Act Like You Love Me (Jessica) novel Chapter 183

Chapter 183

Daphne’s POV

I didn’t remember most of the walk home.

の42%

35 vouchers

That happened sometimes-your legs just carry you while your mind is somewhere else entirely, and you arrive at your front door without any real recollection of the turns you took to get there.

I stood outside for a moment, just breathing.

The evening air had gotten cooler, and it settled against my face in a way that almost helped. Almost.

I fumbled with my keys the metal clicking against the lock with a sound that felt unnecessarily loud in the quiet hallway.

When the door finally swung open, the familiar scent of vanilla candles and slightly over-baked popcorn hit me.

The television was on—some reality show with too many people talking at once.

Lois was on the couch, her legs tucked under her, a throw blanket pulled up to her waist, and a bowl of popcorn resting on her stomach.

She had that particular look of someone deeply committed to not moving for the rest of the night.

“Okay, so,” she started, without turning around. “The landlord left another note about the utility increase. If we don’t move some funds around by Friday, we’re going to be eating air for dinner.

She finally glanced over her shoulder.

“Also, you forgot to venmo me for the internet, and…” She stopped.

The silence that followed was thick, the kind that happens when the air suddenly changes in a room.

Lois unmuted herself from the blanket situation and sat up fully, the bowl shifting to the cushion beside her.

She turned to look at me properly, the way she did when she was actually paying attention, and I watched her take in whatever my face was doing.

“Daphne?” she asked, her voice losing its casual edge. “What happened? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.

“Nothing,” I said, which was the wrong answer, and I knew it was the wrong answer, but it came out anyway because I’d been holding myself together for the last forty minutes and I needed just one more second before I let any of it move.

My bag slipped from my shoulder, hitting the floor with a dull thud. My knees followed a second later.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Lois was off the couch in a heartbeat, skidding across the hardwood to reach me. “Daph, breathe. Just breathe. I’ve got you.”

Something in my chest cracked open, and I felt my face crumple before I could do anything to stop it.

It was the delayed reaction to Kyle appearing out of thin air, the cold terror of that manager almost getting hurt, and the sheer, overwhelming confusion of seeing David Tyrone stand between me and my past like an unbreakable wall.

Lois pulled me in immediately, both arms around me, and I pressed my face into her shoulder and cried in the specific way I hated-ugly and uncontrolled, the kind that comes from somewhere deeper than you planned to go.

For months, I’d played the part of the cool, detached coder who didn’t need anyone. But in the circle of Lois’s arms, that mask shattered.

1/4

III

O

17:12 Mon, Mar 9

Chapter 183

42%

R 55 vouchers

I don’t know how long it lasted. Long enough that my shoulders stopped shaking. Long enough that the tightness in my throat started to ease.

Lois didn’t press me for details. She just held me, rocking back and forth slightly, her hand stroking my hair.

She stayed there on the floor with me until the worst of the tremors subsided and my breathing transitioned from gasping to steady, exhausted sighs.

Eventually I pulled back, wiping my face with the back of my hand, embarrassed in the way that doesn’t fully make sense when it’s your best friend.

“Stay here,” she whispered.

She got up and moved to the kitchen. I stayed on the floor, leaning my back against the door, feeling the cool wood through my shirt.

A minute later, she was back, kneeling beside me with a tall glass of ice water.

She pressed it into my hands and then sat down next to me, her palm moving in slow, soothing circles against my arm.

I took a sip, the coldness of the water helping to ground me. The fog in my head began to lift, replaced by a dull, throbbing ache behind my eyes.

“Kyle found me,” I said, my voice sounding like it had been dragged over gravel.

Lois froze. Her hand stopped moving for a split second before she resumed the steady rubbing. “In the coffee shop?”

“Yeah. He was… he was being himself. Making a scene. Acting like he owned the air I was breathing.”

I closed my eyes, picturing the way he had looked at me.

“He almost swung on the manager. I was scared someone was going to get hurt because of me, so I dashed out.”

Lois swore under her breath, a string of words that would have made her mother faint.

“Did he follow you? Do we need to call the police?”

“Yes, he followed me out,” I whispered. “But then I ran into David”

Lois tilted her head, her brow furrowed.

“Like David Tyrone? Your uptight boss?”

“Yes, him,” I confirmed with a weak, tired laugh.

“He was just… there. On the street. He didn’t even hesitate, Lois. He stepped right in front of me to protect me, to fight for me, and he threatened Kyle. You needed to see his face.”

Lois pulled back just enough to look me in the eye, her hands shifting from a hug to a steadying grip on my shoulders.

I told her the rest.

“He sounds like he’s a lot more than a stoic boss, Daph.”

“He’s a Tyrone,” I said, though the words didn’t feel as bitter as they usually did. “They’re built differently. But for a minute there, it didn’t feel like a job. It felt like…” I trailed off, not wantin to finish the thought.

“Like he cared?” Lois finished for me.

2/4

17:12 Mon, Mar 9

42%

Chapter 183

55 vouchers

“Maybe. Or maybe he just hates it when people mess with his investments.” I finished the water and handed her the glass.

“I’m exhausted, Lois. I feel like I’ve run a marathon through a swamp.”

“Go,” she said, pulling me to my feet. “Take a nap. I’ll handle the hail and the landlord. I’m staying right here on the couch, so if a fly so much as lands on the door, I’ll hear it.”

I

gave

her a grateful squeeze and retreated to my bedroom.

The afternoon sun was beginning to dip, casting long, amber streaks across my bedspread.

I kicked off my shoes and spent a second peeling my clothes off, tossing them toward the laundry basket with a lack of aim I didn’t care to correct.

I wasn’t about to be the person who brought the city’s grime ont my sheets.

Too exhausted to even hunt for a sleep shirt, I just flopped onto the mattress in my underwear, the cool fabric of the duvet meeting my skin.

The silence of the room was heavy, but it wasn’t the suffocating kind. It was the kind that allowed your thoughts to settle like dust.

I reached for my phone to silence it, but the screen lit up with a motification.

‘One New Message: David Tyrone.’

My heart did a strange, localized skip. I swiped the screen open.

‘Are you home safe? I apologize for not being able to drop you off myself. The meeting was urgent, and I was in quite a hurry. Let me know when you’ve reached your apartment.”

I stared at the words, reading it repeatedly.

Then I sat with it for a moment, the phone resting in both hands as I looked toward my bedroom window that overlooked the street.

I almost typed back something formal. ‘Yes, thank you, I appreciate it! The kind of reply I’d have sent to any professional correspondence.

Instead, I thought back to the walk home. To the specific tension of the streets I’d just navigated and the man I’d noticed hanging about half a block behind me for most of it.

He was wearing a nondescript jacket, and he had an earpiece tha he tried very hard to hide behind a casual, practiced lean against a brick wall.

He was doing his best to look like he wasn’t paying me any attention; hands shoved deep into his pockets, eyes scanning anything but me-yet he paused whenever I paused and turned whenever I turned.

He wasn’t bad at it, honestly. But he wasn’t good enough to fool someone who spent her life looking for anomalies in the code.

And after an afternoon like the one I’d had, my senses were dialed into every glitch on the street, and a man in a tactical jacket trying to look casual while leaning against a newsstand was a glaring error.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify