Free The Read And Weep Bundle: Anonymous, Perfectly Hopeless, Run by Holly Hood Page A

with Pauly, another thing for him to hold over her head.
    “You never answered my question.” Pauly took the remote turning on football. “Why haven’t you ever mentioned this guy before?”
    Elle sighed. There were a lot of things she didn’t mention when it came to rehab. There was a lot she didn’t say about so much going on inside her head and in her day to day life to Pauly. He just didn’t understand.
    “Because there was nothing to tell, and because what happens in rehab isn’t worth talking about,” she told him.
    He sat his beer down on one of his fancy coasters and directed all of his attention to her. He knew this wasn’t the case. If it meant nothing she wouldn’t have suddenly shut down her feelings toward him.
    But he wanted to look past that and get to what they did best. He undid the buttons on her shirt slipping his hand past the sheer material to her tank top. And he kissed her collarbone. “If you don’t want to talk about it we can do something else.”
    Elle closed her eyes as Pauly’s mauling continued. She didn’t have to help him out of his clothes he always did it himself. And he always left his socks on which really grated on her nerves. It made her feel like she wasn’t worth the full commitment.
    They had sex like clockwork. And it hardly ever was different. Her head hit the pillow and she turned away from his lips. She just wasn’t in the mood to kiss him tonight. She had said talking about rehab wasn’t worth it. But talking about other things was and she knew it.
    She grabbed Pauly by the hand as he started pulling her jeans off. “I think we need to talk.”
    He ignored her and slid them down. He always ignored her. He always acted like what she wanted to say was futile. “We can talk later. Right now I want to be inside you.”
    This grossed her out. “Pauly, I’m serious. I want to talk now.” She pressed her palm into his chest, his racing heart and erection was ready for the next step but she wasn’t. And she didn’t think she would be ever again.
    “I can’t do this anymore.” She looked away. He brought his hands to the top of his head, cursing all that was holy. “And I don’t want to make up excuses as to why. I just don’t want to do this anymore.”
    Pauly grabbed his designer jeans from the sofa and hopped back into them ignoring his boxers. “It’s that douche bag. The one you don’t want to talk about. Did you fuck him?”
    She shook her head in disbelief. “It has nothing to do with Hart. It has to do with us. I don’t feel anything anymore. I don’t think I’m what you need.”
    “What I need?” Pauly shook his head, she was being unbelievable. “What I need is for you to stop acting like such a screw up.” He immediately regretted his words even though they felt good coming out.
    She carved a hand through her hair and looked away from him. It hurt, and she wasn’t sure why. She felt Pauly thought she was a screw up for some time now. Why this seemed harsh she didn’t know, maybe because he finally said it.
    She didn’t waste any time collecting her things. She slipped on her shoes, collected her purse and stopped in the doorway before climbing the stairs.
    “Elle, I shouldn’t have said that.” She walks right over to him and presses the necklace into his chest. He covered her hand with his trying to keep her there. “I’m an idiot.”
    She pulled away. The only idiot in the room was her. “Don’t worry about it. We both knew sooner or later this was going to happen.”
    “I want you to keep this. It was a gift.” He offered back the necklace.
    She waved a hand refusing to take it back. She didn’t want it. “It was your grandmother’s give it to a nice girl who deserves it. I don’t deserve it.”
    And she left. Pauly dropped down onto his couch totally dumbfounded that he had been dumped. A little part of him felt relieved not to have to deal with Elle and all her baggage as much as he loved her he hated having to