Always There

Chapter Forty-Four

Once I close and lock the apartment door after myself, Scarlett looks up from the book that she's reading. "Can you make breakfast?"

I scowl at her. "I don't even get a 'good morning'?"

She purses her lips together, cocks her head to the side, and sighs. "Nah. I'm hungry. Has Lexi came back from the dead yet?"

I storm into the living room, grabbing a pillow off of one of the chairs only to hurl it right at her face.

She merely catches it and tosses it to the side without a second thought, crossing her legs and folding her hands in her lap. "How aggressive. Didn't your daddy teach you not to hurt women?"

I cross my arms. "That doesn't make me want to strangle you with a fucking pillow any less."

Scarlett scoffs and stands up from her seat. Giving me a wicked smile, she slowly spins in a circle, arching her back slightly. "Do you like the lingerie? I know that you've always liked red, lacey things."

I continue to stare directly into her eyes, not giving the rest of her body even a moment of my attention. "Go put some clothes on, Carly."

I watch all of the light fade from Scarlett's eyes.

"Is there something wrong with my body now? You used to love my body. You always used to tell me how sexy I am. Where did I go wrong?" she asks quietly.

I freeze, unsure of how to react to her sudden display of insecurity.

I watch as Scarlett slowly sits back down on the couch. She then lifts the pillow that I had just tossed at her into her laps, hugging it to her chest as though she's attempting to cover her body.

Fuck my life.

I approach her, cringing when she flinches as I sit down beside her on the couch. I gentle pry the pillow from her hands, setting it down on the floor at my feet.

Scarlett immediately looks away from me, staring down at the floor instead.

I reach for her face with one hand, gently angling her face towards me. She stares back at me with those dark, catlike eyes of hers, brimming with sadness and hurt.

"You are hotter than hell, Scarlett Zhang, and we both know it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with your body. Just because I'm not interested in you doesn't mean that everybody else feels the same way," I tell her, bringing a hand up to her face.

Scarlett sighs, leaning back in her seat. "I just want something constant, dammit. You were my constant for awhile. Now I've got Anders, I guess, but isn't it sort of fucked that I'm screwing him when I'm still in love with his dead sister?"

I brush my thumb against Scarlett's cheekbone before removing my hand from her face. "You'll find someone. I've already told you, Carly. You're a smart girl. Just keep your options open."

With a groan, Scarlett sits up in her seat. "The fact that I'm so smart is a huge ass problem sometimes, you know. A lot of men can't accept that there are women in the world way fucking smarter than they are, so they choose to pretend that intelligent women don't even exist."

I give her a sad smile. "Fuck any man who thinks that way. That's pure bullshit."

Scarlett laughs, adjusting one of her bra straps. She takes a breath in as though to signal that she'd like to change the topic before she then asks, "How's your dad doing? It feels as though I haven't seen him in ages. I miss that sexy face of his."

Now I'm the one to bark a laugh. "He's doing very well. He's engaged. His fiancée is only a few years younger than him, rather than thirty-fucking-six years younger than him, by the way," I say, giving Scarlett a pointed look.