Flesh & Bone - a contemporary romance: The Minstrel Series #2 by Lee Strauss, Elle Strauss

didn’t relent. “Please, Sebastian. Can we just talk for a minute?” The handle quivered as a key was inserted—he’d given her a copy—and Yvonne pushed the door open. Sebastian huffed and realized he was standing there in just boxers. He cursed and stormed back to his bedroom, frustrated that Yvonne had followed him. He ignored her and shuffled into jeans and a button-down shirt.
    Her voice was barely more than a whisper. “Can’t you give me one more chance?”
    Sebastian looked at her then. Her red-rimmed eyes and hollow cheeks. Short and spiky pink hair with dark roots. Her thin, waifish body. He waited for his emotions to kick in. Something that resembled affection, some residue of the love he’d had for her just yesterday, but he felt numb. “I don’t think I can.”
    She stiffened and a hardened look crossed her face. “So, you’re just going to throw away six years.”
    He snorted. “I didn’t throw them away. You did.”
    Someone else was pounding on the door before Sebastian could even get his buttons done up. How were people getting in the building without buzzing? Yvonne had a key, which he needed to get back, but whoever was on the other side of that door must’ve slipped in behind another tenant.
    He opened it to Dirk and Markus.
    “I said I was sick.”
    “Which is why we brought the meeting to you,” Dirk said. He pushed his glasses up as he took in Yvonne. “Hi, Yvonne.” Then back to Sebastian, “Karl is on his way.” He lowered his voice. “I had to squeeze his balls. He said you two had a falling out.”
    Sebastian huffed. “You could say that.”
    Dirk nodded to Yvonne, his face registering that maybe something was wrong. “Sorry to intrude.”
    The tension in the room was thick. It was Yvonne’s fault. She was the cheat.
    “She was just leaving,” Sebastian said, holding out an open palm. “My key?”
    Yvonne dug into her purse and handed it over slowly, her eyes hard, and lips in a firm, thin, line. She let the key fall to the wood floor, where it landed with a clink and slid under the couch. Then she turned sharply and slammed the door on her way out.
    “Whoa,” Markus said from his position on one of the low-lying living room chairs. His feet were crossed at the ankles and rested lazily on the coffee table. “Did you guys just break up?”
    Sebastian lowered himself to the floor to reach under the couch for the key. “Yup.” His fingers wrapped around it and he shoved it into his pocket.
    “Wow,” Markus continued. “You two were together, like, forever.”
    Dirk frowned and took a seat on the couch opposite Markus. “So that’s the sickness. What happened?”
    Sebastian moved to the kitchen and gulped orange juice from the carton before answering. “Ask Karl.”
    “Ask me what?” Karl entered through the unlocked door and stood there sheepishly. His dark hair hung over the black eye that had formed there.
    Sebastian scowled. “Your girlfriend just left.”
    Dirk and Markus’s gazed moved back and forth between them. “Whose girlfriend?” Dirk asked. “What’s going on?”
    Sebastian pointed at Karl. “Him and Yvonne. That’s what’s going on.”
    Markus gawked. “You hooked up with Seb’s girl?”
    “It was stupid,” Karl said. “I know. But it’s over. I’m sorry.”
    Sebastian shook his head. “You think you can fix this with a lame apology?”
    “What else do you want from me, man?”
    “I want you out of the band.”
    Dirk’s wide eyes cut back and forth between them, his cheeks puffing out like a squirrel’s. “Hold up, Sebastian. Let’s just calm down here.”
    “What? You can’t expect me to keep playing with him?”
    Dirk’s fingers tapped nervously along the top of his tablet. “I know. It… sucks. But, you’ll need to work it out somehow.”
    Sebastian thrust his shoulders back. “I’m not working anything out. Either he goes or I go.”
    Dirk broke into a sweat, which caused his glasses to slip down his nose.