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“Howmuchlongerareyou going to avoid him?” Rose grabs a box of paper trees and motions me to sit on the chair.
“I’m not avoiding him. Everything I have to say, I’ve already told him. There’s nothing else he can tell me that I want to hear.”
When I gave him the chance to explain himself, he couldn’t. If he did, he would have to admit that he thought I was just a gold digger. But I shouldn’t be surprised. If he had any respect for me, he wouldn’t have left me like that back then.
“Case closed. He helped me with the wedding. I helped him with a project. I lied to him. He lied to me. And now it’s over. I’ve got closure at last.”
Rose pulls her hair back and looks around the room for a hair tie before settling for a scrap of fabric. Then she grabs her tablet and stares at it intently before looking at the table. Dennis has set a up big architectural model there. The new building he’s working on consists of three towers connected with each other at three different levels. She zooms in on the screen and then stares at one of the buildings carefully, her mouth slightly opened.
“Are you just going to ignore me?”
“I’m not ignoring you.”
Rose turns to look at me.
“But it’s clear you are in no mood to listen. If you want to keep lying to yourself, then do so.”
She takes a stylus and taps on the screen a few more times, then sets it aside and leans on the edge of the table, right next to me.
“I just don’t trust him,” I say. “He had no reason to lie to me.”
“You don’t know that,” Rose protests. “For someone to go to these lengths to hide his wealth, he must have had a very good reason. And don’t forget that it was someone close to him that betrayed him at work.”
Brian seemed to imply that too yesterday.
“Why are you defending him?”
“Because I saw a man that was deeply in love with you. I know you’re still in love with him. His approach was wrong, but I guess you could say the same thing about yours.” I lower my head, but Rose grabs my chin and lifts it up. “I’m not saying that to make you feel bad. I mean, it was my idea. I’m just trying to point out that sometimes you take the wrong approach to something and by the time you regret it, you are in too deep to change.”
My lips purse and I feel a sharp pain spreading in my chest. God, I want this to be true—just a stupid choice. But all that preparation was not for a spur-of-the-moment decision. Even if he said he didn’t do it for me, he kept up the act while we were together.
“Hey, what are my girls doing?” Dennis storms inside with a large bag from a local restaurant. Living with him and Rose for the past two weeks has been wonderful, but I know I can’t hide out with them for much longer.
“Well, this girl is helping with your project while that one—” She points at me. “Is moping over a certain someone.”
Dennis bursts out laughing but does not ask any questions. Instead, he moves the scale model to the side and places three Styrofoam containers on the table.
“No talk about work,” he says, looking at Rose and then turning to me, “and no talk about love drama.”
Perhaps I have not been as good company as they have. But Dennis doesn’t seem to mind. Neither does Rose.
She gives me a sheepish smile as Dennis leaves the room. He comes back a minute later with two more chairs, turning on the TV that’s hanging on the wall on the opposite side, as soon as he sits down.
“What can we talk about?” teases Rose.
Dennis looks up, pretending to seriously think about it, zapping from channel to channel.
“The weather is a nice topic and a very popular one. Sports are also an option. Or—” he freezes mid-sentence, his eyes fixed on the screen.
Rose and I look up at the same time. I hear her gasp before I can take in the news headline. Multimillionaire Robert Reeds has been hospitalized.
The news anchor talks about his accomplishments but doesn’t give much information about his health.
“Do you think…?” Rose doesn’t finish her sentence.
Brian’s blank expression flashes before my eyes. If he had been so worried about his mother’s broken leg, I can’t even imagine what he’s going through now. I need to see him. Be there with him.
I stand up, knocking my chair to the ground.
