The Mess You Left Behind: An Enemies-to-Lover Romance

by V. T. Do

  The first picture was of his face. I thought it was a nice picture. He was definitely one of those people who photographed well. Then the second picture came into view, and my cheeks burned a deeper shade of red.

  He wasn’t wearing a shirt—just his head and torso were showing, and there was a lot of skin of display. His eyes were dark, hungry, even, and his full lips were curved up in a wicked smirk. It was as if he’d taken these pictures with the goal of making me hot and bothered.

  The next one showed even more of him. I knew if I kept swiping, I might see more than I should. So then why did I want to? So, so badly.

  Curiosity.

  I wanted to see him, all of him. Was it bad that I might see it with him sitting across from me?

  I swiped, and my heart literally skipped a beat. What I saw had me frowning in confusion. When I looked up, Wyatt could no longer hold in his laugh. I would laugh along if I didn’t think he was laughing at me.

  “A cat?”

  “What were you expecting?” he asked, that wicked smile back on his face. I squirmed in my seat.

  “It’s just random, is all.” I looked back down at the phone, fighting against the embarrassment and the disappointment.

  Embarrassment because Wyatt knew I was disappointed that his fourth photo was of a cat. And not just any cat, but a sphynx. I almost had a heart attack because for a brief second I thought he was the kind of man who... shaved. And disappointment because, well...

  “Keep going,” he said after a minute. I would have answered, but our server came back. I hadn’t even had a chance to look at the menu. So when Wyatt ordered steak and vegetables, I placed the same order.

  I looked back down at the phone before bringing my eyes back to his. “I might regret this, huh? You took those pictures on purpose.”

  “Just wanted to see how much you wanted to see me. To see all of me,” he added after a pause.

  I pursed my lips and looked back down at the phone. What could I say to that? I was so busted, and at this rate, he might think of me as some pervert who only wanted to see naked pictures of him in this high-end restaurant.

  I kept scrolling, and when I got to the sixth picture, I looked at him in surprise. I didn’t know if I should be mad. “Why do you have my pictures?”

  In fact, the next ten were pictures of me. Selfies I had taken on my phone. “Remember, you promised not to delete anything.”

  “Shouldn’t I have a say about where my pictures are?”

  “Your pictures are all over the internet. I think that ship sailed long ago.”

  “Those are press pictures. Taken when I was at events.”

  The pictures he chose from my phone were private, taken mostly on my bed or first thing in the morning. They were me at my most carefree, when I didn’t have my face made up, or when I didn’t have to present myself to the public. I set my phone down, face up, and then I used his phone and sent his pictures to myself. When my phone dinged with the text message, I looked up at Wyatt, my eyebrows raised, daring him to say something.

  He remained silent and took a sip of his wine to hide his smile. “Now we both have pictures of each other. Some would call this the beginning of a relationship.”

  “Yeah, between a stalker and his prey.”

  “Are you calling yourself prey?”

  I shrugged. “For now. Just wait until I sharpen my claws.”

  He laughed. I tried not to let it affect me so much. “You are full of surprises, aren’t you?”

  I cracked a small smile. Then I said, “Why did you cancel my date, Wyatt?”

  He looked down at his wineglass, touching the stem with his index finger. “Would you believe me if I said I really don’t know?”

  “Nope. You know why you did it.”

  “He’s not good enough for you.”

  “You don’t even know him.”

  “I looked him up, you know. With his extravagant lifestyle that he has no problem showing off to the girls always hanging around him in his pictures, like some sort of decoration. Even his haircut screams douchebag.”

  I looked down, biting my bottom lip to hold in my smile. So I wasn’t the only one who thought that about Ethan. Our food arrived then. I waited for the server to leave before returning to Wyatt’s phone.

  “Come on, Emery, put the phone down. You can look at it again when dinner’s over.”

  “Hold on,” I said. I wanted to find pictures of him. Ones that would tell me about him, not the teasing pictures he took just to mess with me. “Almost done.”

  Unsurprisingly, he did not take selfies very often. They were mostly pictures of him with someone else. In the middle of scrolling, I came across a picture of a woman. I stopped and looked at her.

  She was middle-aged, but she had aged well. She was also beautiful. So beautiful that I thought she looked like an angel. And her eyes were the brightest green. With medium-length brown hair, freckled skin, and a small frame, she was achingly familiar to me. Only, I could not place where I had seen her.

  But I knew that I had.

  Without thinking about what I was doing, I sent her picture to myself, then deleted the text from Wyatt’s phone. Later, I would reflect on my actions, and still not know why I had wanted her picture so bad.

  I placed the phone down on the table next to my own and picked up my knife and fork, cutting into my steak. I barely tasted it.

  Throughout dinner, we didn’t talk much. I would have thought the silence would be awkward, but it wasn’t. It wasn’t tense, mostly because I knew there weren’t any expectations from either of us. The kiss came to mind, and I licked my lips at the memory of how he’d tasted.

  He’d kissed me. But I didn’t think that kiss had changed anything. When I finished my plate, I pushed it aside and grabbed my wineglass, taking a small sip. “What do you do?” I asked suddenly. If he was surprised at my question, he didn’t show it.

  “I build stuff.”

  “Like an architect?”

  His eyes gleamed. “Yes.” He paused before adding, “I own a business with Cole. We’ve been partners for over ten years now.”

  “Wow. You guys are really close, then, huh?”

  “As close as you and Joey are.”

  I smiled at the mention of my best friend. “We’ve known each other since we were seven. I was the new kid, and Joey was the one everyone wanted to be friends with. She chose me.”

  “You didn’t go to a private school?”

  “How do you know it wasn’t a private school?”

  “Just guessing, but Joey doesn’t look like she grew up with the same lifestyle as you.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, a little more sharply than I’d intended.

  “Not what you think. But Joey looks like someone who grew up fighting for what she has.”

  I looked away. “I did attend a private school for a couple of months.”

  “But you transferred?”

  I looked back at him, shooting him a humorless smile. “Kids are cruel. Adults who live in my world are worse.” Memories of my time at Hailstone Prep came to mind, with the taunting and physical altercations. It was one of the few times in my life that the Caldwell name did not protect me.

  “I see.” He didn’t say any more, but it looked like he wasn’t even trying to keep his expression neutral. I caught a glimpse of anger on his part. Anger... on my behalf.

  “I’m fine, you know. When it got worse, my grandpa pulled me out, and pulled out all of the funding he had given to the school. Then he signed me up for public school. It was located right on the line that divided the rich from the poor, so we had all kinds of interesting students who attended there.”

  “And you’ve been able to remain close to her, even now?”

  “Even now. I can’t imagine not having her in my life.”

  His smile softened, and I wondered why he was looking at me like that. Our bill came, and Wyatt paid, even though I insisted he let me pay for my meal. He wouldn’t hea
r of it. After he signed the receipt, he stood up and came over to my chair, helping me up like I was helpless.

  We walked up front, and the hostess handed our coats to us. Before we headed outside, Wyatt turned to me and asked, “Did you drive here?” I shook my head. “Why don’t I drive you home?”

  “You know you don’t have to, right?”

  “I know that. I want to.”

  I leaned in closer to him. “It won’t be like last night. We can’t cross that line again.”

  “Why do you say that?” He sounded disappointed, but his face was so emotionless it was hard to tell. I might be reflecting my own disappointment onto him.

  “You said so yourself, there’s no future for us. It wouldn’t make sense for you to kiss me like there is.”

  “Hmm” was all he said before leading me to his car. We drove home in silence. The air had shifted since we’d left the restaurant, and I wasn’t sure why. Was it something I said? Or was it the way he was feeling?

  I didn’t ask.

  And when he dropped me off at home, he got out of the car and walked me to the front door like a gentleman. I looked up at him, watching the way the porch light turned his gray eyes gold, and wondered what I would give just for a chance to read his mind.

  “Good night, Emery,” he said softly.

  “Good night, Wyatt,” I said, mimicking his tone.

  He leaned down and kissed my forehead. I closed my eyes as he let his lips rest on my skin for one, two, three seconds.

  Then he turned and walked back to his car while I stared at his back, wanting to know why I suddenly wished he had kissed me like last night.

  Chapter Thirteen: But I Want To

  Wyatt

  My life has been redefined three times thus far. And as few and far between as they have been, they’ve changed my take on the world completely.

  The first was when I truly realized what it meant to be poor.

  Even at the tender age of eight, I knew there was something inherently wrong with the family I had grown up in. My grandma was bitter about all that she lacked in life. She blamed her lot in life on her inability to seduced a married man. And she spent most of her life blaming her misery on the daughter she conceived from that affair.

  My grandma wanted money. She was convinced that only with money could her life improve, and because of how much time I spent with her as a child, I soon took on that view. That we were poor, and our lives would have been markedly different had we had money.

  I didn’t realize it then. We weren’t miserable because we were poor; we were miserable because everyone always wanted more.

  My dad left when I was nine, always chasing a bigger high with drugs and whores, up until his suicide when I was fifteen. My mom disappeared from the face of the earth long before I had the resources to look for her. And even though I had investigators on her case, I wasn’t sure if I wanted her to be found.

  The second time it was redefined was when I found out about my aunt when I was sixteen. I found out by accident, from a whole bunch of letters that explained so much.

  Why she never married. Why she was always so quiet and reserved. Why she had never even entertained the idea of falling in love, because her heart still belonged to a man she could never have. That’s when I realized that the wealthy could get away with anything, and that they had powers beyond even my biggest dreams. And I knew then that I couldn’t be poor.

  The third time was when Emery Caldwell entered my life. The fall wasn’t sudden. It snuck up on me. It lured me into a false sense of security, until it was much too late. I couldn’t go back to a time when she didn’t exist. Acknowledging my attraction to Emery came with the sobering thought that I couldn’t keep her safe from all the hurt she would experience, but I wanted to. Even if the outcome meant she’d hate me.

  It made no sense. Why she got under my skin. Why all of my control seemed to be slipping around her. I told her we should be friends.

  That being friends was the only way to go, because I would only end up breaking her heart. And wouldn’t that make me feel like the biggest asshole? To break the heart of an innocent.

  What a joke.

  How would I go about being friends with her?

  I knew what I was doing when I used her phone to text that boy and cancel her date. I knew what I was doing when I looked through pictures of her. Pictures of when she was at her most freeing. When she didn’t have her face made up or when she wasn’t posing, like she had been trained to do her whole life.

  For once, I wanted to see what she looked like without her mask. I wanted to be the one to remove it. Preferably when she’s squirming beneath me, finding orgasmic bliss. My dick got hard just from the thought.

  I moved a little in my chair, turning my attention back to my computer. I was supposed to read through several proposals for the new project and make a decision by lunchtime. I was on proposal number two, and with a hard-on I had no means to take care of.

  I drew the line at jacking off in the office. Especially when Cole had the tendency to just walk in unannounced. As if I’d conjured him just by thinking his name, Cole opened my door then and walked in, a cocky smile on his face.

  “Why are you so happy?” I asked. It wasn’t hard to guess. The fucker had been happy all morning. And it probably had to do with why he couldn’t return my call last night.

  “I am a happy person. Excuse me for wanting to spread some joy around here. We know this place can use it, especially when you’re around.”

  I scowled, as if proving his point. I had been snappy at everyone. And all the employees knew to stay away from me. It wasn’t a big deal—they usually went to Cole anyway.

  “What do you want?” I asked.

  “Just checking to see where you’re at on the proposals. I really like Bern’s.”

  “You finished reading them already?” I asked.

  Cole shot me a pointed look. “You haven’t?”

  I leaned back in the chair, scrubbing my hand over my face. I needed a shave. And a good night’s sleep. “Why don’t we just go with your choice?” At this point, I couldn’t trust my judgment.

  “We can. Everything okay, man?”

  It was on the tip of my tongue to lie. Instead, I said nothing.

  Cole caught on, however. “You know, Joey said Emery’s been acting weird.”

  I sat up. “Weird how?”

  He smirked. “Knew that would get you interested.” I raised an eyebrow expectantly. Cole shrugged. “Just weird. Did you know they share everything?”

  I shrugged. “Isn’t that how it works with girls?”

  “How the hell should I know? But Joey said Emery always tells her everything. But she shut down after her date with Ethan.”

  I looked away to hide my surprise. I didn’t know Emery hadn’t told Joey that I took her out instead. I figured she would. I wondered why she didn’t. Did she regret staying there with me? Should I have kissed her? But she told me not to. And now I wanted to know why I cared so much.

  “I took her out,” I confessed. Cole didn’t look surprised.

  “Yeah, I figured something like that happened. So, did you piss her off or something?”

  “Why would you think that?”

  “Sounds like you.”

  “Real funny. I thought it went well.”

  Cole sat up and tapped his fingers on my desk once. “Does she think it went well?”

  “She’s hard to read,” I admitted. Only when she wasn’t. There were times when I swore her eyes told me everything. I caught sight of that unguarded look of hers a few seconds after our first kiss ended, before she realized we had been interrupted. Throughout dinner, I was trying to catch it again. I found it when her cheeks turned a pretty pink after looking through my pictures. Then she shut down, and I couldn’t tell what she was thinking.

  It was as frustrating as much as it was captivating.

  “She’s had years of practice,” Cole agreed.

  “Hmm.”
/>   He hesitated for a second before he asked, “Do you think there is a future there?”

  “For me and her?” I asked. He nodded. “I don’t know.”

  “Well, then. I’ll say what I told you on that first date. You’re an idiot if you think this is going to go away.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because of how much this girl has got you all tied up.”

  “What, is that the way you feel about Joey? Are you sure you’re not just reflecting?”

  “I’m not the one running. I don’t need to reflect.”

  “I ran into one of her staff.”

  “Her staff?” He looked like he was trying not to laugh at my choice of words.

  “Yes. I don’t know what he does exactly. I think he’s the driver for the family. I saw him driving Joseph before.”

  “Okay.”

  “He asked me not to tell her.”

  “So he knows? So everyone knows except the people actually involved?” Cole sounded pissed. It seemed like he was starting to warm up to Emery. “Are you going to listen to him?”

  I ran my fingers through my hair. I needed a haircut. I didn’t usually let it get this long. “I don’t know. Don’t you think she deserves to know?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “You answered that pretty quick.”

  Cole leaned forward, his expression serious. “If you’re keeping secrets, make sure they’re yours to keep. But to keep something like this from her? That’s mess up. Hell, even I know more about her history than she does. What does that tell you?”

  “They think the truth will break her.”

  “Maybe she’s stronger than anyone has ever given her credit for.”

  I looked away. “I know. What you’re saying makes sense. I know I have to tell her.”

  “But you also don’t want to hurt her,” Cole finished for me. I nodded. “For what it’s worth, I still think you should give her a chance.”

  I looked back at him, my eyebrows pulling together. “A chance at what?”

  “To be with you.”

  I didn’t answer him. I didn’t know how. I had thought the best thing for everyone was to let her go. Let her live her life without me intruding in it. Given our shared history, even if the mistakes of the past were not our doing, we were still affected by them. And the secrets I was keeping weighed me down more and more every day. Before, she was just a stranger. That wasn’t the case anymore.