"Whoa..." Dave muttered, rolling his shoulders before stretching his back as though trying to ease the lingering ache from Bryce’s shove.
A crooked smile tugged at his lips. "Have you been hitting the gym or something?" he asked casually as he pushed the couch back into its original position. He glanced at Bryce again before adding, "Or maybe you’re just a lot stronger than you look when you’re angry."
Bryce didn’t acknowledge him.
Without sparing him another glance, he turned and headed toward the bathroom, desperate for a shower that might wash away at least some of the chaos still clinging to his body and mind.
But Dave stepped directly into his path.
"I chose you."
The unexpected words brought Bryce to an abrupt halt.
His expression hardened as he slowly turned and his eyes met Dave’s.
"In the end, I knew I had to choose between you and her," Dave continued, looking back into Bryce’s eyes. "And I chose you."
Bryce’s fingers curled so tightly that his nails dug painfully into his palms.
He stared at Dave in disbelief.
A choice? He was supposed to be the only one.
Since when had their relationship become something that required choosing?
The words echoed relentlessly inside his head, each repetition hurting more than the last. They could only mean one thing.
Dave hadn’t met that woman today. He had been seeing her while still sharing a life with him, and if he hadn’t walked into the bedroom when he did, Dave would probably have continued pretending Bryce was the only person in his life.
The realization made his stomach churn.
Rather than responding, Bryce sidestepped Dave and continued toward the bathroom, determined to put as much distance between them as possible.
He no longer trusted himself.
Everything inside him felt dangerously unstable, and after everything that had happened that night, he feared his strength and emotions more than ever.
He barely managed two steps before Dave caught hold of his wrist and pulled him back.
Bryce stumbled forward, colliding with Dave’s chest.
The instant their bodies touched, an overwhelming sense of rejection rushed through him.
Only hours earlier, Dave’s embrace had been the one place where Bryce had always found comfort. He had loved resting against that chest.
Now...
Every instinct screamed at him to get away.
Bryce immediately moved backward, but before he could, Dave wrapped both arms around him, holding him firmly in place.
The restraint only fueled the anger already boiling inside Bryce.
"Let go of me! What the fuck is your problem?" he snapped, wrenching himself free with enough force to break Dave’s grip.
Dave’s expression darkened as his gaze fixed on Bryce for several silent moments before speaking, "Why do you smell like a perfume you’ve never worn before?"
The question made Bryce let out a humorless laugh.
"What right do you think you have to ask me that anymore?" he asked, his voice frighteningly calm. "You broke up with me a few hours ago. Don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten. Or do you just not understand what breaking up actually means? Since you seem confused, let me explain it to you. It means you no longer have the right to question where I’ve been, who I’ve been with, or why I smell like someone at all. And if this is supposed to be concern, save it. You don’t have to waste another second worrying about me anymore... my ex."
The last word had barely left Bryce’s mouth when Dave suddenly pinned him back against the wall.
The impact rattled through Bryce’s body.
Dave planted both hands on either side of him, trapping him where he stood.
His breathing had turned heavy, his chest rising and falling with restrained fury while the muscles in his jaw visibly tightened.
"That wasn’t a breakup," he said, his voice low despite the anger burning beneath it. "We promised we’d never leave each other for as long as we lived. Remember? So answer my fucking question. Where have you been... and why do you reek of some bastard’s perfume?"
Bryce closed his eyes for a brief moment before opening them again. His patience had nearly reached its limit, but somehow he forced himself to remain still.
"I don’t owe you an explanation anymore," he replied, matching Dave’s tone without raising his voice. "But since you’re so determined to hear it, I’ll tell you."
He held Dave’s gaze without flinching.
"The reason I smell like someone else..." he said slowly, every word carrying a quiet edge, "is because less than an hour ago, I was with someone... doing the very same thing you were doing with that girl in our bed."
Dave’s fist crashed into the wall beside Bryce’s head as his chest rose and fell in heavy, uneven breaths.
His eyes remained locked on Bryce’s, his expression growing darker than Bryce had ever seen it before. Every trace of the casual composure he had worn moments ago had vanished, leaving only restrained fury etched across his face.
His jaw tightened until the muscles along it stood out sharply beneath his skin, while the hand braced against the wall slowly curled into another fist, the tendons across the back of it pulling taut.
He drew in a long, measured breath before slowly letting it out, both hands still planted on either side of Bryce. His eyes fell shut as he struggled to regain control of the emotions.
"Fine," he said at last, his voice noticeably steadier. "I get it. You did it because you were angry. You wanted to hurt me the same way I hurt you, and I understand that. So let’s leave it behind us. I cheated on you, and you cheated on me. Doesn’t that make us even? This is just another obstacle in our relationship, something we’re supposed to overcome together, so..."
"Stop right there."
Bryce’s voice sliced cleanly through the room, cutting Dave off before he could finish.
Of everything Dave had done and said that night, nothing had wounded him more than those words.
The comparison alone felt insulting.
Dave hadn’t made a single mistake in a moment of weakness. He had carried on another relationship behind Bryce’s back, brought another woman into the apartment they had built together, into the bed they had shared for years, and from everything he had said, it certainly hadn’t looked like the first time.
Now he expected Bryce to accept that could somehow be measured against what had happened tonight.
"Let me correct you," he said, his voice cold. "I would never throw my body at a stranger simply because you decided to fuck someone else. Tell me, how exactly would that help me? How would that make your betrayal hurt any less? So if I did sleep with a stranger, it wouldn’t be because of you. It would only be because I chose to, not because I was trying to get even with you."
His eyes never left Dave’s.
"And even if the person I slept with today had been a complete stranger, and that I did it because of what you did to me, how can you say those two things are the same?" His voice hardened with every word. "You betrayed me for who knows how long. You lied to my face every single day, came home pretending everything was normal, climbed into our bed, and acted like I was still the only person in your life."
A humorless smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
"I honestly don’t recognize the man standing in front of me anymore."
His shoulders sagged with exhaustion.
"I’m tired, Dave. Just leave me alone."
Instead of stepping back, Dave closed the remaining distance between them.
His brows slowly knitted together as he studied Bryce’s face. "Are you saying the person you slept with wasn’t a stranger?" he asked quietly.
Bryce looked at him in disbelief.
After everything that had just been said, that was the only part Dave had chosen to focus on.
"I already told you," Bryce replied, his patience wearing dangerously thin. "I don’t owe you a single explanation anymore."
His voice dropped another degree.
"And for the last time... Let go of me."