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"You're not serious."
"I appreciate everything you've done for me over the years, but I'm not the little girl you had to take care of anymore. I've grown up."
"I know."
"And I hope that in the future you'll be able to accept this new Andrea. Until then, we'll have to put a hold on things."
Brandon sounds heartbroken. "Is this how you repay me for everything I've done for you?"
"You know that this isn’t how I want things to end."
"But it's your choice. And you're making a mistake by choosing him."
"I'm sorry you see it that way," I whisper.
I don't want to hurt him, and it hurts me to be having this conversation with someone I considered my only family for a long time, but I don't see a way around this anymore.
"Good luck with him."
Just as Brandon ends the call, a text from my mother comes in. I ignore it, since I know exactly what she's going to say and what she's going to ask of me.
Lately, everything seems to be flooding me, and it threatens collapse.
"Are you okay?"
Damien walks toward me. He's barely dressed in his pants and his hair is still wet. His shirt is hanging off his shoulder, exposing his sculpted abs, which creates an irresistible contrast in comparison to the tattoos that line his arms.
"All good, yup," I declare, feigning a smile.
Damien sits next to me. "I know you're lying," he whispers.
His fingers gently caress my cheek. I let my face rest against his palm.
"It's just, everything falls apart, and it overwhelms me sometimes," I confess. "Have you been through anything like this before?"
He takes a second to answer. "Once," he confesses.
I look at him, and I can tell that his voice is hiding something. "It was with Natalie and Ethan. When Natalie cheated on both of us."
"Do you know why she did it?"
"I guess it was for status," Damien states, seeming lost in his own thoughts.
I decide to give him the silence to continue, if that's what he wants, and he rewards my patience with his own story.
"We met Natalie at different times of our lives. In my case, I met her when I was studying at Juilliard."
"I didn't know you studied there," I state, impressed, and Damien nods.
"I graduated with honors," he confesses. "Natalie was also a brilliant student. She had a beautiful voice and a great talent for music."
Internally, I feel some envy for this stranger who came before me, but mostly I feel sadness, because I know things ended badly between Damien and his friend, Ethan because of it.
"Truth be told, I always believed that we were genuine. We shared the same love of music. During our time together, I fell head over heels in love with her. I laid the world at her feet," Damien confesses.
I can effortlessly imagine the situation, as he has done the same thing with me.
"What happened?" I ask.
