AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I blink at him, trying to process what he’s just said. The heel of my hand digs into my breastbone, the pain in my chest almost overwhelming me.
“You quit?” I ask. “Just like that?”
“It was a long time coming,” he says, pulling at the back of his neck. “It wasn’t just like that. But it’s a long story, and I don’t have it in me tonight to tell it. I’m staying at the Four Seasons, if you insist on seeing me to my door.”
His chest is heaving slightly, and he bites his lip when he looks in my eyes.
“Why didn’t you come to us?” I ask him dazedly. I eat the space I’d put between us and pull him into my arms, careful of his damaged back. I want to laugh and I want to cry, and what comes out is a half-strangled version of both. “If for no other reason than so that I could give you a high five, because I’m sure the Dragon’s face was priceless!”
He chuckles at my laughter, but his face falls just as quickly.
“I did, actually,” he mumbles, refusing to meet my gaze again. “But then I saw you both on the sidewalk. You were kissing, and...”
His voice trails off, and the lump in my throat makes it impossible for me to answer him. Anger licks up my spine and my stomach seethes in frustration.
“Months you’ve been gone, Remi. Months. I know the day you’re talking about. I gave Julia divorce papers. So she could be with you. So you wouldn’t be alone anymore. Like the fucking goddess she is, she hit me upside the head with them. We were on our way to the lawyer’s office, so I could sign paperwork withdrawing the divorce. I can’t believe you, Remi. I honestly can’t.”
I put some space between us so I don’t end up screaming in his face.
“I don’t know what more you want from me. I don’t know what else I can do. Every day I tell you I love you, but you see me smile from across the street and make the unilateral decision that it means we’re better off without you.”
I pick my phone up off the table and change the Uber drop off location to his hotel. I can’t be here anymore. I did what I came to do.
Doc Miller was right, as usual. I can only control myself. I can’t save Remi. He’s got to be the one to do that.
“I love you, Remington. But you have to make the choice to be with us. I can’t do it for you.”
One last time, for maybethelast time, I bring my lips to his. I kiss him gently, slowly, and let my tongue taste the roof of his mouth before I pull away.
“You better get outside. Your Uber will be here in a few minutes. I can’t go with you. When you’re ready to be with us, we’ll be waiting.”
I have my hand on the door handle before I look back around.
“But don’t take much longer.”
TWENTY-ONE
JULIA
I must have taken leave of my sanity to leave the apartment four days before Christmas. It is chaos outside. Madness. There’s a Santa on every corner and a million people it feels like on every block, trying to squeeze in one last present. One last store.
I’m spending the morning running errands while letting Justin get some more sleep.
I don’t know what time Justin came home last night. Or this morning, as it were. The last time I looked at my phone was almost four o’clock, and Justin still hadn’t returned. When he finally crawled into bed, he woke me in the process, which was thoroughly out of character.
He ran his hand up my nightshirt, cupping my breasts and running his thumb gently over my nipple. He nudged his nose along my jawline until I presented him with the lines of my throat.
“You’d tell me, right? If there was something you needed from me? Something I wasn’t giving you?”
Where on earth did that come from?
He smelled slightly of whiskey, and I wondered what craziness the girls dragged Justin into that brought him back to me in such a melancholy state.
“You’ve already given me everything, Justin. Always.”
“Still,” he prompts, his teeth tugging at my earlobe. “Promise me you will anyway, and that you won’t go looking somewhere else.”
“I promise,” I whispered into the darkness of the morning.
