Sleeping with the Frenemy (Vega Family Love Stories #3)

Chapter 22

22

Sofi knew she shouldn’t respond. Leo was obviously upset and looking for a way to release it, but she also knew he wasn’t going to stop until he got what he wanted. And that thought ticked her off more than anything. Why did his needs outweigh hers right now? She’d had a shitty day too. She was hurt too. She should be able to just sit there and feel what she felt in silence if that was what she wanted. That didn’t make her a chickenshit. “Not everything is about you, Leo, so just leave it alone.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” he hissed.

“It means exactly what I said,” she told him.

He scowled at her and stepped into her space. “It sounds like you’re calling me selfish.”

Sofi stood and put her hands on her hips. She was not about to be intimidated by Leo just because he was upset. “Leo, I swear. You don’t want to do this right now.”

“Guys,” Kamilah began, but Leo ignored her.

“Do what?” he said to Sofi. “Call you out because you’re here trying to imply that I’m a selfish asshole?”

“I’m trying to prevent a fight, but if you got something else out of it...” She purposely drifted off in hopes he’d pick up the thread in his head. She’d learned in the past that it was best to let Leo come to his own conclusion, because if she told him he’d just want to argue about it. She should’ve known it wouldn’t work though because he clearly just wanted to fight.

“I can’t believe you’re acting like I’m the selfish one here,” he said.

Whoa. Wait a damn minute. Now he was acting like she was the problem here and she was NOT the problem.

“Leo,” Kamilah attempted again, but this time Sofi cut her off.

“What did you just say?” She stepped up to him.

“I mean, I’m not the one who up and bounced for a year because my feelings were hurt,” he said.

Sofi pointed a finger at him. “Don’t you dare downplay my putting down boundaries and doing what I had to do for my own mental health as me being selfish.”

“Is that what we’re calling it, putting down boundaries? I know it more as being petty, but sure.”

“óigame! Eso no,” Abuela Fina said, jumping to her feet. She stepped in between Sofi and Leo and got all up in his face or as much as she could when he was a foot taller than her. “Your abuelo and I didn’t help you with my granddaughter, so that you could turn around and treat her like a jerk.”

Sofi froze. What the hell were they talking about? What help?

“Si,” Papo joined in. “We didn’t plan all that stuff for you to ruin it now.”

Kamilah gasped. “Oh no, Abu, please tell me you didn’t do what I think you did,” she pleaded.

But Papo couldn’t answer, because he was focused on his grandson who looked ready to explode.

“I didn’t need your damn schemes,” Leo growled.

Schemes? What fucking schemes? Were these three conniving against her?

“Pretty bold claim for a man she’s broken up with more times than either one of us has been on a stage,” Papo said.

“Exacto,” Abuela agreed. “You may have her for now, but you still need to keep her. A cute face and guitar playing isn’t going to work forever. Especially if you treat her like this.”

They were totally in cahoots. These three were plotting ways to get her to be with Leo and had been for some time. She couldn’t believe it. She felt so betrayed. They’d been playing with her mind and emotions like three evil doctors experimenting on their patient in a mental hospital.

Here she was thinking that she was doing what she needed to do to finally be happy only to find out that the moves she’d been so proud of herself for making had been part of some plot. She was just a puppet that the three of them had been operating behind the scenes. “I can’t believe I was so stupid,” Sofi said softly. Yet somehow everyone heard. “You’ve been playing me since the beginning,” she decreed into the silence.

Leo froze for a second, but then his eyes swung to her, finally remembering that she was standing right there. “It’s not what it sounds like.”

“It’s not? Because it sounds like you and our grandparents got together to come up with ways to manipulate me into being with you.”

Leo winced. “So maybe it is what it sounds like, but it’s not this huge plot or anything. They’re mostly just giving me advice.”

“Yeah,” Papo agreed. “Just advice.”

“Don’t lie to me. Not now.”

Papo must’ve heard how serious she was in her voice, because he started singing like a canary. “Okay, so it was our idea for you to move in with Leo and I may have something to do with you finding Tostón.”

“What?” Sofi yelled.

“I told him we shouldn’t do that,” Abuela Fina tried.

“I did and still do feel really bad that I left him back there, but I knew I was going to send the two of you to find him.” Papo looked like he really wanted her to understand, but she just couldn’t.

“Oh well, as long as you feel bad about it, then I guess everything is fine,” Sofi said.

“There’s no need for sarcasm,” Leo jumped in. “That’s not going to help the situation.”

Sofi closed her eyes and clenched her fists and her jaw. It was taking everything in her to battle the swarm of hurtful words that were trying to come out of her mouth. Finally, she opened her eyes. “I just found out that for the last two months you’ve been manipulating me with the help of two of the very few people in this world I respect. Do not talk to me about my tone.”

Kamilah stepped forward and put a hand on Abuela Fina’s shoulder. “I think we should step away and let them have this conversation in private,” she told the others in the room.

Papo nodded and started leading the way to the door while Abuela Fina looked away from Sofi guiltily, but not Leo’s mom. She was about to dig in her heels. Sofi could tell by the determined tilt to her chin.

“I’m not leaving,” Valeria said. “My son just got out of the hospital. He can’t even use his arm. He needs someone willing to take care of him.”

While she didn’t come right out and say that Sofi wasn’t qualified to be that person, it was implied.

“Mami, just wait for me at Kamilah’s,” Leo said. “I’ll call you as soon as we’re done and you can come right back.”

“Okay, guapo.” Valeria nodded before continuing in Spanish. “Call me as soon as you need anything and I’ll be here in a second. Your mother will always be here for you.” She turned to go, but not before shooting Sofi a condemning, borderline threatening look.

In seconds she and Leo were alone. Sofi plopped down on the couch and rubbed a hand over her chest to ease the pressure she felt. This was exactly what she’d been afraid of. Here Leo had fucked up big-time in every regard, but somehow Sofi was still the villain. She hadn’t lied to the Vega family about her future plans, she hadn’t gone against doctors’ orders and gotten herself hurt, nor had she plotted with two senior citizens to trick someone into dating her. Yet, she was the one who was going to end up cast out in the end. Because when it came down to it, Leo was their flesh and blood while Sofi was not. She needed to remember that the Vegas were not her family. She didn’t have much of one. And one member of her tiny family had betrayed her that very day, so now it was really down to her and her mom. The thought was enough to make her eyes water, but she forced her tears back. She was not going to cry. Not again.

Sofi shook her head, still confused about this whole thing. “I just don’t get how anyone thought manipulating me was a good idea.” It was as if they didn’t know her at all.

“Why do you keep saying manipulate like I’m being sneaky or something?” Shockingly, the offense in his voice was real. It was ridiculous, but still very real.

Sofi looked at him, dumbfounded. There was no way he didn’t see it. “How have you not, Leo?”

“I’ve been very upfront about what I want.”

“And what is that?”

“You. I want you. All of you.”

For a moment Sofi’s heart melted in her chest and she wanted to tell him that she wanted the same thing, but then she remembered that it had all been a lie. A planned-out series of events she’d been nudged into going through like an actress in a play. She got mad all over again. “If that were true then you’d know that this shit is not the way to go about it at all. You betrayed me.”

Leo’s eyes widened to near comical size. “Betrayed you? All I’ve ever done has been to try to get you to give me a chance, to give us a chance to have something real instead of hookups, but I should’ve known it wouldn’t work. Of course, you’d spin this in the worst possible way. That’s what you do.”

“Excuse me?” Sofi frowned.

“You expect the worst out of everyone, Sofi. You sit there just waiting for them to let you down and the minute they make a mistake you use it to justify your distrust.”

“You literally just lied and schemed against me to manipulate my emotions and somehow that’s my fault because I won’t give you blind trust? Are you fucking serious right now?”

“I’m not saying this is your fault. I’m just trying to explain why I agreed to let the viejos help when they approached me with their plan. You use every single thing I do as a reason to push me away. Every time we start to get too close, you find something negative and fixate on it until it becomes a huge issue that you can use to kick me to the curb.”

“This is a huge issue, Leo. You betrayed my trust and now you’re trying to make it seem like I’m being too sensitive. You just did to me exactly what my father has done to me for thirty years.”

“Stop comparing me to your deadbeat dad!”

“Then stop acting like him! Stop being a selfish, manipulative, gaslighting liar like him!”

Leo froze. “Is that what you think about me? You think I’m a selfish liar?”

“You tell me, Leo. Think about what you did to me and tell me that you weren’t lying to me for your own gain. Tell me that you didn’t spend the last however long lying to your family for your own purposes.”

He stayed quiet.

“Exactly. You can’t because you know I’m right.”

Leo plopped down onto the couch and rubbed his face with his working hand as if he were suddenly tired. “Sofi, let me just ask you one thing. Do you love me?”

Sofi paused. “What?”

He looked up at her. “Do you love me? Because I love you. Everything that I’ve done has been for you. To get your attention, to win a smile, to be the kind of man you’d take a chance on and finally let in. That’s all I want, Sofi. For you to let me in. Let me love you and let yourself love me.”

Sofi stood there staring at him trying to catch up. How did she become the one in the hot seat?

“I’ve been here loving you. It was never about just sex for me, but I was willing to accept your body since that was all you were willing to give.” He swallowed. “But I can’t do that anymore. I can’t accept pieces. I need the whole thing. I need your body, your mind, your heart, your soul—all of you, every single centimeter. Because you already have all of me. But I need to know, is that what you want too? Because if it’s not, then I don’t even know what we’re doing here.”

“That’s not fair,” she told him. He didn’t get to just bypass everything else and get to the heart of the situation. “I don’t know if I can do it.”

“You can.”

She shook her head. She didn’t think she could.

“You’re just mad at me about the stuff with our grandparents,” he told her. “But if you’d just let me prove th—”

“Even if none of this other stuff had happened, you want something from me that I don’t think I can give you and I want something from you that is not realistic to ask for.” She wanted him to actually look at her as a person instead of a goal to achieve. She wanted him to take her wants, dreams, and needs into consideration before he acted in his own interest. She wanted him to not just need her but respect her and support her. But she no longer thought he was capable of that, if she ever did. She put her hands up in a What can you do about it? gesture. “We’re at an impasse.”

“It’s only an impasse because you’re being stubborn and I get why, Sofi. I really do. You’re scared to let me in, but we could be so good. I know we can. Just don’t push me away. Don’t lock me out,” he pleaded.

“Leo, this is too much for me right now. With everything else going on. It’s too much. I need a break. Give me time to think. The wedding is in two weeks. After that I’ll have time.”

His face fell. “Don’t worry about it,” Leo told her. “You just answered my question. You don’t want to be with me. If you did, you wouldn’t constantly be ready to sacrifice our relationship at the altar of everything else in your life. I’m not a priority for you and I never have been.”

“Leo, that’s not fair.”

“Maybe not, but it’s true all the same. I know you better than anyone else on this earth. I know that if you truly wanted this, you would put in the work to make it a success. You’d be willing to fight for it and for me, because that’s what you do for the things you really want. I need to stop waiting for you to want this as much as I do. I need to accept that you don’t. That’s not on you. That’s on me.”

“So what? You’re breaking up with me even though you’re the one who lied and manipulated the situation to get here?”

“I was wrong. I shouldn’t have done all of that. It wasn’t okay and it shouldn’t have felt as necessary as it did.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” she pointed out.

“Because I don’t know. I don’t know what to say to you, Sofi. Every fiber of my being tells me that you’re it for me. But I don’t understand why it has to be this hard. I don’t know what else I can do or say to make you see it too and I’m tired. I’m tired of having to prove myself.” His voice caught. His eyes filled.

Sofi’s eyes filled too. She hated seeing him like this, beat down and without hope. She didn’t want that for him. She wanted him to be happy, she truly did. But it was clear that she wasn’t the one who would make him happy. She couldn’t be who he needed just like he couldn’t be hers. All they did when they tried was hurt each other. “We need to stop doing this to each other,” Sofi said.

Leo nodded.

So that was it, then. They were done. “I’m going to stay at Kamilah’s place tonight. And tomorrow I’ll tell my mom that I’ll be her new roommate. At least until I find something else.”

Leo stared at his shoes. “Do what you need to do, Sofi.”

She was quiet. She didn’t want things to end this way. She didn’t want him to not even be able to look at her. “Leo, please don’t be like this. Don’t hate me.”

He looked at her then. “I don’t hate you, Sofi. I’m not even mad at you.” He sighed. “I’ve always been too damn willing to run into the fire even if I get burned. I need to remember that not everyone is like that.”

Was he really calling her a chickenshit again? Because she wasn’t willing to get hurt over and over again, suddenly she was a coward? That was some major bullshit, especially when Leo’s thoughts on his bravery were skewed. He wasn’t all that brave. “Oh? And what about flying? What about the fact that you only became a firefighter and fought so hard to get back because you’re scared that it’s the only thing you’re good at? Don’t talk to me about facing and fighting fears when you can’t even be real with yourself. I know I don’t trust people. I know I push people away out of fear they’ll hurt me. That’s because they do. Because they did. I know my faults. You, on the other hand, are delusional. You act like you own your faults, but you don’t. You just try to distract from them.”

Now Sofi wanted to fight. She wanted his reaction.

“You’re absolutely right.” He leaned back against the couch as if he just didn’t have the energy to prop up his bones, and she felt deflated. “I have been delusional, and I need to face reality. I’m not sure what that reality entails, but I do know one thing for sure and it’s that I didn’t survive being shot just to keep putting myself through this torture over and over.” He pushed himself to his feet, grabbed his pharmacy bag off the coffee table, and then shuffled to his room without ever once looking back.

That more than anything terrified Sofi. He’d never walked away from her like that—like he was truly done.