But Who's Counting?

Chapter Fifty-Seven: "Happy Birthday!"

"I didn't see that folder." He says, his bottom lip out.

"Go check for it; pass me the keys." I say as I toss my phone to him. In exchange, he passes me the keys as I enter the car.

I start the car as Alexander clips his seatbelt before flashing my phone towards my face to unlock it. I stuck my tongue out at it, unlocking it before he pulls it away. We begin to leave.

"When did you take this picture?" He says, flashing a picture of himself.

"Chance took it that day we went to Panera Bread. He told me that was the moment he thought we should be endgame." I say, moving out of the parking lot.

"What does that mean?" He questions as I steal a glance at him as he swipes across my screen.

"We should be together." I say, carefully making a turn.

"You got a text from... Brownie... heart emoji." He says, a grimace clearly heard in his tone.

I nervously look over as he clicked the top of my screen. "What does it say?"

"Who the absolute hell is this, Sophia?" He says, pulling the phone away from his face and turning in his seat.

"What does it say?" I say, stopping the car as we come to a red light. I reach for the phone, only for him to hold it away from me. He was trying to stay calm and I saw it in his eyes as he looked back at me.

"'Are we still on for tonight?'" He grits out as I'm forced to drive when the light turns green. "Not only did this Brownie," he grits out the name in a painful tone, "use the number four instead of for, but he spelled tonight with the number two followed by N-I-T-E. Brownie's lack of intelligence insults me."

"Alex, it's-."

"So, you planned to not go to my birthday party - claiming to stay home with the kids just to go hang out with Brownie, correct?" He says, deciding to go to my message app and actually read through the messages between Brownie and I.

I don't know what made me want to delete our previous conversations last night but I did. Whew, was I glad that I did.

"Answer my question, Sophia." He demands, his green eyes suddenly darker.

"You seem to have already made up your mind on the answer." I say, pressing on the accelerator a little too hard. I removed a hand from the wheel to get my phone back.

"Can I have my cellular device back now?" I add.

"Fuck you and your cellular device." He grits out, looking like a child who didn't get his way.

It was kind of sexy.

Obviously that he looked like a child.

"Why are all the messages deleted? He's not on your call log either." He investigates, making me subtly smile to myself.

"Who said it was a he?" I put the question out, hearing him suck in air.

"You haven't had a female friend since that last pathetic one you called a bestie, regardless of the endless warnings I had given you." He says, his voice thick with an I-don't-know-what accent. A angry accent?

"Now is not the time for a walk down memory lane." I say.

"I think right now is a fitting time. I have never done anything to purposely hurt you and I surely wouldn't stoop as low to cheat on you." He says, a cry tone in his voice, automatically making me feel guilty. I pace my breathing before turning onto a different street.