Ambling as quickly as I could on my crutches, I was almost to the back door when I hit an icy patch. I let out a squeal as my good foot slipped out from underneath me, and I fell directly on my ass.
Groaning, I didn’t move for a moment.
“Mattie? What the hell?”
I sat up to see Giles pushing through the back door and racing to me. Before he could get to me, I scrambled to my feet and got my crutches back in place. I did not want him to have the upper hand by helping me up right now.
As soon as I met his eyes, tears started to spill out of mine.
“You really need to be more careful,” he barked, reaching for my elbow.
I yanked it back, out of his reach, and glared at him.
“Don’t act like you care about me right now.”
His eyes hardened. “Mattie, don’t be like this.”
“You canceled the contract. How could you do this?” I shouted.
“I don’t want to talk about the fucking contract right now.” He looked frustrated, running his hands through his hair. “I want to talk aboutus.”
“Us? Are you serious? Last night you were acting super weird. Then this morning, I got a call that your family—specifically you—decided not to sign the contract to hire my company. There can’t be anussince you’re obviously trying to get rid of me.” I was full-on crying now.
His eyes darkened. “Jesus,I’mtrying to get rid ofyou? That’s a convenient narrative. When were you going to tell me that you hired your replacement?”
I froze. “I wasn’t going to becau—”
“Because you hate conflict? Because you just thought you’d slip away without even telling me? Without giving me the decency of a conversation or a goodbye? Fuck that, Mattie.”
He wasn’t even giving me a chance to explain.
“I get it. This isn’t your home. It’ll never be your home.”
I choked, trying to gulp down my sob. “You don’t understand!” I yelled. “I wasn’t going to leave.”
“You weren’t? Then how come last night Bev told me your replacement was coming on Monday?”
“I told her that he was hired, but—”
“Save it, Mattie.”
“I wasn’t going to go!”
“Whatever.” His face was cold and reminded me of when we first met. “We just started dating. You don’t owe me anything.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“I was right about us. We should have never started anything. Life would be a whole hell of a lot less complicated than whatever this is.”
He was just trying to hurt me now, and it was working.
“Screw you, Giles.”
“Have a nice life.” He crossed his arms and turned back toward the lodge.
“I wasn’t going to leave, you idiot!” I yelled at his back before he disappeared through the door.
I choked on my sobs as I went back to the apartment, half expecting him to rush after me. To my dismay, when I got to the stairs and turned around one last time, there was no sign of him. Pulling myself together, I hurried up the steps and inside.
