Page 78 of Do It With Me

CHAPTER 34

HOLDEN

“What do you want, Holden?”

Her voice came through the door, but she sounded so muffled and wrecked that it damn near undid me. There were only two inches of wood between us, but it might as well have been a goddamn canyon.

My chest clenched and I could barely breathe. I rested my palm against the door, my forehead following a moment later. “I just need five minutes, Ellora. Please. That’s it. That’s all I’m asking for. Just five minutes.”

“You’ve already taken enough,” she muttered, her voice cracking, but the anger was there too, raw and alive. “I don’t have another minute for you, let alone five.”

“I’m sorry,” I said quickly, fast enough that I knew she still had to be right there. Right on the other side of a door I would have broken down to get to her if I didn’t think it would make her call the cops on me. “I didn’t know. I swear to you, I had no idea your shop would be affected.”

She let out a bitter laugh, but I could hear that she was crying. “Oh, please. Do you really expect me to believe that?”

“Yes,” I said immediately, desperate for her to hear the truth before she turned and walked away. “I didn’t even know where your store was until Second Story Sunday. I walked up and saw the street name. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know before, Ellora. I didn’t⁠—”

“Stop saying that,” she snapped, sounding like the tears were quickly drying up. “You’re supposed to be this big, brilliant developer, and you didn’t know? You didn’t notice the name of my store plastered all over your plans?”

Her words were sharp, and the truth was that she was right. I should’ve known. I should’ve looked at all the names of the shops and the tenants before I signed the papers. I should’ve known exactly what was what.

“I was looking at the big picture,” I admitted quietly. “Numbers. The renderings of what it was going to look like after. My team handled the details. I didn’t realize you were involved until I was standing right there.”

“Right,” she said flatly. “You were too busy looking down on us from your fancy penthouse to notice the details of the lives you were wrecking. Is that it?”

I closed my eyes. God, she’s not wrong.

“I would never do something like that to you on purpose.” It was a promise but a qualified one. I’d known I was doing it to someone. I just hadn’t known who, but even so, now that I knew, she needed to know that I wasn’t just letting it go. This wasn’t some empty promise. “As soon as I found out, I started trying to fix it.”

“Fix it?” she repeated, her voice trembling before she scoffed. “Does that mean you’re not going to kick me out of my shop? You’ll cancel the project just because you found out I have a thrift store on that block?”

“That’s exactly what I’m trying to do. It’s just not as simple as all that. There are contracts, investors, and my board is breathing down my neck. I’m doing everything I can to stop it.”

“If that was true, it would’ve been stopped by now,” she said after a long pause. “I’ve seen what you can do, Holden. I’ve seen how fast you can pull things together, so unless you’re here to tell me that the project is over, which you’re obviously not, you should just leave.”

“It’s complicated, Ellora. This isn’t just paying a doctor for a day to go to a beach. The amount of people involved? The amount of money? It’s going to take time, but I’m trying. I swear to you that I’m doing everything in my power.”

“Your power is considerable,” she murmured. “I want to believe you. I do, but I can’t. Not after all this. Not after you didn’t even have the decency to tell me yourself.”

“That was a mistake. I should have. I just…” I banged my forehead lightly against her door. “What can I do to prove it to you? How do I make you believe that I’m trying?”

“Leave me alone.” Her voice was quieter now, shaking like she was trying not to cry. “Talk is cheap, Holden.”

“Ellora—”

“My mother loved that place,” she said. “Every inch of it. The scent of sugar and butter drifting from the bakery downstairs. The bakery that’s now gone. The creak of the floorboards. The people around us. It’s all I have left of her and now you’re just going to tear it down.”

Her words hollowed me out, but I finally managed to force out a reply. “I’m not tearing it down, not if I can help it. I’m not losing you, but I know that talk is cheap, so I’ll leave you alone. Just know that it’s not because I want to and it’s not because I’m backing down. It’s so that I can get this done. In the meantime, please try to trust me?”

She didn’t answer. I pressed my ear to the door, but all I heard was the faint padding of her footsteps retreating.

Once it went completely silent on her side, even the sound of her footsteps now gone, I kept standing in the hall, staring at the door like it might somehow open out of pure mercy. But it didn’t. It just sat there between us like a punishment.

I stayed long enough to hear glass clinking and feminine voices starting up. At least that was something, knowing she wasn’t in there alone. I finally turned and walked away when I heard Bree’s voice. I didn’t know who else was in there with her, but Bree was a good person. She wouldn’t leave Ellora while she still needed her.

But right now, she needed space and I needed a goddamn miracle, and the only way to get it was to keep my promise to her. I had to make this happen, even if I really had done everything in my power and achieved jack shit with it.

My driver was waiting for me downstairs and I climbed into the back of the car without a word, turning to stare out the window as he took me home. At this hour, the city was quiet, which only seemed to make my thoughts louder.