answered and helped him get Gabi to her feet.

  She felt like a ragdoll as Cruz picked her up and carried her to Kylie’s sofa. But it didn’t matter. Nothing really mattered now. Matt had finally ruined everything good in her life.

  Kylie pulled her shoes off, fetched her a glass of water, and tucked a blanket up around her. “Cruz is going to go look for Mason,” she told her, kissing her forehead. “You and I are going to veg and watch something stupid, okay?”

  Gabi only nodded because her friend was waiting for a response. She felt like she wasn’t even inside her body.

  She heard Kylie and Cruz kiss by the door. Heard Cruz’s instructions for her to lock up tight and not open the door for anyone, heard Kylie asking if she wanted anything to eat, but none of it really made it inside.

  Before long, her best friend was curled up next to her with a glass of white wine and Goonies was playing on the television. She was surprised to find she was holding a glass too. When had that happened?

  The images on the screen flashed by her, but all she thought about was Mason’s expression, the way he looked at her as if she was some sort of lying whore, and every time she saw it, it broke her again.

  She was in ashes by the time she fell asleep.

  Chapter 27

  Mason

  “What the fuck are you doing, man?”

  Mason looked up from where he was sprawled across his sofa amidst a sea of beer cans. His head swam. “This,” he told Cruz, and motioned around the room, knocking two cans to the floor in the process.

  Cruz shook his head. “You should be with Gabi.”

  His heart caved in at the sound of her name. “No, I don’t think so,” he grumbled. “She’s probably busy with her husband.” He lifted his head up a little. “Did you know she was married? Because I didn’t know,” he said bitterly

  “Ex-husband, you idiot,” Cruz corrected. “And if you had stuck around just a second longer, given her just a second more to explain, you might have saved your ass from having your head in it.”

  He disagreed. The thing was, she never even told him that she was ever married at all. Did that make sense? Is that what trustworthy people did? Why would she keep it from him if it was all on the up-and-up?

  “She’s at Kylie’s.”

  “So?”

  Cruz let out a string of curses. “You need to get over there and make this right, you fucker. She’s breaking.”

  “And I’m not?” he asked, trying to sit up. He gave up when his head swam and his gut clenched.

  “No, you’re just being a stubborn asshole.”

  “Well, I’d prefer to be a stubborn asshole by myself, so if you can see your way out, I’d appreciate it.”

  “Are you serious right now?”

  He didn’t answer, just reached for the television remote and turned it on.

  Cruz shook his head. “Fine. I’ll go, but for the record, I think you’re making the biggest mistake of your life.”

  No. He had already made that by falling for Gabi. This is how he paid for it.

  Cruz waited for a couple of minutes, he guessed to see if he would change his mind, but before long, he heard the front door close and he settled further into his beer-drenched haze.

  He woke up in the middle of the night in a panic, reaching for Gabi. He had dreamt that she had been hurt, but all he found were empty beer cans.

  He let out a pained howl as everything rushed back into his brain and his heart broke all over again. This was the first night he’d spent without her in weeks, and he had never felt more alone. Christ alive, if this was love, he had no idea why people did it willingly.

  He thought about where she might be, what she might be doing, and wondered if she felt alone too. Good, he thought, he hoped so. If he was hurting this bad, she should be too.

  But then he would think of the smiles she gave him, the dimples that appeared whenever he told her she was beautiful, the way their bodies moved together with such perfect grace, and he found himself in tears for the thousandth time.

  Fuck, how was he going to survive this when time stretched out in front of him like an endless nightmare?

  Beer. That’s how.
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  He somehow managed to stumble to the refrigerator, crack a few more open, and finally found sleep again about three in the morning.

  Waking again at six with the sun beaming directly onto his face was perhaps the seventh level of hell. His stomach sloshed, his head swam. He was in no shape to go to work, but he was afraid of how long the day would be if he didn’t. Holing up in his office would at least be an escape.

  He showered, dressed, and was at work by seven. It was a ghost town, dark, silent, and it brought him a modicum of peace that he knew wouldn’t last.

  Gabi

  “You know you don’t have to go to work,” Kylie pointed out the next morning as Gabi inspected the red and purple bags beneath her eyes.

  “I know,” she said sadly, “but I’d rather be doing something other than moping around the house.”

  “We can mope together,” she suggested. “It could be fun.”

  Gabi attempted a smile but it didn’t quite take hold. Instead she curled her fingers around the edge of the sink and asked, “Did Cruz find Mason?”

  Kylie’s sigh told her enough, but she listened anyway. “He said he was at his house, buried under a pile of beer cans and barely able to put two sentences together. He tried to get him to come over to talk to you, but ...”

  Her heart fell again. “I know.” She knew he didn’t want to talk to her, and the thought that she might never see him again, kiss or touch him again, made her entire body quake. “I’m glad he was safe at least.”

  Kylie made some comment about him needing to man up, but she didn’t respond to it. She just finished getting ready for work and sat silently as Kylie maneuvered through traffic on the way to work.

  “At least we don’t have to meet with Mrs. Finch today,” Kylie offered as they walked into their little office.

  “Actually, the distraction would be nice,” Gabi answered.

  Kylie let out a small laugh. “Now I know for sure you’re broken.”

  When they got to the office, Gabi let out a sigh and sat at her desk. For a few moments, she just stared blankly at the design boards for the Finch house before she opened her laptop and began creating an all-new floor plan for a house that didn’t exist.

  She worked on it diligently, designing a new look for each room like it was a project that was due tomorrow at eight sharp.

  Kylie kept out of her way and just checked on her from time to time to see if she needed anything.

  Really, the only thing she needed was to see Mason appear at the door and take her in his arms. But that seemed highly unlikely at this point.

  She hadn’t told Kylie, but she had sent him a text that morning asking him to meet her so she could explain, so that they could talk this through, but he hadn’t answered, and the lack of response every time she looked at her phone dug the hole in her heart just a little deeper.

  “I think you should go over to AdamsMade and force him to talk to you,” Kylie suggested later in the afternoon. “Cruz said he’s just moping around his office and won’t come out. You could trap him in there and make him see reason.”

  “I don’t think he wants to see me right now,” she answered, not looking up. “Ever maybe.”

  “But that’s so stupid,” Kylie whined. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “I should have told him about Matt.”

  “Maybe,” she said, sitting on Gabi’s desk. “Why didn’t you?”

  She let out a sigh and finally looked her friend in the eye. “I didn’t want him to know how weak Matt made me. Mason only knows me as this semi-successful, independent interior designer. I didn’t want him to see the beaten, worthless housewife Matt had turned me into.” Tears started to fall. “I guess I just wanted to be the woman he saw me as.”

  “Oh, Gabs,” Kylie breathed, pulling her in for a hug, “you are that woman. You always have been. I think that’s why Matt was so intent on keeping you down; the light inside you was intimidating. He knew it was the only way to keep you from flying away once you realized you had wings.”

  The tears kept coming. “What if I never get to see Mason again? What am I going to do? Kylie, I love him.”

  “I know you do,” she whispered. “And don’t you worry, I’m not letting Matt ruin this for you too. We’ll figure it out, okay?” She held Gabi at arm’s length and forced her to make eye contact. “Okay?”

  She didn’t feel terribly hopeful, but she did appreciate that her friend was willing to fight for her, so she just said, “Okay.”

  Chapter 28

  Mason

  Mason felt adrift for the rest of the week. He needed someone to talk to, but Dom was on his honeymoon, Seb had left for his European tour, and Cruz refused to even acknowledge him. He felt like he was suddenly the last man on earth.

  Gabi sent him one text a day, asking if she could please talk to him. Every time he got it, it killed him. Why was she so willing to talk now? The damage was done.

  But still, something about seeing her name across his screen even once a day was weirdly comforting.

  “Morning, asshole,” Cruz greeted him coldly from the door to his office.

  That had become his name now, apparently. He was a little miffed that Cruz had switched sides so quickly. He was his friend after all. “What do you want?” he grumped. He had been productively staring at the text Gabi had sent that morning.

  “I just thought you might like to sign off on the balusters for the Finch bannister before I send them over.”

  “They’re done?” he asked. Jesus, that was quick.

  Cruz shrugged. “Things get done when you don’t sit on your ass and cry into your phone all day.”

  “Hey,” he snapped, “you have no idea how I feel right now.”

  “I also don’t care,” he defended coolly. “Until you take the time to talk this through with her, I. Don’t. Care.”

  “Traitor,” he mumbled, pushing himself up from his desk. “You’re supposed to be my friend.”

  “I am,” he said, patting him on the back with a little too much force. “This is my version of tough love. You would tell me exactly what you think about my actions too.”

  He supposed that was true. “Fine, show me the fucking balusters.”

  Seeing the amazing work Cruz had put in on the bannister finally stirred some desire to create in him. He had been worried that had died with his chance with Gabi.

  He looked over the list of projects waiting to be done and chose a small side table to get started on. It wasn’t much, but it was a start, and it went a long way to occupy his mind.

  By the time he had cut and shaped the legs, he felt his passion coming back again, and by midnight, he finally stepped away from a beautifully intricate table that he couldn’t tear his eyes from. It was his favorite thing he had created in a long time.

  The shop was deserted and quiet when he finally straightened up his work area, and for the first time since Monday, he had the urge to text Gabi back.

  But one thought of Matt’s cold, dead eyes, and the pain fired anew in his chest. It burned so hot, he gasped. How was this not getting easier?

  The ring of his phone startled him out of his reverie and he groaned when Kylie’s name flashed across the screen.

  Without thinking, he answered it.

  “What, Kylie?”

  “Really? That’s how you’re going to answer your phone?” she demanded.

  “Obviously.”

  “Geez. Cruz said you were being an asshole, but I didn’t know you had turned into a giant fuckhead.”

  He clenched his jaw. Was no one on his side? “I didn’t have to answer at all, Kylie, so if you’d like to tell me what you want, we can get on with our lives.”

  “Well, it’s simple. I just wanted to tell you a few things.”

  He waited and then said, “All right,” when it seemed she wasn’t going to continue.

  “One. Gabi is the most amazing and beautiful person in the entire world. She would do anything for anybody, and she dese
rves at least a few minutes of your time so she can explain why she didn’t tell you about her mess of an ex-husband and their fucking disastrous marriage.”

  Disastrous? Wait. He hated that this made him want to know more.

  “Two. She is an absolute wreck right now. She hasn’t eaten since Monday, and if you are half the man I thought you were when I encouraged her to take a chance on you, you would DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.”

  He winced a little at that one. Since Monday? He hadn’t eaten a whole lot either, but damn. “Is that everything?”

  “No. One last thing. And she would kill me for telling you this, but I have to. I have to try to make you see reason for her sake, because I love her more than anyone else in the world. Mason”—she took a deep breath—“Gabi loves you. She loves you so much she can’t even function right now. So please, please, for the love of God, just listen to what she has to say.”

  Mason didn’t answer. All he could hear was the pounding of his heart in his ears. Did Gabi really love him? Was that possible? Then why hadn’t she just been up-front about everything? He let out a sigh. “I’ll think about it.”

  He could feel Kylie seething through the phone, but she simply said, “See that you do,” and hung up on him.

  Gabi

  Gabi spent the week feeling lost but determined. She had followed through with her promise to get a restraining order on Matt, she had forced herself to get through work and a few design meetings with Mrs. Finch, and she had even done some research on apartments for her father.

  What she couldn’t make herself do, apparently, was eat. Pure hunger drove her to a slice of bread here and there, but there was no real sustenance, even with Kylie trying to shove it down her throat twenty-four-seven.

  There was no diet quite like heartache.

  She wished Mason would let her talk to him, at least give her a chance to explain. Maybe then she could move forward, but right now, she just felt stuck. Most of her time was spent constructing the perfect speech for that perfect moment that would make him realize he was wrong about her deception.

  Part of her understood why he was so angry, but she couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t want to talk it out. Was his affection for her so easily shaken? That terrified her more than anything else.