Amaranth by Rachael Wade

what’s going on here?”
He gave the bouquet a dramatic shove toward my chest as I reached for the door.
    “I think you should take her up on her offer.” Gavin moved
in front of me to block him. Andrew examined his face for a moment, laughed
before he took a step back. “You leave now, she won’t call the cops and report
you for trespassing.”
    “Now wait a minute.” Andrew pushed his hands up to defend
himself. “I do believe you’re entitled to an
explanation as well, don’t you agree?” He looked past Gavin’s face to glare at
me, smug. “Or hasn’t she told you about me yet?”
    Gavin shifted his eyes toward me, waited for me to respond.
“You don’t have to do this, Camille. We can go inside.”
    I stuck my house key into the door. “Andrew, this is none of
your business. You know we’re over, and you know I don’t want you here. I will
call the police. I mean it.”
    “Well, I must say, this is awfully rude of you to treat your
guests like this,” he gestured to Gavin. “But if you insist, I’ll come back at
a better time. When we have a little more privacy.”
    “No—”
    “Absolutely not.” Gavin shifted, but retained his protective
stance.
    “Look, Mr. Devereaux ,”
Andrew rolled his eyes, “I appreciate your effort to try and be the hero here,
but do yourself a favor and back off. You might be involved in this,” he
pointed to the three of us, “but what Camille and I discuss is our business. And I’ll speak to her about our business whenever I like.”
    “Camille is my business,” he gave Andrew a hard stare, “and
I think it’s clear she doesn’t want you around. Stay away from her, understand?”
    I glanced at Gavin as he spoke, wondering if he had any idea
how much worse he’d just made this. Of course he didn’t. He didn’t know the
half of it. And that was my fault.
    “I see how this is going to be.” Andrew chuckled to himself,
turned his attention back to me. “Camille, sweetheart, when your watchdog isn’t around and you have some time to
yourself, give me a call so we can chat, okay?”
    “Leave, Andrew,” I ordered him gritted teeth.
    He turned just long enough to place the flowers at the
doorstep, then casually stepped around Gavin. “For you, Camille. I’ll be seeing
you.”
    He began to whistle, but stopped and leaned over to peck me
on the cheek. I smacked him across the face the minute his lips touched my skin
and he jerked his head back, a phony look of surprise on his face. “Oh, so
feisty! That’s what I love about her.” He pointed to me, winked at Gavin. “She
always knows how to show a guy a good time.”
    Gavin grimaced, and I shut my eyes, disgusted. I opened them
when I heard him on the porch steps, and watched while he strolled off,
stopping to take a speculative gander at Gavin’s Maserati before he hopped into his truck. “And they say money can’t buy love....” he
sang while he pulled the door shut.
    “I told you to let me handle
it. I said I would explain everything afterward. You didn’t have to get in the
middle of this, now you just made it ten times harder than it already is.” I
realized I was rambling, and that Andrew could probably still hear us out here
on the porch. I unlocked and opened the door, stepped inside and waved at Gavin
to come with me. Gavin remained on the porch, his face stubborn and unwilling
to follow me.
    “I was trying to watch out for you, Camille. He’s
dangerous,” he replied calmly.
    “You don’t need to remind me.” I dropped my keys on the
table and turned to him, folded my arms. “I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you about
him, and this was not at all the way I intended
for it to go.”
    The door still wide open, he stared off at Andrew’s truck as
it drove away, watched as it left a trail of dust behind it. He tightened his
fists and it looked as if he were cutting off his circulation.
    “Are you listening to me?” I walked closer to the front
door, tried to get his attention.
    “I