Adam, Enough Said (This Can't be Happening)

by LeeAnne, Lynda

  Yes, I named my car Cat, ‘cause swear to God, she purred like one.

  After I bought her, I had a few important things done, like a new transmission, new tires and a complete check-up, but any and all money I had left over, I had transferred back into mine and Adam’s joint account, and then closed my old personal one out and opened a new one.

  I’d never wanted Adam’s money.

  I’d never wanted anything from him but love, which was exactly what made asking Adam for that divorce two weeks ago excruciatingly painful. I’d thought he might fight me, and truthfully, I’d hoped he would have. I’d wanted him to give me some kind of sign that he still cared about me, but he gave me nothing but anger instead.

  He’d even called me a bitch…and…well, he’d always called women bitches, but never had he called me one.

  And it had been like a slap in the face.

  I’d also sort of figured he would have asked me about the guy I’d told him I was seeing - even though I’d only used him as an excuse - but Adam had only asked if I was serious about him.

  Which of course I wasn’t. I liked Cole a lot, but I was still in love with Adam and always would be.

  When he’d stood from that table in Starbucks, I’d wanted to stop him and ask him how he could just walk away from me like I’d never existed, but I hadn’t been able to bring myself to do it.

  Plus, I already knew it was because he didn’t care about me anymore.

  I got to the front door of my studio apartment and saw something white taped to it. Probably just another apartment memo, I thought as I ripped it off the door and unlocked it to go inside. I walked in, hung my purse behind the door, took the paper with me and plopped down on the couch.

  I flipped on the TV, put my legs up on the coffee table and opened the letter.

  My heart sank at the sight of Cole’s handwriting.

  Mia,

  I’m sorry. I should have done this in person, but I couldn’t find the courage. You know I hate to see you upset. I know it hasn’t been long, but our relationship is no longer working for me. It has absolutely nothing to do with you. You’re an amazing woman, but some things have come up and I have to leave. I’ve been offered a job in Boston and I’m taking it. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime. I thought to ask you if you would move with me, but I realize that would be too unfair and selfish of me to ask that of you. Please find it in your heart to forgive me, but please, please, whatever you do, don’t look for me.

  I’m heartbroken,

  Cole

  I balled up the letter and threw it as hard as I could across the room.

  That motherfucker!

  I wasn’t sad. I was fucking furious!

  No, scratch that. I wasn’t furious, but I should be. Actually, I was numb.

  Who the hell breaks up with someone in a fucking letter? Hell, Adam probably broke up with his bitches better than that.

  Adam.

  I froze.

  Was it just coincidence that Cole left me this letter only two weeks after I asked Adam for a divorce?

  Yes, it had to be.

  The fact that Adam didn’t care about me hurt one hundred times more than Cole’s chicken-shit letter. And to throw insult on top of injury, Eric had told me all about Adam’s new women. He had so many women now surely he’d be happy to get rid of me as a wife for good.

  Or so I thought...

  Five Months Later

  Mia Bryant

  “Mrs. Bryant? Are you there?” My attorney, the one I could hardly afford, asked after I said nothing. I was so mad that I was shaking. My heart was pounding and sweat broke out all over my skin.

  “I’m sorry. I don’t think I understood you. Could you repeat that?” I asked and clenched the phone tighter.

  “Adam isn’t making this easy, Mrs. Bryant. He’s asking for access to any and all of your bank accounts, he wants the title to your car - which he says he paid for - he wants receipts for every article of clothing you own down to…your panties.” He whispered that part uncomfortably. “He wants you to move back into the house in Clear Lake, but he’s offered to move out, and he’s also asking for spousal support - which I haven’t quite figured out why he would do that other than to drag this divorce out. Texas law states that you must be married for ten years or more, or the spouse seeking support must have been a victim of domestic violence within the past two years prior to the filing date…” My attorney paused. “You didn’t abuse him, did you?”

  I growled audibly and squeezed my cell so tight, it’s a wonder it didn’t disintegrate.

  “No, I didn’t abuse him, but if I ever see him again, mark my words, I’m going to beat every ounce of arrogance and cockiness out of his motherfucking ass!” I finished on a shout, flipped my phone shut and threw it so hard it smashed into a million pieces.

  “Ugh!”

  I felt like I was choking, or suffocating.

  I couldn’t breathe.

  Why does he hate me so much?

  I would have called him and screamed at him if I hadn’t just smashed my phone.

  Fuck!

  I wanted to drive over to his house and fuck him up, but that’s exactly what he wanted. The arrogant asshole. He knew I couldn’t afford this divorce. He knew I couldn’t afford much of anything, which had to be exactly why he pulled this stunt; to torture me or punish me, or both.

  Well, I was through with him. He wanted to stay married to me…

  Fine. I didn’t need the divorce. I wasn’t ever getting married ever again anyway.

  Men sucked.

  Fuck him.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Six Years Later

  Mia Bryant

  I was frozen, staring at Adam in horror and he looked like he wanted to strangle me.

  I hadn’t seen him in six years and he looked good, but he also looked furious… at me. Why?

  Because I was shopping in the grocery store by his house?

  He didn’t own it.

  And it wasn’t my fault that we only lived fifteen minutes away from each other, and honestly, I was surprised I hadn’t run into him sooner.

  But I hadn’t been expecting to see him with a beautiful woman who had mousy brown hair and bright hazel eyes.

  They looked cute together and I glanced down to see they were holding hands.

  I quickly looked away before I got caught.

  I felt faint and could only imagine how pale I must have looked.

  Why did seeing him still hurt so much?

  “Nice to see you, Lex," Ryan hissed in a snarky tone toward Adam's girlfriend and I looked at him. I'd completely forgotten he was standing next to me.

  "Waste no time moving from one guy to the next. Wasn’t he the cop on my case?” Ryan finished nodding in Adam’s direction.

  Cop on my case?

  That was odd.

  Ryan was friends with my boyfriend, Max, and I’d only met Ryan a couple times. I didn’t know him well. I’d seriously just run into him in the canned foods aisle and he’d been following me around like a lost puppy ever since. But now, Ryan was staring at this Lex woman with murder in his eyes.

  I looked at Adam when he jerked his girlfriend out from behind their cart, never letting her hand go.

  He got right in Ryan’s face and he towered over him.

  “If I were you, I wouldn’t even look at her,” he growled as he nodded to the woman, Lex. “Unless you’re ready to go back to jail, asshole. And stay the fuck away from Mia,” he finished in a roar and I gasped.

  My back nearly broke it grew so rigid.

  Something was very wrong here and it obviously had something to do with Ryan and the woman Adam was with. I was curious to know what it was, but I couldn't very well ask.

  Adam turned to me and clipped, “Let’s go, I’m taking you home.” The hand not holding his girlfriend's, wrapped around my waist and he ushered me forward while he dragged the woman behind him.

  I didn't want to go with him, but somehow I knew it'd be
useless to argue.

  Why me? Why did I pick today of all days to walk to this goddamn grocery store? Oh, that’s right, because the one by my house was out of Oreos.

  Damn cookies were going to be the death of me.

  My stunned eyes looked back at Adam's girlfriend with guilt.

  Girlfriend.

  The word crawled over my skin like a spider. I cringed.

  “I can walk without your help, thank you very much,” I snapped at Adam, and his blazing eyes glared down at me.

  “I think I know better than anyone just how well you can walk,” he snapped back, his last words clipped, but he still didn’t let me go. “Walking away was about the only thing you were good at.”

  I bit the inside of my cheek. His words cut me deep and I knew he said them exactly for that purpose. I swallowed hard and turned away from him, because I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of seeing my eyes water

  After six years, it still hurt.

  “You’re still an asshole,” I said in an angry whisper.

  “If that helps you sleep at night, Honey, then I’ll be the biggest asshole you’ve ever met.”

  “Adam!” his girlfriend called out in shame. She was probably embarrassed. Either that or she was just now realizing how much of an asshole he really was.

  “Stay out of it, Lex,” Adam ordered and he twisted his neck her way. I was pretty certain I saw him glare at her, but I wasn’t sure.

  I kept quiet as we made it to his vehicle.

  Adam put me in the backseat and made his girlfriend sit up front; obviously being his legal wife meant nothing to him.

  Not that it ever did.

  “Where am I taking you?” Adam asked like he really didn’t know where I lived.

  I rolled my eyes.

  Did he really think I didn’t know that he drove by my apartment?

  No, he wasn’t that stupid. He had to know that I was bound to see him since he’d been doing it for the past six years.

  Yeah, he knew that I knew, but he obviously didn’t want his girlfriend to know. I decided against starting a fight and gave him quiet directions to my apartment.

  Adam didn’t even have the Tahoe in park and I jumped out of it without so much as a ‘thank you’. I ran up the steps and tried hard to make it inside my apartment before Adam could catch up to me. Not that I thought he would try, but I wasn’t taking any chances.

  “Mia, do not go inside that fuckin' apartment,” I heard Adam shout just as I made it to my front door.

  Damn.

  I twisted my neck.

  “Go away, Adam. It would be rude to keep one of your bitches waiting too long,” I snapped, just before he stopped to stand right in front of me.

  I had to look up. Way up.

  “Why the fuck were you with Ryan?” Adam asked and I narrowed my eyes.

  How dare he?

  “Hi, Mia, how are you?" I asked sarcastically, before answering for him. "I'm fine, thanks for asking, Adam… You look well, Mia. Why thank you, Adam, so do you, whoring fits you so well... Would you still like that divorce, Mia? Why yes, yes I would, Adam.”

  His jaw clenched and I watched his body turn to stone.

  "Since you touched on none of those subjects most normal people would after seeing somebody for the first time in six years, I'll tell you this… how I know Ryan is none of your fucking business.”

  His breathing grew ragged and his already huge muscles strained. “It became my business when I saw you with a fuckin’ piece of shit who beats women,” he growled in my face.

  I froze and breathed, “What?”

  “He beat his ex-girlfriend, who just so happens to be my sister-in-law. So, you don't like my line of questioning after six years, too fuckin' bad.”

  I didn't catch anything after sister-in-law.

  Oh my God!

  “How can you have a sister-in-law when we’re still married? We are still married, aren’t we?” I asked in a tortured whisper. Had he divorced me and I didn’t know about it? Was that even possible?

  Adam stared at me a minute and then suddenly, his face softened. I cringed when I realized my mistake.

  “Baby --”

  “Don’t call me that,” I snapped.

  “Freckles, you’re still my wife.”

  Oh. Shit.

  I nodded. I wasn’t supposed to care, but no matter how many times I chanted that in my head, it didn’t change the fact that I cared.

  “So, how do you know Ryan?” Adam continued to press, but he still hadn’t answered the sister-in-law question.

  Had he finally met his half-brother?

  “Mia, tell me. How do you know Ryan?”

  Oh shit again!

  “Ummm… he’s an acquaintance of my boyfriend. I’ve only met him a couple times,” I answered in a whisper.

  Adam’s back straightened and his body stood taller. “Who’s your fuckin’ boyfriend?”

  “Adam, I’m not telling you.”

  “You don’t tell me, I’ll find out on my own,” he vowed.

  I sighed. “Why do you care? Don’t you have a woman sitting downstairs waiting for you? Or another twenty women lined up outside your house? Or do you only prefer strippers --”

  I didn’t get to finish, because Adam’s mouth was suddenly covering mine. It happened so fast that I didn’t know what to do.

  “I fuckin’ miss you,” he breathed against my lips, and I felt tears prick my eyes as my double-crossing body relaxed into his.

  I missed him too, but I’d never admit it to him.

  Our kiss was soft, but needy and he cupped my face in his hands like he was desperate to touch me, but before I knew it, the kiss was over.

  Adam lifted and my eyes flew open.

  His amazing light green eyes gazed into mine. He caressed my bottom lip with his thumb and my nose burned from the tears that stung. I was desperate for him, and I wanted him to tell me he still loved me. I knew it was stupid after six years, but I still loved him.

  "I miss you too," I admitted, and my words came out broken.

  I watched him stiffen as he studied my face closely. Then a second later, he opened his mouth and ruined everything when he said, “Have a nice life, Mia.”

  What? No!

  Before I could beg him to stay, he turned and jogged down the stairs. I watched him go until he made it to his vehicle, because my feet refused to move. It wasn't until he shut the driver's side door behind him that I walked inside my apartment.

  The front door closed behind me and I collapsed to the floor.

  Part II

  Chapter Twenty

  Three Months Later

  Present Day: The Morning After

  Mia Bryant

  Twenty-Six Years Old

  My eyes flew open and a slight dizziness washed over me as I took in my surroundings; the nightstand, the lamp, the clock, the rock hard chest I was lying on, covered with a light sprinkling of hair…

  Oh no…Adam…

  I felt sick.

  What did I do?

  I mean, I knew what Adam and I did in the literal sense, but I also knew my life had just made a U-turn, turned right onto Crazy Street, and headed straight into the No-Deed Restricted neighborhood of Monumentally Fucked-up.

  And I was currently wrapped around a whole lot of fucked up.

  Not Adam wrapped around me, but me around him like a vine…or like a leech.

  My cheek was on his chest and my left hand was wrapped underneath his right shoulder. His right arm was wrapped around my back. My right arm was wrapped around his torso and my right leg was wrapped around his right leg, and his left leg was pressing them together.

  And we were both completely and utterly…naked. My girly part was pressed against his thigh and my traitorous body wanted to rub itself against him.

  Oh my God…I’m a megahoe.

  I moved to lift my right arm off his stomach, but a vise-like grip entwined our fingers. Then Adam’s body rolled and took me to my back and
light green eyes stared into mine. I opened my mouth to protest, but it was instantly covered with soft, demanding lips. And then I felt a hand between my legs and I acted on my earlier need to rub myself against him.

  He entered me with a finger.

  “Adam, we can’t do this,” I whispered against his lips, slightly worried about my morning breath, but he obviously wasn’t complaining.

  His head lifted, but he didn’t answer me and, instead, he lowered his mouth to my breasts. He licked and sucked and flicked the tips with his tongue, showing them both the same attention. His fingers at my core had me moaning and begging, “Adam, please.”

  He lifted, took my mouth again and with no warning at all, he entered me in one smooth glide. He captured my hands in his, laced our fingers and held tight. I wrapped my legs around his hips and met his slow, torturous motions.

  He loved me with his body.

  I closed my eyes and reveled in the tenderness radiating off him…

  Until I felt something wet hit my cheek and my eyes flew open to see he was kissing me… crying. I broke my mouth free. He lifted his head, opened his watery eyes and they bore into mine.

  I could see it all…his pain…his hurt…his longing…his regret…it was all clear as glass and my own eyes watered.

  “Adam,” I breathed.

  “No, no words. I just need to feel you. Feel that you’re real. I need my soul back,” he whispered, before he dropped his head to my shoulder and breathed me in.

  Oh my God.

  I closed my eyes and my fingers squeezed his.

  He continued his slow, steady rocking for what felt like hours, but the whole time I felt so loved and so special that I never wanted him to stop.

  The walls I’d built up over six years slowly crumbled to dust and I knew he felt it too. He picked up the pace and lifted his head to kiss me with starved hunger. My heels dug into the back of his thighs, urging him on and he took it, pumping fast.

  Then suddenly, I wasn’t on my back, but being lifted to straddle Adam’s waist. He sat back on his heels, wrapped an arm around my hips and dipped the other into my hair. I grabbed his face and kissed him eagerly as I rode him hard. I was panting, out of control, and in this position, my sensitive flesh was being massaged just right.