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“What am I doing here?”
“Working.” He shrugs.
“Meeting your family isn’t working. Do you bring your other employees here too?”
Fate must be having a great laugh at my expense because Francesca comes barreling out of the quaint, red front door. “Thank fuck you’re here! I’m starving!”
When she pauses in front of us, she looks between me and Damon. “You didn’t tell her, did you?”
“No, he didn’t.”
“You’re an asshole.” She scowls at him with a tap to his cheek.
“Harder would be better,” I tell her.
Fran laughs, threading her arm through mine, and leads me toward the house. “Get the bags, Coldwell.”
I can’t help but laugh with her. However, I’m still very aware that I’m on my own, navigating a situation I can’t read. We’re not friends. Fuck, we’re not even fuckbuddies. After yesterday, I don’t know what the hell we are.
I freeze as Fran tries to take me inside. My heart is hammering in my throat, my vision is clouding over. I’m not okay with this.
“Excuse me.” I pull away from her, taking the few steps down the porch as fast as I can. It’s a wonder I don’t fall over myself. I’m no Forrest Gump, but the farther I run, the more impossible it is to stop.
“Ava,” Damon calls from behind me, each echo of my name getting louder as he catches up to me. “Ava!”
I feel his proximity, and as magnetic as it is, I keep running until I’m at the edge of his parents’ manicured drive and he’s holding me prisoner in his viselike arms.
“Stop.” He turns me to face him, and when he tries to press me to him, I hold my arms out, pushing against his chest. “What happened?”
What happened?
My stomach twists, with my lungs wrung out.
What happened?
My heart is in overdrive, and I have no idea if it’s anger or frustration or whether I am just frayed to the core.
What happened?
“Did it ever occur to you that I’ve already done this shit before?” I snap. The tears that I’ve held back so many times finally fall and when he tries to dry them, I fight his hold on me until he stops. “I’ve done this with a man I was supposed to marry. Not my boss. Not some guy I fucked in a bar.” Damon eases his hold, watching my tears fall with a scowl. “I’m not doing it again.”
“Ava—”
“I can’t and I won’t. Not now. Not ever. Not for anyone.”
His arms drop to his sides, setting me free. It’s too late now, I’ve lost the power to run. It’s all coming out in treacherous tears, making me hate him even more for reducing me to this. My pride is gone. Broken. Something I’ve held together for so long. After everything with my father at Monroe. After Marsh. Damon is the one to burn it to the ground.
“I can get you a hotel,” he says after a beat, voice more gravelly than usual. Dry almost.
“Please.” It’s all I can manage.
* * *
DAMON
I guess she loved him after all.
Does she still love him?
