LOVEHATE

6

Shawn continued to drink heavily all night. He had a couple more of Owen's signature cocktails while everyone chatted in the living room before dinner. He then moved on to red wine as we ate. We were seated next to each other at the table, which was obviously Lil's doing.

He followed my suggestion and ignored me, though I found him looking at me frequently. The looks weren't friendly. The only thing that kept his obvious hatred of me from hurting was that the feeling was mutual. You'd think having sex would have softened how we felt about each other, but it clearly had the opposite effect.

Owen and Lil had made lasagna, which they served with garlic bread and a big salad. I grew up on my grandma's Italian food, and this held up to my family's standards. We had pasta at every big family occasion or holiday. Maybe this was terribly stereotypical, but it's what we did. I was normally very critical of pasta dishes but this was fabulous.

"That was seriously as good as my grandma Rosalie's," I said to the hosts as I helped clear the table.

I heard Shawn scoff loudly behind me. I turned and looked at him. "You have something to say?" I asked.

He took a long drink of his red wine before answering. "I have nothing to say to you, but you complimented the food like you're some kind of expert, which I thought was funny."

He was slurring slightly, so I knew he was drunk or headed in that direction.

I turned to Lil and Owen. "I'm sorry if what I said came across that way to you. Hopefully only Shawn heard it with that tone."

Owen cleared his throat and picked the salad bowl off the table. "It's all good, Sadie. Don't worry."

I saw him lean towards Shawn, but I couldn't hear what he said.

After the dishes were done, which I volunteered to help with to avoid Shawn, we all moved to the living room. I sat next to Kyrie who I'd grown to consider a friend. We didn't go to the same university, but we always got along well when we were out together.

"What's the deal with you and Shawn?" Kyrie whispered to me after we'd been talking for a while.

It irked me that anyone thought we had a 'deal' of any kind. It wasn't her I was annoyed with, but rather the idea of Shawn and I giving off some vibe.

"We hate each other," I said matter-of-factly, not bothering to whisper.

Kyrie laughed, obviously assuming I was kidding.

Shawn heard me, apparently. He stood up and walked over to me. "Can I please have a word with you?" he asked with forced politeness.

The last thing I wanted was another tense interaction with this jerk, especially if he'd been drinking. Maybe if I'd had a few drinks in me I'd feel differently, but as things stood, I wanted to be far away from him. I decided it was time for me to go home.

"Actually, I was thinking of heading out," I said to him tersely as I stood up. "Thanks for having the dinner here. It was so kind of you to save the day."

I walked over to Lil and Owen in the kitchen where they were making coffee. "This was great. The food was amazing. Thank you."

"But you're going to miss dessert if you leave now!" Lillian protested. Her face showed how genuinely disappointed she was that I was bowing out early. I'd explain why to her later.

"I'm stuffed from dinner. I probably shouldn't have taken seconds of that amazing lasagna."

I gave both of them a hug. Turning to everyone else, I said my goodbyes before grabbing my purse from where I'd set it in the foyer and walking out the door. I was almost to the elevator when someone grabbed my elbow.

"You're always leaving," Shawn said.

"Why the fuck do you care?" I asked. "And how the hell are you able to sneak up on me like that?"

"I was hoping you'd stay over again."

I couldn't help but start laughing. "Stay over? Why would I do that?"

"You did it before. Except you left. Without your panties. They were in the bed mocking me when I woke up alone, along with the smell of your perfume. Or maybe it was just your smell. All I know is that it was sexy."

Holy shit he was drunker than I thought. I pressed the button to summon an elevator.

"That night was an isolated occurrence. I don't really understand how it happened, but it's never happening again."

He grinned and wagged a finger at me. "You had a good time, though."

"You think way too highly of yourself," I said.

"You were screaming my name. I was worried I'd get a letter from the condo association telling me there'd been noise complaints."

"Screaming is a bit of an exaggeration," I said with an eye roll. I knew I'd been loud, but come on.

He then proceeded to do a perfect imitation of me. "Oh Shawn! Yes! Yes! Yesssssss! Right there! Don't stop! Oh god! Ohhhhhhh godddddd!"

I covered his mouth with my hand. "Stop that!"

He chuckled and I felt his warm breath on my palm.

"You're the worst, you know that?" I huffed as I pulled my hand away.

"But you told me after we finished that I was the best. How can I be both?"

Fuck. Why had I said that?

"Come back in the party, sexy Sadie. Then stay with me. I promise I'll make it worth it," he said as he leaned closer to me.

For a split second, I considered it. I knew what he was capable of in bed, and it had been a long time since I'd had sex.

"There's something very wrong with the idea of two people who can't stand each other having sex. Do you not see that?" I asked.

"I like you just fine when I'm fucking you. It's actually a nice break from disliking you. Maybe we should just just screw around all the time and then we'd get along great," he answered.

There was a little bit of logic to his reasoning, but no, I needed to stay strong.

"Go back in your condo, have dessert, and sleep off the alcohol. When you wake up you'll be glad I left," I said as I pushed the down button on the elevator several more times with hopes it would arrive faster. Finally it got to his floor.

He stood there watching me with a hostile expression as I got in and pressed the lobby button. As the doors slid closed, I could hear him mutter, "Bitch."

The elevator slowly went down, and I took a series of deep breaths as I tried to calm down. I hated myself for letting him get me so worked up. Maybe it shouldn't have upset me that he thought I was a bitch, but it did. I really wasn't one. I could be a bit blunt, but I wasn't mean and I tried to get along with people. How could he want to fuck me one minute and be so hateful the next? How could I hate him and want to fuck him so badly?

I was about to exit the building when I realized I didn't have my coat. I'd forgotten that I'd hung it up in the hall closet when I'd arrived. My car keys were inside my coat pocket, so I couldn't just ask Lil to bring it home. I needed the damn coat to drive.

My only choice was to go back upstairs to Shawn's condo to get it.