Love Unwrapped Read online

  Love Unwrapped

  Hayden Hunt

  Contents

  Copyright

  1. Eli

  2. Gene

  3. Eli

  4. Gene

  5. Eli

  6. Gene

  7. Eli

  8. Gene

  9. Eli

  10. Gene

  11. Eli

  12. Gene

  13. Eli

  Epilogue

  FREE Picture Perfect Excerpt

  14. Rich

  15. Patrick

  16. Rich

  FREE Cold Turkey Excerpt

  17. Daniel

  18. Ethan

  19. Daniel

  20. Ethan

  FREE BONUS CHAPTER

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2016 by Hayden Hunt

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  1

  Eli

  I excitedly opened up the Christmas boxes that had spent all year in the garage. I hadn’t lived in this house long, but in the past couple of years, I’d created a pretty big stockpile of decorations because I’ve always absolutely loved the holiday.

  And I was especially excited about this Christmas because I wasn’t going to be spending it alone.

  Okay, to be fair, I hadn’t really spent any of the last few Christmases alone. My boyfriend, Josh, and I had been dating for several years, and he always came over on Christmas and everything. What I mostly mean is that, this Christmas season, I’m not going to be living alone. I’m going to be enjoying the season with him.

  And that starts today, decorating together. He’s not too big on Christmas, but I had made him promise to come over today to decorate with me.

  He hadn’t moved in yet, but he was going to later this week when he had some time off of work. I just didn’t want to wait until later in the week to decorate, though. There were only a few weeks until Christmas, and I had already waited too long! He was supposed to move in the last week of November, which is when I usually put the tree up, but things had gotten delayed.

  I started setting up the fake tree I had while I waited for him to arrive; that way, when he got here, we could do just the fun stuff like putting ornaments on it.

  I’m so excited about today that I can’t help myself from grinning ear-to-ear. It’s not just Christmas decorating that has me thrilled, either. I have a little surprise for Josh once he gets here.

  Josh has been living in a small studio apartment, so, while he loves animals, his ability to have pets has been very limited. Since we had decided that he’d move in with me, he’d been bugging me non-stop about when we could get a dog.

  Well, I’ve finally decided that I’m going to cave on this. Christmas seems as good a time as any to bring a new pup into our lives.

  I had an appointment with the local animal rescue to look at dogs in a few hours. So, right after we’re finished decorating, I’m going to spring on him that we’re about to head out to the animal rescue to pick our first dog together.

  I can see the look on his face already; he’s going to be thrilled. And, Lord knows I need him to be thrilled because, as of late, he’s been a little distant.

  I’m not sure why. I mean, we have been together a few years, and I’ll be the first to admit the relationship isn’t as exciting as it once was. It wasn’t awful or anything, either, we had just grown comfortable with one another. So, that might have something to do with it.

  Or, it could be that he’s always been slow to commit, and moving into my house is making him nervous. I mean, he has managed to put it off a few weeks.

  But, the issue is, I really don’t know which is the problem. And I think that having him move in would totally fix the problem of the relationship being boring and comfortable. This would be a whole new, huge step in our lives, and it’d bring a lot of excitement back.

  Of course, if the commitment is the problem, this will also be what drives him away. So, what is a guy to do?

  I know I should just talk to him about this, and I have. But every time I bring up the fact that he has been distant, he just pretends he hasn’t. He acts like everything is fine, just as it’s always been, and this is all in my head.

  It isn’t, though. I’ve known for years, and I know when something is different. And something is definitely different. But, all of these Christmas plans should help, I’m thinking.

  As I finished putting the tree together, I heard him unlock the door. Giddiness rolled through me as he walked in.

  “Okay, babe, so I’m all ready with the tree here,” I called out to him.

  He walked in, disappointment crossing his face. “Oh… Okay.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Is something wrong?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “I’m fine.”

  Again, he was lying to me, but I had no way to force him to tell the truth, so I just moved on.

  “so I just m’ve got all these boxes of decorations here and —”

  He sighed and fell into the recliner.

  “What? What is it?” I asked.

  “I’ve had a long day, can you just do this yourself?”

  Now disappointment was on my face, I was sure of it.

  “But, babe, we set aside this time, and… I really want to decorate together.”

  “Why? You’ve always done it alone and been totally fine.”

  “Well, yeah, obviously I did it alone before because it was only my house. Now it’s our house, and I want it to be a special thing we do together. It’s going to be your Christmas here too, you know.”

  He shrugged again. “Maybe not.”

  I jerked my head toward him. “Maybe not what?”

  “Maybe it won’t be my Christmas here.”

  “What on earth are you talking about?” I asked.

  “I just don’t know if I’m going to be all moved in by Christmas time.”

  I scoffed, “You don’t think you’ll be able to move all your stuff in here in three weeks? I’m pretty sure we can finish most of it by the end of this week, babe.”

  He shook his head. “Yeah, that’s what I’m trying to tell you, I don’t think I’m going to be moving in at the end of this week.”

  “What?!” I snapped. “Please don’t tell me you’re postponing this again. Come on, you’ve already made me wait weeks. What is the point?! Don’t you want to do this? Don’t you want to live with me?”

  I was expecting an enthusiastic ‘yes’ while he gave me some other excuse about why he had delayed, which is what he’d been doing the last few weeks.

  Instead, his answer took me by surprise.

  “I’m not sure.”

  Now, I sank into a chair. “…What?”

  “I don’t know, Eli, okay? I just don’t know.”

  “So that’s what this has all been about. All the distance… It really was because you’re afraid to commit to me. “

  “No, it isn’t. That’s not my problem. I —”

  “Then what is it?! I’m tired of you brushing me off, Josh! Don’t you think it’s time to be honest with me?!”

  “Fine!” he snapped. “Fine! You want the truth? You really want the fucking truth?!”

  “Yes! I do!”

  “I’m cheating on you!”

  I felt a pit form in the bottom of my stomach.

  “What…?”

  “Yeah, if you want to know why I’ve been pulling away, I’m having an affair.”

  “With whom?” I as
ked.

  “A girl from work,” he said, coolly.

  “A girl?!”

  Joshua is bi, has always been bi, I knew that, and it had never bothered me until this very moment. Because, for some reason, it hurt that much more that he was cheating on me with a woman.

  “Yes, a girl.”

  So many emotions were running trough me. Shock, anger, sadness, shame… I never knew I could feel so much at once, and I honestly didn’t even know where to start. This was all nauseating.

  “Why are you telling me now? Why didn’t you tell me before? Or why didn’t you just leave me?!”

  “I didn’t tell you before because I wasn’t sure what I was doing yet. I love you, and I didn’t want to leave you, so… I thought I could just get it out of my system a few times and then come back to you. Things haven’t exactly been easy for me lately, Eli. And our relationship has been…—”

  ‘Boring,” I finished his sentence for him. “You were bored, so you wanted to go stick your dick in some young girl’s twat?”

  “Yeah, something like that.” He said, coolly. I couldn’t believe he was acting so calm about this.

  Now I was infuriated. “What were you expecting here, Josh?! Did you think you’d come clean and then we’d work things out and move along?! Do you really think I’m that much of a pushover? I’m not. I’m not just going to roll over and forget about this!”

  “No. That’s not what I had expected at all. I knew this would be a deal breaker. That’s why I didn’t tell you until I had decided what I was going to do.”

  “And?! What the fuck is it that you’re going to do?”

  “I’m going to leave you for her.”

  Another dagger to my chest.

  “Seriously? Fucking really? You’ve been having an affair behind my back, gaslighting me by telling me that it’s all in my head, all so you could just leave me for her? Why didn’t you leave me for her already?! Why torture me with all this?”

  His face softened. “I’m sorry, Eli. it was because I really didn’t want to leave you, and… I was trying to do everything I could to keep you.”

  “But now you just chose her, is that right?”

  “Not exactly. Eli, I don’t have a choice. It’s not like I love her more than you or anything…”

  “But you do love her?” Every sentence that he uttered hurt me more deeply.

  “Actually, I don’t. But, like I said, I don’t have a choice.”

  “And why is that?”

  His face contorted, as if he was debating whether or not to tell me this part.

  “Just spit it out, Josh,” I insisted.

  “She’s pregnant.”

  I felt like I was going to vomit.

  I jumped out of my seat. “Pregnant, Josh?! Are you fucking kidding me?! She’s goddamn fucking pregnant?! You didn’t even have the good sense to put on a goddamn condom?!”

  This brought a whole other thought to my head. We’d been having unprotected sex, so, was he just exposing me to whatever she might have without caring about it at all?!

  “Eli, I’m sorry…”

  “How long have you known?” I asked quickly.

  “What?”

  “How long have you known?!” I yelled.

  “About the pregnancy?” he asked, playing stupid. “Uh… a few weeks.”

  “A few weeks?! A few weeks she’s been pregnant, and you still haven’t had the balls to tell me it’s over?! You thought you could just postpone moving in together and… what? The baby would fucking disappear?”

  Now he stood up, too. “Actually, that is exactly what I thought! She was considering an abortion. I thought if she had one, then things could go back to normal between us.”

  My jaw dropped. “And she changed her mind.”

  “Yeah, she changed her fucking mind! So, now, I’ve gotta go be daddy to this little brat.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “Let me get this straight. You have no problem cheating, trying to convince a girl to have an abortion, but you draw the moral line at being a dead-beat father?”

  “Well, you know how I feel about my dad,” he said sheepishly.

  Yeah, I do, and his father fucking sucked. And whenever he brought him up, I always gave him a lot of sympathy and attention, but, you know what? I’m not in the fucking mood. I feel like he’s trying to be manipulative, bringing him up to me. Like it’ll somehow make me fold and be kind to him.

  “Yeah, and, at the end of the day, I’m sure you’ll be just like him,” I said sharply.

  His eyes flashed from sadness to anger.

  “Okay, I’m going, I think everything has been said here that needs to be said.”

  “Yeah, I think so,” I bit back. “Get the fuck out of my house now.”

  I could see shock on his face, like he wasn’t expecting me to come back at him with anger.

  But what did he expect? For me to cry? For me to roll over and beg for him to stay with me? He fucking cheated. I have absolutely no tolerance for cheaters. There is not a forgiving bone in my body when it comes to people cheating. He knew that, and he still chose to do what he did.

  Maybe he thought when push came to shove, I wouldn’t really kick him out of my life. And a part of me can understand why he believed that, because, honestly, I’ve always been a bit of a people-pleaser.

  Okay, so, that’s an understatement. I am a giant people-pleaser. I’ll do pretty much anything for my family and friends if I know it’s going to make them happy.

  But, the thing is, that doesn’t mean I’ll let myself get walked all over. I might be a little self-sacrificial, but not to the point that I’ll let you crush my soul and continue to date me.

  In fact, I was already beginning to feel more angry than sad about this. I can’t believe he would fuck me over this way. What I thought was love between us apparently wasn’t.

  And, I had always known he was a little selfish, but this? I had never imagined he’d take it this far at all.

  “So, that’s it?” he asked. “It’s really over?”

  I laughed. “Are you kidding me? You really expected that I was still going to fucking be with you after this?”

  “I mean, I wasn’t expecting, but I had my hopes…”

  “What the hell do you want from me, Josh?! You’re having a baby with another woman!”

  He started tearing up. “Look, I know I fucked up, baby. But I love you. She means nothing to me, and I have to be here for this child, but…—”

  “But what?! You want me to be here for you while you father a child?”

  “I think I’ll need your help,” he said, sadly.

  “Oh, this is comical. This is genuinely laughable.”

  “I’m not ready for this, Eli! I don’t know how to be a father! You know I’m not mature enough for this.”

  Yeah, I damn well did know that. He was a man-child. This was something I had seen past because I had loved him, but I had constantly had to force him to do everything. Make appointments for himself, clean his studio apartment, not skip out on days at work. If it weren’t for me, he’d still be doing the same bachelor pad bullshit.

  I have no idea how he’s going to have a child. I don’t think he knows anything about children. And yes, I do, and, honestly, if it had been me who’d had an accidental pregnancy with some woman, I probably could have handled it pretty well.

  But there was no way in hell I was going to help him.

  “Get out,” I told him.

  ‘Baby,” he cried.

  “Get out of my house! I don’t know how you’re going to raise that child, but it isn’t my fucking problem. Go talk to the woman you had a goddamn affair with, all right? Bye!”

  His crocodile tears dried up, and rage flashed on his face.

  “You’ll come back to me. You fucking love me! This is not the end of you and me at all! Believe me on that.”

  I just laughed again. “Whatever you gotta tell yourself to sleep at night. Bye.”

  He began to walk o
ut, slowly at first. And I thought of one last thing to say.

  “I was going to take you to get a fucking dog today, you know.”

  He whipped around. “Seriously?”

  “Yeah, I thought, why not? He really wants one, it’ll make him happy, he deserves it. It was my Christmas gift to you. I imagined us as a perfect little family.”

  “We can still have all that, babe!” he pleaded, flipping back from angry to sad and then pathetic again.

  “Psh, yeah, and baby makes three? I mean, what the hell does a dog matter when you’re going to have a fucking child? And to think, I questioned if you were responsible enough for the dog.”

  “Is that the only reason you’re telling me this? To hurt me? To get back at me?”

  “Isn’t that the reason you had an affair? To hurt me?” I narrowed my eyes.

  “No! I didn’t, I did that just for… for fun.”

  “For fun. You’re right, that’s so much better. Go ahead and go now, please.”

  “Fuck you, Eli!”

  He stormed out, slamming the door behind him.

  I had thought if Josh and I ever broke up, I’d be devastated. I’d spent three years of my life with the boy, and I truly thought we were going to end up married one day.

  What I didn’t factor in was Josh having an affair and completely betraying me. I’d had a moment of sadness when he’d first told me, but, honestly? Right now, I’m just furious.

  I can’t even imagine being sad about this piece of shit right now. In my mind, he’d been nothing that I thought he’d been. The boy I knew and loved had never even existed. He was a fucking fraud, through and through. And I won’t mourn the loss of a fraud.

  No, honestly, fuck that guy! A fucking baby with another woman? God, I should have asked how long it had been going on! Has he been having an affair for months? Longer than that, even? Over a year?

  Actually, I’m glad I didn’t ask, becuase I don’t care, and it doesn’t matter. Whether he betrayed me for a week, a month, a year… doesn’t fucking matter to me. He’s still a complete and total piece of shit.

  I’m not going to let him ruin my Christmas, either. I love this time of year. Yes, my world might have just been flipped upside-down, I might have been excited to have a Christmas with him. But I can do this alone, too. I don’t fucking need him.