Love me like you loathe me

chapter6

"Stephanie!" I was going for my purse when I heard the man behind me. I turned around and saw Lewis, of all the people, following me. I stopped on the spot, not hiding how scared and surprised I was to see him rounding the corner to the front of my brother's house, which he shared with Alicia and their kids.

"Lewis??" I said confused, my eyes narrowing at his stern gaze over the handsome face. He didn't seem happy, and I didn't even know why. I hadn't talked to him, being busy working his way around everyone in my brother's backyard except for me.

"You didn't show up for the interview we had set up for you; why?" I took a deep breath, hearing his irritated, deep voice scold me for not showing up at his stupid firm. Did he really believe I would ever work for him??

I took a deep breath before looking up since I was still on my phone when he arrived. I shaded my eyes from the scorching sun, trying not to show how much he was still scaring me after all these years had gone by.

"I don't want to work for you…. "I wouldn't have applied if I knew you owned the place…" I said it honestly, mumbling into my glass, feeling the taste of wine to his amused scoff, not even hurt by me calling him out that he wasn't the nice guy he pretended to be, maybe that's why his career as a real estate agent was going so darn well!

"That's funny, considering my name is on the building, and if you hadn't bailed and talked to me instead of just being rude and spilling coffee on me, you would know that!" He was still smirking, arms crossed in the loose-fitted short-sleeved shirt, perfectly blending in with the other guests, unlike me, in my old shorts and shirt and looking like I had just landed on planet Earth with my big, scared eyes and long dark hair falling over my eyes still not wanting to meet his vicious ones.

"I am sorry for spilling coffee on you... It was an accident…but…" I said, trying to leave the conversation, my heart beating faster, seeing his face, which was so familiar and still new. His beard was groomed, and he had sunglasses that looked expensive on his head with a nice modern haircut and still casual. He was planned from head to toe against my messiness.

"…you still hate me for calling you weird and fat when I was a kid…" I nodded at his straightforward answer, yes. That is precisely what I would say if he had let me take a minute, since I wasn't the smooth talker he had always been.

"Alright… listen, I know that I wasn't so nice to you, but… you've always been more like a sister to me, same as Allie, and that's why I was always hard on you, and I never got to tell you since you left town, even before Mikes's wedding…" I gulped at his words. Was he trying to make me feel bad about not attending Mike's wedding with Allie? I did, and I know they both hated me for leaving, but I wanted to go long before they decided to get pregnant and married.

"Okay…" I didn't say more to his eyes, trying to search into mine, leaving him with no answers, since I didn't want to look at him anymore. Did he want me to forgive him for his years of treating me like dirt? Since I was the same age as the pretty homemaker his little sister turned into, and I was still just a mess, he couldn't stand to look at me because the feeling was mutual!

"Let me be really honest with you here, Lee…" I said the nickname I wasn't allowed to use growing up around him. He never said it, but he just frowned, making me feel even more excluded since that was the name everyone else used. I heard at least three people call him at this party this afternoon!

"You take your stupid apology, and you go push it up so far up your ass where it came from…" my eyes were still narrowed against his, not knowing how I was even brave enough to fight back, the anger of being mistreated from him long before I even had my ex mistreating me pouring out of my heart and sipping down my tongue, I hated him, and that was never going to change!

".. And don't ever come over and talk to me again…because I still hate you…" my voice was so hostile that it didn't even sound like me anymore, the scared girl afraid that anyone would hurt her, standing up against the mighty Lewis Caldwell, starring back at me like I finally had lost it before turning my back on him and feeling great for the first second before hearing his answer that made me lose the small victory with just one line that made me sink down and feeling like the worst human being in the world.

"Hey Stephanie… that dress makes you look weird…" Lewis had a relaxed posture and was holding his hands in his pockets. He watched me leave with a blank face before turning around and staring to talk to someone else who came along, making me hate him more; he could stay here and drown for all I cared!

My sneakers were hitting the hot pavement hard. The only pair I owned was on my feet when Mike came and picked me up in the middle of the night.

My eyes filled up, and I sniffed out my heart over Lewis's meanness, still getting to me, saying that I wasn't good enough. I wish I had never come back here!

"Mike, I'm heading back home… I'm sorry…" I wrote on my phone as I stepped onto the bus, since I had no car and my parents’ house was on the other side of town. Mike and Alicia had been living in a better neighborhood since they moved out of our house, the same one I would stay inside for the rest of my life, hiding away from the world and Lewis Caldwell.