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‘Yes,’ she said, her voice steely. ‘I am sure, and I am genuinely sorry, Ross. But this—’ she pointed around the room — ‘isn’t what I want. I care for you and Caleb. But I’m not in love with you and my future isn’t here. I’m sorry. I truly am.’
‘Wait, what? You don’t love me?’ he said in a whisper.
‘No,’ she said confidently, realizing that she never had. ‘And I don’t think you love me either, Ross. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have slept with your ex-wife.’
He looked at her in disbelief. ‘You’ve been leading me on then? All this time?’
‘No, Ross, I haven’t been leading you on. I moved here because I wanted to. I wanted to be with you, and I wanted to give things a go. But things have changed. I’ve changed. And you aren’t happy either given what you’ve just told me.’ She pushed the plate of cold, congealing pasta away from her.
‘But you’re not listening to what I am saying! It was a one-off.’
‘Even if it was and I wanted to stay, how could we move on from it? I mean she’s always going to be part of your life.’
‘What now then?’
Amy didn’t like the slightly sneering tone in his voice, but she didn’t suppose she could blame him.‘I fly home next week.’
He clenched his jaw tightly. ‘Unbelievable. Were you going to string me along and get me to drop you at the airport? Then dump me at the departure gate?’
She shook her head sadly. He was angry with her, rightly so. Hopefully he wasn’t too hurt. But this hadn’t been right for either of them. She stood up, ready to clear the plates away.
‘Leave them, Amy. Please . . . just go. Get out. Get out ofmyhouse.’
She walked past him and paused, putting a hand on his shoulder. ‘I am sorry. I didn’t want to hurt you and I’m truly sorry that things haven’t worked out.’
He pushed her hand off.
‘Is there someone else? Is that what you mean? You’ve met someone else?’
‘No, Ross. There’s nobody else. That’s not what this is about . . .’ She paused. ‘But maybe you and Lucinda could try and give things a go again? I’m sure Caleb would like that.’ She walked out the room and went slowly upstairs. She called a taxi as she gathered her belongings.
When she came back downstairs, she looked into the kitchen. Ross was still sat at the table, staring at the wall. ‘Just go,’ he said flatly and emptied the remaining contents of the wine bottle into his glass. ‘I never want to see you again.’
As the cab pulled away, she felt awful for the hurt she’d caused Ross, but fairly indifferent to the fact that he had cheated on her. She couldn’t help but breathe a huge sigh of relief.
When Josh opened the door to his apartment, she fell into his arms. ‘I am so glad to see you.’
‘How did it go?’ he asked.
‘It was hard. I felt awful, even with what he told me.’
‘Oh? Do tell?’
‘Can we get you anything?’ said Andy, coming through to greet and hug her too.
‘Thanks, but no. Just being here is great and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you. Do you mind if I just crash, guys? I’m absolutely exhausted.’
‘Yes, of course,’ said Josh, helping her with her bags and showing her into the spare room. He hugged her again. ‘We’re here for you. Just let me know if you need anything.’
‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘I’ll fill you in on all the details tomorrow.’
She watched as Josh closed the door, then sank into the pillows realizing just how emotionally and physically tired she was.
But for the first time in months, she slept well and when she woke up, she felt as though a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
As she stretched her arms above her head, she felt a glimmer of something pooling inside her; a feeling that she hadn’t felt for a very long time. Hope.
I knew you would do the right thing for you, darling girl. You trusted it would work out and it did.
