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“He said you would lose your job?” All Flynn could see was red. Angry, infuriating red.
“It was more like a veiled threat, along with the promise of a promotion if I came through.” She slapped her hand over her mouth, as if she hadn’t meant to just say that.
Too late. And the red disappeared from his vision, replaced by disappointment. Sadness. Heartbreak. Shit. She’d totally played him. And he’d fallen for it. Fallen for her.
And now he looked like a complete sucker.
Slowly, she dropped her hand from her mouth, her eyes wide and full of—God, he really hoped that wasn’t pity. “I shouldn’t have said it like that. I meant—”
“I know exactly what you meant,” he interrupted her, his voice clipped, his heart in his throat. “I won’t bug you anymore, Aub. Clearly I was feeling something different than you were. Not that it could’ve turned into anything. Since I might get traded, it was always temporary.”
Her shoulders fell. “Oh, Flynn…that’s not what I meant. Yes, he coerced me into this relationship with you, but I realized when we were together at the hotel that night, the next day, that I was starting to fall for you, and it scared me. I was afraid you’d hate me more when you found out the truth.”
Damn straight he was mad, though he could never hate her. He hated what she’d done to him, though. Hated Harvey Price for putting her up to it.
That meant all of it, everything they’d shared, everything he’d experienced with her, he doubted. What was real? What was fake? He didn’t know. She was a good actress, he’d have to give her that.
He had serious feelings for Aubrey. He still did. But knowing it was all based on a lie felt like the wind was just knocked out of him. His dad was right. Women were a distraction, and Aubrey was no exception.
She said nothing else and neither did he. They just stared at each other for long, torturous seconds that felt like hours, until finally he turned and started walking down the hall toward the exit so he could get out of this building.
Get away from Aubrey.
Man, he never believed he’d have that particular thought.
“Flynn.” She called his name, and he paused in his steps, though he didn’t turn to face her. He didn’t think he could, for fear his stupid feelings would be written all over his face.
“I know you’re mad. I know you probably think I’m some evil witch who toyed with your emotions, and I’m sorry,” she murmured, and he closed his eyes, letting out a harsh breath. “But you have to understand that it was real for me, too. Every bit of it,” she whispered.
Great. Now she was sorry. What sort of fresh hell was this? He turned to face her again. Big mistake. She looked so damn pretty and lost and sad. “Real? None of it was real. It was all temporary, right? You were faking to protect your job and I knew all along it couldn’t last. I can’t invest in anything right now. My career, my entire life is up in the air.”
“You don’t believe me,” she said, her voice soft and slightly incredulous. “Yet it was all temporary for you?”
“Yeah, it was temporary but at least it was real. How can I believe you? You’ve already proved you’ll lie to me about our so-called relationship. There’s no way I can trust anything that comes out of your mouth.” He turned and started walking, offering her a half-assed wave like they were just having a passing conversation when really she’d just broken his heart.
Without waiting for her to say anything in answer, he hightailed it out of there.
…
“So that’s it? You and Flynn are over? Dones-ville?” Willow’s jaw dropped open and she slowly shook her head. “What happened? I thought you two were perfectly happy, boinking each other’s brains out.”
Aubrey sighed. Boinking. There was a word she hadn’t thought of in a while. And yes. She had definitely been boinking Flynn. It had been the best boinking of her life. And now she would never have him in her bed, between her legs, ever again. The Flynn ship had sailed.
But it was more than that with Flynn. More than having him between her legs. She loved him.
She enjoyed talking to him, spending time with him and, yes, fine…boinking him.
When he’d come to her earlier and confronted her, she’d viewed it as her chance to tell him the truth so she could get the ugliness out of the way. Confess that Harvey had put her up to pretending to be in a relationship with him, but she’d fallen for him, too. She was in love with him, and she’d tried to get that point across, but he wouldn’t listen to her.
He was too pissed off. Not that she could blame him. Her mom warned her that being with a football player was more heartache than it was worth. She should’ve paid closer attention to her mom’s advice.
The tears started falling all over again. “I know,” she wailed, burying her face in her pillow. She’d gone home from work early and called Willow on the drive to her apartment, sobbing hysterically into the phone. She felt like an idiot. Like one of those girls she used to make fun of. The ones who got all weepy dramatic when their boyfriends left them. Those crazy, silly girls, who were supposedly so in love they could hardly function whenever they were dumped.
Well. Showed her, to laugh at someone else’s pain. She’d become one of those girls. She was definitely in love with Flynn. And somehow she’d screwed it all up. Now he’d left her. And she was alone.
Willow had come right over, bringing a giant bottle of wine and a grocery bag full of various flavors of Ben & Jerry’s. Aubrey remained stretched out on the couch, alternating stuffing her face with ice cream or downing wine or, the worst option, sobbing into the throw pillow.
Like she was doing right now.
