Matt
"It's no big deal," I assured myself as I paced back and forth across my bedroom, dreading the phone call I was about to make.
"So, Vanessa might dump you a little but it's not as though you haven't been single before." I gave myself a pat on the back. "You got this."
Taking a deep breath, I pressed the video call button and she answered almost immediately. "Hey, Matt," she greeted, her cheeks rosy. "How's it going?"
I squinted at the tall windows in the background of her location, noting that unless her dorm room got a serious upgrade, she wasn't there. "Where are you?"
"Oh." She glanced back at her surroundings. "I'm at a classmate's studio apartment. We're working on a project together. I guess I forgot to mention it."
I lifted a brow but didn't question her further. I supposed it was good for her to get out and mingle with her peers. "Alright, well since you're busy, I'll let you get back to it." I could procrastinate on dealing with her wrath for just a shade longer.
Concern furrowed her brows. "Is everything okay?"
I plopped down on the sofa, my knee jittering from nerves. "I just wanted to say hello to my beautiful girl," I lied. "And now that I've had, goodbye."
She laughed. "Matt, you're a horrible liar. I can tell when you're nervous about something so out with it. What's going on?"
Chewing on my nail, I sighed. "Can you go in the bathroom or somewhere a bit more private? There actually is something I need to speak to you about."
The smile dropped from her face. "Sure," she answered softly, standing up and making her way out of the loft and into the hallway.
"Okay, Matt," she continued once she was alone. "You're starting to scare me. What's wrong?"
I blew out a breath, wiping my sweaty palms across the thighs of my jeans. "I want you to know that I'm telling you this because honesty and trust within a relationship are very important to me."
Her eyes instantly went dark. "Did Aimee kiss you? That bitch. I swear to God, I'm going to knock her teeth out the next time I see-"
"V, no. We didn't kiss. Well, technically we did when you and I were broken up but-"
"What! She just couldn't wait to sink her claws into you, could she?" She pressed her lips into a firm line, the disdain on her face evident.
"Vanessa...focus," I stammered, beginning to feel flustered by the whole conversation. "We can talk about that later. That's not what this about."
"Oh, really?" She scoffed, shaking her head. "Because it's certainly about that now. Is that the real reason why you broke up with me? So that you could have a go at Aimee?"
My heart began thudding rapidly against my ribcage and I couldn't see a way to get out of the hole that I was digging myself into. "I slept with Addison," I blurted.
Well, that's certainly not the way to do it.
"Excuse me?" She shrieked, her cheeks turning scarlet. "You did what? You asshole!"
I held up my palm, debating if I should just hang up the phone now, toss it into a river, and cut my losses or attempt to sort this mess out. "No...that's not what I meant...I'm trying to say that we fell asleep together...intentionally."
I winced. This is bad. Truly, truly horrible.
She scowled at me. "Do you care to explain how that came to be because you are treading on thin ice, Matthew."
"I pulled a back muscle at her house. I know how that sounds but we weren't having sex. She threw a pen at me, and I didn't catch it so I leaned down to grab it and yea..."
Good job, Matt, I thought sarcastically. That didn't make things worse at all.
The expression on Vanessa's face was pure frost and I couldn't recall a time I had ever witnessed her to be so angry with me. "I see," she replied, her voice scarily even. "Anything else happen?"
Grimacing, I stared down at my lap. "Uh...she may have helped me out of my jeans," I coughed muttered.
"Matt!" She gasped. "What is wrong with you? Why is she helping you out of any of your clothing? That's my job."
I smirked at her. "Is it? Okay. Well, whenever you're ready I have a pair of boxers that I'm just itching to be free of."
She glared at me, the joke dying on my lips. "You're not being as cute as you think you are right now. Answer the question."
Dragging my hands down my face, I sighed. "I was in so much fucking pain, I could hardly move so I slept in her bed, and you know I can't sleep in jeans, V. I was already miserable enough as it was so I gave her permission to take them off."
"Oh my God," she muttered, gazing up towards the ceiling. Her sights fell back upon me. "She asked if she could take your pants off? Matt, how could you be so naïve?"
"Fuck, no, Vanessa!" I exclaimed, gesturing wildly at my jeans. "She didn't ask to take them off. She helped me was all."
She snorted. "You are making it extremely difficult for me not to lose my shit right now," she bit out through clenched teeth. "Do you swear that's it? Nothing more?"
I nodded my head vigorously at her. "Yes! Absolutely." I slapped my forehead. "Wait, no, that's not the truth. There is one other tiny detail I forgot to include."
If looks could kill I was certain I would have been a dead man at that very moment. "You are so lucky you are miles away from me right now," she hissed.
I pressed my fist to my mouth before holding my palm up. "I understand but I also need you to understand-"
"I don't need to understand anything!" She shouted. "Just tell me what the fuck you two did together."
I squeezed my eyes shut, terrified to see her reaction when I dropped the truth. "I let her give me a back massage," rushed out. "I was in so much pain that I would have let your dad do it if he had offered."
She was eerily quiet and after several moments of petrifying silence, I cracked one eye open.
She shook her head in disbelief. "I blame myself," she replied in disbelief. "I knew you two were getting too close, but I allowed it to continue."
I sagged my shoulders, feeling deflated. "Vanessa, it's nothing like that. Addison and I are just friends. You're the one that I'm madly in love with."
"But this is crossing a line," she protested. "How would you feel if I slept in the same bed with another man, let him undress me, and then ask him to give me a rubdown?"
I hung my head. "I would kill him."
She nodded. "Exactly. I don't like what's going occurring between the both of you one bit."
"I couldn't fucking move!" I exclaimed. "What else was I supposed to do? Crawl all the way home?"
"You took it too far and you know it," she shot back. "Otherwise, you wouldn't have felt the need to fess up."
"You're right," I replied. "I made a bad decision. Even though I can guarantee you that it had zero sexual undertones, I shouldn't have allowed it."
I stared at her on the screen, her hard expression finally softening. "So, how do you want to proceed?" I dared to ask.
She tucked a wavy lock behind one ear, jutting out her chin slightly. "I think the solution here is quite simple. I don't want you hanging out with Addison anymore."
My stomach dropped at her request. But she's my friend, I ached to protest. I can't just cut her out of my life. "That's not fair..." I whispered.
Vanessa pinched the bridge of her nose. "Matt, please, I don't want to argue about this anymore. If you love me, and truly want to make me happy then you'll do as I ask."
She knew the immense power those words wielded over me. I always turned to putty in her palms whenever she whipped them out of her arsenal. Her happiness was my number one priority and even though I didn't like her demand, I reluctantly agreed.
"Alright. If that's what you want, then I won't see Addison anymore."
***