🥊 Hate or Fate 💕 {Enemies to Lovers}

.52.

We didn't make love that night. Instead, Gray held me close, folding me in his arms as if he meant to protect me, always. Like my own personal hunky Guardian Angel.

I slept fitfully. 

One, because I was uncomfortable, and the painkillers I took kept wearing off every few hours, which woke me up to throbbing agony in my neck and face. Two, I couldn't shake the ominous warning that came with Elijah's threat. 

When the first few rays of dawn peeked through the skylight, Gray's phone started blowing up. 

Every few minutes the digitized buzz would shock my heart and pull me out of my dozy thoughts. Gray had set his phone to silent, and the sound hadn't woken him at all.

I counted six calls before I sat up to look at the screen of his phone, fully expecting to see Elijah or Bart's photo on the caller ID. Instead, there was the angular face of a stunning young blonde woman blowing a kiss into the camera.

Whoever was calling him had nothing to do with my drama.

Nestling back under the sheets, I tried to calm the shivers overtaking my body. Like a shock of electricity or a jolt of too much caffeine, I was jittery and a little disoriented.

Then, the phone buzzed again. And again.

To confirm what I saw, I sat up again, clutching his sheets to my boobs to keep my heart from pounding out of my chest. The same picture of the gorgeous woman with severe cheekbones and full, inviting lips stared back at me.

I didn't sleep much after that.

The next morning, I woke up extra early with the excuse that I needed to shower and change back at Rebecca's apartment. Gray was almost naked and very hard, and his twitching cock was temptingly pressed up against me, but my libido was shot to hell. He begged me to stay for breakfast, but I wanted to get out of his place altogether.  

When he finally checked his phone, he was so distracted that he didn't argue as I finished dressing and gathered up my things to slip out the door.

After that, I wanted to pry.

I wanted to know who the young girl was calling him in the middle of the night on a Tuesday, but the truth was, it was none of my business. We'd never said we were exclusive, and while Gray swore that he didn't want to fuck up his shot with me, we hadn't talked about what it was we were doing.

And also, what the literal fuck?! If he thought I was going to be cool with him seeing other people, especially after what just happened with Elijah, then he was gravely mistaken!

It was early and I was bundled up to the nose, so the joggers and eager commuters couldn't see my sad state. 

That's the only reason I allowed myself to cry when the stinging wind hit my face. My teary lashes had frozen into teensy icicles by the time I made it back to Rebecca's apartment. 

All of my crap was piled into a haphazard haystack in Rebecca's living room, but I didn't have the heart to go through it. 

Instead, I slunk off to the shower to try and wash off the shame of falling for yet another player.

And this time, I knew all about this player and his bad habits, so, shame on me!

I knew Gray's character from the start. He went through women like I go through tissue during flu season. 

Why did I assume we would be any different?

It was so obvious and so crushing, that I had to hunch over and hug my empty stomach in the shower as the scalding water defrosted my sore muscles.

With my wet hair piled on top of my head in the messiest of buns and my bruised eyes camouflaged behind wide owl glasses (and two layers of concealer), I was ready for work.

Rebecca must have stayed at Bart's place because I was on my own in the apartment, which was kind of nice. The quiet gave me time to sort through some of the shame and confusion still bombarding my tender brain.

Four extra shots of espresso in my morning coffee barely helped me sleepwalk through the rest of the morning.

Thankfully, the scripts were completed and approved by the client, so all that was needed from me was creative input on the upcoming commercial shoot. 

To my relief, no one seemed to notice my banged-up face besides Rebecca, and she kept her thoughts to herself until we were in the privacy of our shared office space.

"Does it hurt?" Rebecca bit her bottom lip as she took in the sight of me hunched behind my computer.

"Yes," I sighed and pushed my glasses up the bridge of my nose, only to grimace as the frames skimmed my deep facial contusions. "And I'm exhausted. I couldn't sleep."

"I don't blame you," Rebecca wasn't her usual polished self, either. She was, of course, still drop-dead beautiful, but she didn't have the same colorful vivacity she usually embodied. "Neither could I. Bart was so pissed, I had to spend half the night calming him down before I even got to go to bed."

"Why was Bart upset?" I glanced up from my screen.

"Um, because you and I were in danger?" She blinked rapidly and cocked her head to study me. "Bart was so shocked that Elijah could do something like that. That was the first time, right?"

"Yes," I insisted. "I mean, it was scary, but I'm fi-"

"Don't say you're fine," Rebecca cackled darkly. "You're not fine. If I have to mentally bitch-slap some sense into you, I will, chica. Don't minimize what that asshole did to you!"

"It feels so surreal," I divulged sheepishly. "Like it didn't happen to me, but I was watching it play out in front of me? If that makes any sense."

"Well, take it from someone who actually saw it, it was scary as fuck," Rebecca scowled. "He looked like he was going to kill you. I still can't believe he was out of jail in under twenty-four hours. I mean, what if comes after you?"

"I don't think he knew what he was doing," I shook my head. "Elijah was on a lot of drugs, which was super scary. Don't worry, he's not going to come after me."

"But this is a pattern, chica," Rebecca asserted quietly. "He doesn't just hurt people emotionally. He hurts them physically. First Gray, now you. You might not want to think about the woman staying in his condo, but what if he does that to her?"

Rebecca's words resonated like a gong in my ears.

Elijah had always been so respectful of me, but it was obviously all an act. 

It took me a while to see it, but he was a callous asshole who got violent when he didn't get whatever he wanted. 

"Knock, knock," Braxton's smarmy voice interrupting us was the last thing I wanted to hear. "Oh, and just so you know, Gray, canceled on us for today. He called to say that he was dealing with some sort of personal thing. So, you ladies ready for the production review?"

Rebecca shot me a sideways glance and clamped her mouth shut. I hadn't even told her about the late-night phone calls from the mystery blonde woman at Gray's place. I didn't want to say it out loud because everything else was awful enough.

"Yeah," I sighed, nodding once and gathering up my computer. "Be there in a second."