AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She scrunches her nose and wiggles her fingers beside her head. “I mean it’s too noisy in my brain. I can’t stop thinking of all the potential endorsement deals you’d be incredible for—especially now knowing you can act. What do you think about—”
“Nora.” I interrupt her while looking down at my empty glass. She can hear the change in my voice and knows what I’m about to say.
Her smile fades. I hate that I’m the reason for it dimming.
I grip my glass and stare into it as I say the words I know are going to hurt her. “I…I can’t do this. I thought I could, but I can’t. I need to dissolve our contract.”
There’s a beat of silence between us where only the sounds of Vegas fill the lull. From the corner of my eye, I see her shoulders rise and fall. “Is it…was I…did I not do a good job with the commercial?”
I look sharply at her. “What? No. You are incredible at your job and under different circumstances…I’d be lucky to have you.” Those words felt thick in my mouth. “But…”Damn, I don’t want to say it.“Because of our history, this is too much for me. I’m glad we talked the other night and cleared the air. I meant everything I said about understanding your side of things, but…”I can’t get over you.
Her usual smile is nowhere in sight. “You don’t think with time…?”
I laugh once. “It’s been eight years. I think if time was going to fix this, it would have already.”
I feel like I’m being pretty transparent here. That she’s understanding what I’m saying without me having to say the awkward wordsHey, I’m still in love with you and unless you love me back, we can’t do this because it hurts so damn much to be near you and not have you.
But then she says, “Is it…do you…do you still hate me?”
My heart rips down the middle.
Do I hate her?I hate that when your mouth curves into a smile, I can’t kiss it. I hate that you hold my heart in a vise grip and you have no idea. I hate that I’ve never been able to move on from you—not for a single day. I hate that if I were to tell you all of this, you’d leave, and I’d be left vulnerable and bleeding out at the bar.
“No.Hateis not the right word for it,” I say, because I can’t bringmyself to lay my heart out on the line in the middle of a Vegas bar. It’s time to move on and just let her go.
We’re interrupted when the bartender steps up and asks Nora what she wants, leaning over the counter toward her so he can hear—or maybe because he notices how beautiful her eyes are and wants a closer look.
“What can I get you?” he asks, and then with an obnoxious smirk, he tacks on, “My number maybe?”
And now I have the strongest urge to slam his face down into the bar and break his nose. Which, yep, this only solidifies why I can’t work with Nora. I can’t be around this all the time. Everyone seems to want her—with good reason.
She laughs at his flirty comment, and I bite the insides of my cheeks not to say anything. But then her hand juts out and lands on the side of my neck where it meets my shoulder. She grips it once, possessively, and I cut my eyes to her.What the hell?
“Sorry—I’m taken,” she says, and my heart—my pitiful little sad sap of a heart—rockets against my sternum.
“Ah, too bad,” says the bartender, turning to me with unapologetic eyes.
I keep quiet as Nora rattles off her order—agin gimlet—all the while keeping her hand fixed on my neck. Her thumb glides up and down my skin and I doubt she understands how completely she’s torturing me right now. Also how confused she’s making me. Did I not just essentially fire her? What the hell is happening? And why am I contemplating sweeping her into my arms and carrying her straight up to my hotel room?
The bartender walks off and the moment his back is to us, Nora drops her hand away along with her smile.
“I’m so sorry!” she says, turning wide-eyed at me. “He hit on meand I’m just so tired. Plus he was definitely giving off the vibes of a guy who would only take a rejection as incentive to try harder, but then I realized you were here, and you already hate me, and I’m already fired so what do I have to lose, right?” She smile-grimaces at me. “Oh gosh, you don’t look so happy. Are you going to fire me a second time? Here…I’ll just…scootch right over here.” She’s shuffling her chair farther down the bar. “Consider me thoroughly fired. I won’t bug you anymore. In fact, I’ll zip it, lock it, and put it in my pocket.” Of course she mimes this entire monologue by locking up her lips with an imaginary key and shoving it in her nonexistent pocket.
I watch as Nora sits ramrod straight and turns her face forward as if she no longer notices me.This woman.
“Nora, what are you doing?” I ask, trying to keep the laughter from my voice.
She blinks over at me and then pretends to take the key from her pocket and unlocks her lips. “I’m giving you space.”
“This is space? You’re going to sit an arm’s length away from me and pretend I don’t exist?”
“Yes—because I’m professional. The peak of professionalism.” She’s doing something with her hand now. A round-and-round gesture. Nora is a real full-body-conversation kind of person.
“What are you doing with your hand?” I ask.
“Rolling up my window so we don’t talk anymore. You’re free ofme.”
“You can have any imaginary car in the world, and you choose one with a manual window crank?”
