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“She was the reason. We broke up just before I met you. We weren’t together long, but long enough for me to realize she was bat shit crazy.” I move toward the bench, still not sure whether I should sit down or run. “She called me that evening to tell me she was pregnant and needed me. Naturally, being a gentleman, I rushed home so I could be with her. Not too long after I got there, I found out it was all a rouse to get me back. She was never pregnant.” Sitting down next to him, I concentrate on his voice.
“She must have made a copy of my apartment key, considering I never gave her one. The day you saw her, she let herself in while I was taking a shower. When I came out of the bathroom, she was lying on my bed. Naked. I picked up her clothes and threw them at her, demanding she leave. She pleaded with me to take her back. I told her I was in love with someone else.” Wait, does he mean me—in love with me? He continues, and I don’t try to stop him. “She was still dressing when I chased her out of the apartment. When I realized she still had the key, I came out to get it back. That’s when you saw me.”
I stare down at the ground, fidgeting with my fingers. “So, you never—”
“It’s only been you since that day you walked into me at Davis,” he says, taking my hands and cutting me off.
I look up, straight into his big, beautiful eyes. They’re a true blue, with ripples of rich sapphire, and little specks of emerald glistening through them. There isn’t a single thing I have witnessed that could possibly be more beautiful. “I had a dream. You were in your office with a blonde similar to Natalie, and she was lying across your desk. I walked in, and you uttered those exact same words: ‘Liv, it’s not what it looks like’. I panicked,” I say, my voice barely a whisper. Chase strokes the inside of my palm with his thumb.
“I understand, I would have questioned what I saw, too.” He brings my hand up toward his mouth and places a soft kiss on the back.
“How did you find out I was here?” I ask, knowing in the back of my head what the answer would be.
“Brenda called me, told me you were getting married.”
“Probably not one of my smartest choices,” I murmur.
“He had everyone fooled.”
“I feel so stupid, more so because I didn’t see it when I was dating him in college. Over a year,” I sigh. Closing my eyes, I try to push away my pain, to no avail. As I open my eyes, I catch Chase gazing at me.
“What?” he asks, questioning the confused look that’s plastered across my face.
“I need time. I need to process everything that’s happened today,” I say. He tilts his head, as if he doesn’t understand. “I need to go back to my room.”
“Whatever you need,” he whispers, running both hands through his thick hair. I stand up, gather my wedding dress, and walk toward the entrance of the hotel. I feel his eyes burning through me, but I keep walking, not having the courage to look back.
I scuff the tip of my shoe along the boardwalk. In the span of ten minutes, I went from marrying one guy, to another professing his love for me, and now I’m walking into the hotel alone. The same hotel I was supposed to spend my honeymoon in—the same hotel Evan will be coming back to. As I walk through the glass doors, I head straight to the front desk. I can’t go back to that room, where I might run into Evan. I can’t look at him right now. He played me for an idiot, all while he was having an affair—and he wasn’t even using protection.
My anger washes over my face in a hot wave, but I clear my thoughts and focus on getting into a new room. A nicer room. Maybe a presidential suite, on Evan’s tab, of course. Smiling to myself, I politely ask the clerk for a manager. A short, stout man comes out from behind a closed door.
“Can I help you?” he asks.
“Yes,” I say, my head held high. “I just got married and we have decided to upgrade our room.”
“Certainly Mrs . . .” he pauses.
“Gallagher,” I respond. He looks at the computer screen, clicking and scrolling, nodding to himself. “Yes, we have the six hundred square foot king bedroom suite with balcony and ocean views available.”
“That will be perfect,” I beam. “I will need the other suite as well. For guests,” I say, thinking of how else I can make Evan’s bank account miserable.
“Of course.” He smiles as he hands me a key card. “I will have the suite ready for you in half an hour.”
“Excellent.”
Swiftly rounding up my bathroom necessities and clothes, I throw everything into my bag and check the room over once more before leaving as quickly as I came in.
I rapidly make my way to the other side of the hotel and open the door to my new suite. Dropping my bags near the end of the bed, I move toward the hotel phone and dial Brenda’s cell.
“Hello,” she murmurs.
“It’s me. I switched rooms.”
“Oh my God, are you okay?” she asks, her voice unusually high.
“No, not really,” I mutter. “I should have known, right?”
“I knew he was up to no good, but I didn’t see that one coming,” she says, still in shock.
