Tinder, Love and Care

30. Names

Rejection would just have to wait.

🦋

Days turned into weeks that Justice tried and failed to reach me.

I never knew my avoiding skills were at this level of efficiency. If this shit was an Olympic sport, I was definitely getting the gold.

Especially when he was making it especially difficult.

Justice had come by a few times, each visit accompanied with a gift of some sort that Olivia would promptly dump in my room. He'd called and texted, and all of them insisted on having a talk that I wasn't in the mood to have.

We couldn't go backwards anymore, and I wanted to prolong the inevitable end of us.

He'd even gotten Eli to ask Divine about me because he was worried.

I hate to admit it, but his determination to keep me in his life was admirable... and attractive as hell.

If you could ignore the friend zoning, of course.

"Can you just put that man out of his misery?" Divine asked while throwing her feet across my lap on the couch.

"Are you going to tell us what's going on with you and Eli?" I replied, eyes never straying from the movie on the TV screen.

I still saw the look Divine exchanged with Olivia before they both cast a worried look toward me.

Honestly, their concern was unnecessary. I'd been coping pretty well by ignoring the situation altogether.

I was in my own world of complete delusion, and I intended to stay there for as long as possible.

A knock sounded at our front door, and we all groaned.

"It's the food guy. Hyacinthe, it's your turn." Olivia said, oddly not making eye contact with me.

"No, it's not." I argued. I was almost entirely sure it was Olivia's turn.

"Nah, I think Olivia is right. It's your turn." Divine agreed, pulling her feet off me with a smile.

What the hell was up with them?

Confused but outvoted, I got up and answered the door. Instead of a big bag of food waiting for me, it was Justice leaning against my doorframe.

His sudden appearance easily knocked me off kilter.

He'd looked up just as the door opened and a smooth smile with the usual glint of gold was revealed. His locs were down and curtained around his face, but it didn't hide the sad look in his eyes when he stared at me.

"Hey, Lil' Cin." He greeted softly, stepping into my body as he entered my apartment.

A small shiver went through me as our connection snapped to attention. Being away from him gave me time to downplay everything we were, but now I as staring the truth in the face.

But with it came the reminder that he'd more than denied me. He denied us.

So, I stepped back from him and crossed my arms in defense. I couldn't let him slide past my walls this time.

"Just dropping this off and picking you up." Justice shrugged, moving past me to set a bag of food on the table that I hadn't even noticed.

"Thanks, Justice." Olivia and Divine said, giggling amongst themselves at the scene.

I should've known they were up to something when Divine offered to pay for all of our food. Especially when we usually all put in some money.

"It's nothing forreal. Thanks for letting me kidnap y'all friend on movie night." Justice shrugged, sliding his hands in his pockets while my friends dug into the bag.