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“Well, now you know, so maybe it’s best that you go. And in case it wasn’t obvious, it’s over,” he growls.
“What?” Her eyes widen to the size of saucers as her gaze shifts back and forth between me and Bennett.
“Surely you couldn’t think that you and I were going anywhere. Even if I wasn’t in this position,” he says as he points to his hospital bed, “our relationship had an expiration date. No one marries their fucking rebound or fling, give me a break.” He grits out and even I wince at the harshness of his statement. “I’m still wearing my wedding ring, and Olivia is still the background of my goddamn cellphone, you knew what this was.” My heart skips a beat at the mention of the picture I was thinking of last night. So, it’s still there?
My head spins at his revelation and I let out a breath. I need out of this room. His words and her presence is just too much for me, especially this early in the morning. “Bennett, I’m just going to step outside to—”
“Don’t,” he growls at me and my eyes widen.
“No, you don’t. I don’t have to sit here and listen to you argue with your fucking girlfriend.”
“She’s not my—”
“She was!” I bark and I’m out of the room before he can respond.
I don’t need this, even if he is in the process of breaking up with her, seeing her face made me irate and while a part of me squealed with glee over the fact that he was ending it with her, it didn’t stop the voice inside of me that told me that eventually he would regret it once he had his memory back.
I’m alone with my thoughts for all of two minutes when the sound of the door closing interrupts my racing mind. I look up to find Amanda, tears streaming down her face.
“He’s…he’s never talked to me like that before.”
“Should I… feel bad?” I cross my arms defensively.
She swallows hard and looks around the empty hallway. Maybe for witnesses. And I can see that she’s struggling wit
h what to say. “No…I…he told me he loved me. Before this. That he’d never met anyone like me. He wanted to get married.”
The words are like a shock to my entire system. A harsh, painful shock that I wasn’t expecting. “He’s still married to me,” I grit out.
“When…when you were officially divorced, we talked about it. Us moving forward”
Bullshit, I think. But is it? My mind questions. “Why are you telling me all of this? What’s the point?”
“I love him.” She has the decency, if I can even call it that, to look contrite when the words leave her lips.
Inhale. Count to ten. Exhale, my therapist’s voice speaks calmly in my ear. I listen. “I didn’t take him from you.” I don’t mean for the words to come out harshly but I hear the bite in my tone.
She bites her lip and looks down away from the icy gaze I know to be shooting from my eyes. “I know, I just…I don’t know this Bennett.”
Of course, you don’t. This Bennett belongs to me.
I don’t say anything because I don’t want her to know how much she still makes me crazy. She knows where we stand, and going off on her again won’t do anything but give her power. The art of indifference. It’s something I’ve learned as I’ve gone through this process. Control your emotions. The less you show, the less power you relinquish. I blink a few times as if to say anything else?
She doesn’t say anything and I’m preparing to make my exit when the door opens again and Bennett is standing in it. “My dismissal wasn’t so that you could come out here and harass my wife,” he bites out and I note that he’s still hooked up to his IV but that he’s dragged the pole from his bedside.
Amanda’s eyes sweep to his. “You’re being an asshole.”
“Then it should be easy for you to get over me.” His lips form a sneer, and I watch her crack completely in front of me, as if she’s finally succumbing to the humiliation of this breakup. She lowers her head and moves down the hallway. I follow her with my eyes until she’s out of sight before I turn to Bennett who looks completely defeated. He doesn’t say anything before he turns his back and goes back inside his room, giving me a glimpse of his bare ass despite him trying to keep his hospital gown closed with one hand. I can’t stop the feelings of lust coursing through me seeing that perfectly sculpted ass that I used to be very familiar with. Fantasies of gripping it, digging my nails into the skin as he plowed into me flash through my mind. God created perfection when he created Bennett Clarke’s ass, I’ll give him that. I follow behind him and stand in the doorway, unsure if I want to enter or leave.
Don’t think about his ass, Olivia.
“You were kind of rude to her.” There’s not much emotion to my voice and I’m not even sure why I felt the need to comment. It’s just a statement.
“Don’t start, Olivia,” he growls as he makes his way back into bed. “I’m fucking pissed at her.”
“Just her? Because it’s not all her fault. You were the one that was married. You cheated on me. She didn’t.” I hate her, but I’m not one of those women that misdirects the blame. Bennett cheated on me, she, on the other hand, didn’t have any loyalty to me. She and I didn’t take vows.
Yes, I hate her on the superficial, “she’s not even that pretty, how could he go from me to her” that I fixated on when Alyssa and I drank too much tequila. But the hurt came from Bennett. The pain, the betrayal, that was all at my husband’s hands. Not his mistress’.
