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“I knew who you were all along. I knew you lied when you had known no other man but me. I also knew that you could be anything but a virgin.” Bitterness filled him as he spoke, and his voice turned savage. “Did you really think you could lie about that?”
The urge to weep strengthened, but somehow she found the strength to ignore it. “You don’t understand,” Daria whispered. “I didn’t lie.” Somehow, she made herself meet Nik’s gaze, willing him to see the truth even if she herself knew it was almost impossible to believe. “I was a virgin when—-”
“Stop it with the lies!” Nik’s hand on the table curled into a fist as he struggled to control his rage.
Nik looked at Daria like she sickened him, and even though it made her want to cry more than ever, she told herself she didn’t deserve to.
“Please,” she implored, and this time she could no longer keep her voice from trembling. “Just listen to me. I was a virgin, and I can prove—-”
“Shut up!” Nik’s fist slammed down, and the table jumped under his blow. How, he wondered savagely, how the fuck had he ended up foolish enough to want a woman seemingly incapable of speaking a single truth?
The fury in Nik’s voice terrified her, but the thought of losing him for good – of Nik never believing her – terrified Daria even more, and she started talking faster, feeling like she had no time to lose. “I know I was stupid to lie to you, but please, you have to believe me – whatever you’ve heard about me, it’s not—-”
“I said shut up.”
Daria fell silent, but so did everyone in the café.
Nik pushed off his chair and stood. “This conversation is going nowhere.”
Disbelief and despair made her feel like she was just imagining things as, in front of her, Nik pulled out his wallet and threw several hundred euros on the table.
And then he was walking away.
Let it go, Daria’s mind begged of her, and her heart cried for the same thing. But she just couldn’t do it. She watched Nik walk away, farther and farther from her, and she just couldn’t do it.
“Nik, wait!” Ignoring the pitying stares that were sent her way, she scrambled to her feet and ran after Nik.
Nik forced himself to keep going even as he heard Daria call out his name. This was for the better, he told himself. His life had no room for a gold-digging slut like Daria, and the sooner she was out of the picture, the quicker things would return to normal.
Daria reached Nik as he stepped out of the café. “Nik—-” The moment her fingers grazed his skin, Nik yanked his arm out of her hold as if her touch scalded him.
Nik whirled around to face her.
Here we go again, her heart whispered as it hopped back into a rollercoaster that was doomed to crash.
“What the fuck did you follow me for?” Angry disgust lined Nik’s voice, and Daria almost shrank back at the sound of it.
Her heart started to stagger, and she felt herself crashing down, down, down, but still she couldn’t stop pleading. “Nik, please, let me explain.” Her voice cracked. It physically hurt to beg. It was like screaming to the world that they were right about her mother, and she was, in fact, following in Magnolia Everest’s footsteps. But the thought of losing Nik without trying her best to hold on to him hurt even more, and so if she had to beg, she would.
She raised her eyes to him, stripped completely of pride. “Please, Nik.” Unwept tears clogged her throat. “Just let me explain—-”
Nik’s humorless laugh cut her off. “Explain?” he repeated with harsh incredulity. “Or do you mean you want to spin me one of those fairytales you like—-“
Daria shook her head wildly. “No, it’s not—-”
“A fairytale about how you’ve miraculously stayed a virgin—-”
“It wasn’t like that, please, listen—-”
“How the fuck can you stay a virgin,” Nik roared, “when all the men you’ve dated made you sound like a nymphomaniac in bed?”
A nymphomaniac. She bled at the words, at the knowledge that Nik had said such words about her, and she fell to the sand on her knees.
Give up, her mind begged. Stop letting him hurt you, her heart cried.
But she just couldn’t.
She raised her eyes back to him. “Please,” she said brokenly. “Please let me—-”
