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“I can’t accept this.”
“Yes, you can. Happy birthday.”
“Collin, no.” I turned my head to catch his eyes, and tried to figure out how to tell him that these gifts he gave me were beyond outrageous. They were the kinds of gifts wealthy couples gave each other for wedding anniversaries—not college students as just because gifts. Again, what ever happened to flowers? Or just buying me a coffee? “Thank you . . . thank you so much for everything you have given me, but I can’t keep accepting these things. You’re spending so much mone
y on me, and we’ve only been dating a few months.”
Collin nodded, and a slow smirk covered his face as he moved my hand away from where it was hovering over the necklace. I turned to look at what he was doing when his eyes focused on the action, and watched as he flipped over the necklace.
LOVE was engraved along the bottom, just as it was on my bracelet. On top, the engraving was something I knew didn’t come standard with this necklace: C&H.
All the air in my lungs left in a rush as I understood what he was implying this time with this piece of the Cartier Love collection. Could I be in love with Collin?
“As always, Harlow, a simple ‘thank you’ would’ve been fine,” he teased.
“Thank you,” I said.
My skin tingled where his hands trailed over my neck as he placed the necklace on me, and a burst of fluttering wings took residence in my stomach when his lips brushed across my shoulder.
I might not be in love with Collin Doherty, but I was falling . . . fast.
Even though his gifts were too much, he was always quick to give them to me, as if I deserved them and more. Even though we hadn’t been together long, he treated me like I was his everything—so much so that I’d never worried that one day I wouldn’t be. On the night I’d offered him me, he hadn’t stopped us . . . he hadn’t turned me down. He’d taken me, worshipped me, and made me feel like I was something precious.
I looked up to watch him walk over to gather his clothes, and couldn’t stop the smile that crossed my face. Definitely falling, I thought to myself, and went to grab my phone when it began ringing.
Without looking to see who was calling, I answered, “Hello?”
“Happy birthday, Low. I waited for you.”
The instant his voice filtered through the phone, my body stilled and warmed at the same time. My breath came out in a soft, audible huff and my eyes shut as hundreds of welcome memories flooded my mind.
I didn’t have to look at the screen to know it was Knox who was calling. I would know that voice anywhere, and I should have been expecting his call. Not just his call. This call. We’d been preparing for and talking about this call for two and a half years now.
My lips and fingers trembled, and I almost dropped the phone as I tried to make my throat work.
“I waited for you” played over and over again like a broken record. A broken record with the most beautiful music still coming from it.
Turning my head just enough to look over my shoulder, I eyed the guy shrugging into his shirt, and my chest ached when I faced forward again. Three months ago I would’ve been certain this phone call would go completely differently, but then I’d met Collin . . .
Now I needed to choose between the two.
The guy I’d waited years for and knew I would always love, or the guy I’d given myself to and was falling so in love with.
Part of me screamed that the answer was obvious . . . but Knox still only called once every other week, if that. They were always short calls, and nothing like what I’d grown used to. He was always distracted . . . distant, even. For the first time in more than two years, there’d been no monthly flowers. I was so sure that my leaving had started something that had been unavoidable—that maybe he’d even been waiting for. A time where I was gone so he could feel free of me. As my heart had slowly broken, Collin had been there, piecing together what he could. Something I would never forget and would always be grateful for.
No longer seeing the dorm room I was standing in, I let my memories with Knox consume me. All the good—and there were so many good—followed by the recent bad. “I—” I took a shaky breath in, and my voice came out as a strained whisper. “I didn’t wait for you.”
There was nothing. No sound, no response—only the most heartbreaking silence I’ve ever endured.
I wondered how many times my heart could break over a man I’d thought would have it forever.
“Knox, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen,” I whispered into the phone, and tried to mask the way my voice broke with emotion.
Then again, how did either of us expect it not to happen when lately he’d made me feel as though I was only an obligation? How could he have expected me to wait for him when I’d been so sure he’d stopped waiting for me?
“Say something,” I begged when another half minute passed without a word.
Knox cleared his throat, and a few more seconds passed before he said, “I will always love you. Nothing can change that. Happy birthday, Harlow.”
