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No…
No…don’t do this…
“It’s probably best if we keep our situation friendly instead of diving into more. Honestly, I’ve been falling behind on work, and I need to truly refocus on the projects I have on deck. I don’t really have time for—”
“Me,” I whispered, my voice shaking. “You don’t have time for me.”
He grimaced and brushed the palm of his hand against the back of his neck. “It’s probably for the best, you know? I mean, we were never supposed to really be serious. Cutting it off before feelings get involved is probably the best idea. We can go back to just being friends. This is all moving too fast, and I just need time to regroup.”
How could he say that? How could he act as if we hadn’t already developed feelings for one another after all we’d shared?
“I, uh, I’m going to get to work,” he said. That was it. There was no more conversation to be had. He walked into his office and shut the door behind him.
I didn’t see him for the remainder of the night. I couldn’t sleep at all. My mind was spinning too fast. All I wanted to do was go across the hall and knock on Connor’s door, try to explain everything to him, try to express how sorry I was for lying about the severity of my illness. So, I did. I went to his office and knocked. When I didn’t get a reply, I turned the knob and opened it. He wasn’t in there. I checked his bedroom, and he wasn’t there, either. I checked every other place in the house, including the rooftop, and I had no luck finding him.
He was gone.
A few days passed, and Connor never came home. After about four days of silence, I showed up at Connor’s job to talk to him. I knew the conversation we had before he left hadn’t gone well, but I wasn’t ready to give up on us. I needed to be able to get through to him and make him understand I didn’t mean to lie to him, let him know I wanted to be as open as possible. I just needed a chance to speak to him face-to-face again, now that we both were aware of the situation.
“Jason?” I gasped as I walked into the lobby of Roe Real Estate and saw my ex-fiancé standing there. He turned to face me. At first, he appeared shocked, but that quickly evaporated into a look of disdain.
“Wh-what are you doing here?” I choked out. I hadn’t seen him since I was moving out of the penthouse, and I’d hoped I’d never have to cross paths with him again. If he was nothing more than a distant nightmare to me, I’d be perfectly fine with that fact.
He looked smug as he fiddled with the designer cuffs on his designer suit. “I actually am part owner of the business you’re standing in, so I should be the one asking you that question. Flew in to finish a conversation with Connor.” He slid his hands into the pockets of his slacks and arched an inquisitive brow. “What are you doing here?”
My mind shot back to the reason I’d shown up to Connor’s office. To talk to him. To see where his head had been. To figure out how we could make what we had work. Yet I couldn’t say that to Jason.
Even though I shouldn’t have cared—he had, after all, stood me up on our wedding day—I did.
A wicked smirk curved his lips. “So those fucked-up rumors were true, huh?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’ve been screwing my partner? News travels fast. I just didn’t think you had it in you.”
“It’s not what you think, Jason.”
“Oh, sweetheart, it’s exactly what I think. I think you’re a whore who got her feelings hurt and tried to latch onto whatever she could to keep her head above water.”
“That’s not it at all.”
“Was this your way to get back at me for standing you up? You thought you could screw my partner to get me to care?”
“What? No…I—”
“Here are the facts, Aaliyah,” he said, stepping closer, making me feel as if I was boxed in even though we stood firmly in the middle of the lobby. “I couldn’t care less about who you’re fucking because I couldn’t care less about you. You’ve never been anything but arm candy to me, nothing of substance. You’re a pretty girl and a decent fuck, but not someone any guy would want to really take home.”
“You almost did,” I choked out, feeling tears burning behind my eyes. “You were going to marry me.”
“Yeah, and thank fuck I came to the realization that I was making a huge mistake. I mean, let’s be honest—you’ll probably drop dead any day now, judging by how ghostly you’re looking, and I, for one, didn’t want to foot the bill for that. You were just a business transaction for me. If I agreed to marry you, I got the West Coast division. That was it. I didn’t want to deal with you. I doubt Connor would feel any different about it than I do.”
