AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yes,” I finally replied. “I do.”
“Where is she right now?”
“I left her in my room. Told her I needed a drink. I’m assuming she’s still in there.”
“Jo tells me she’s one hell of a woman, and for my wifey to say that”—he huffed—“that means a lot.” He paused. “Don’t lose her over this. Hear her side. Say your piece. And then get that shit worked out.”
“You make it sound easy.”
“It is.”
“I’m not so sure about that.” I moved my feet to one side of the chair. “I appreciate your help.”
“Shit, I’m honored that of all the people you could have called, you chose me.” He chuckled. “See you soon, my friend.”
He hung up, and I stood from the chair, shoving the phone into my pocket while I made my way inside. At the elevator, I pressed the button to my floor and leaned against the wall, waiting for the door to open. When I reached my suite, I waved the key card in front of the reader and walked in.
Brooklyn was on the couch in the living room, her knees bent, arms wrapped around them, her tiny body rocking over the cushion. “You’re back.” Relief immediately filled her eyes.
I sat on the opposite side as her, silence simmering between us.
I couldn’t allow the anger to erupt within me. Nothing would ever get solved. So, I tried to keep my tone even when I said, “I don’t understand why you would keep this from me.” As I stared at her, I attempted to see the reason, comparing it to the things Jenner had just said. “Did you think I wouldn’t like you anymore? That I’d stop chasing you? That your job would turn me off? That—”
“Yes. No. I don’t know.” Her hand went to her hair, and the other joined, and she tugged on her strands. “I was just embarrassed, and then I was embarrassed that I hadn’t admitted the truth to you, and then it became this vicious circle of lies.” Her eyes filled with tears. “It’s nothing you did, nothing you said. None of this is on you, it’s all on me. I fucked up.”
“But it is on me because something made you hold back, and that’s because I hadn’t given you enough confidence to believe that no matter what you did or what you said or the decisions you made, my feelings for you wouldn’t change.”
I didn’t know where this emotion was coming from, but it was thrumming in my chest. In my hands. In my fucking legs.
“You know, I didn’t care that you wore the same dress to the club every time I saw you. I couldn’t stop complimenting you. Wanting you. Begging you to leave with me.” I paused as the examples were flooding my head. “I didn’t care that you wouldn’t give me your name or your phone number. I still came looking for you. I didn’t care that you told me to go slow, that your life was muddy, that you couldn’t separate Spade Hotels from me. I never gave up, Brooklyn.”
“I know.” Her voice was barely a whisper.
“I did everything I could to show you the type of person I am, that the only thing that matters to me is you.” I exhaled, the pain in my chest deepening. “And you still didn’t trust me.”
She got up and stood directly in front of me. “It was never about trust. That didn’t enter my thought process at all. It was fear that you wouldn’t want to be with me. That I was so far beneath you—”
“Don’t even say that.” My eyes narrowed. “I offered you a job because I was so enamored and blown away by your brilliance. That’s not putting you beneath me, that’s putting you far above me.”
“I agree, and I’m not fighting that point. I’m not fighting anything. I’m in the wrong.” Her hand went to my arm. “But if I had told you I was the woman who had cleaned your toilet that morning, I—my insecurities—would have had a hard time making you believe that I was really qualified to do Six Sigma work at your hotel.” She squeezed my skin. “I’m not saying you would have treated me differently or that you wouldn’t have believed in me. I’m saying I couldn’t separate the two—the housekeeper and the Spade Hotel applicant. In that moment, I wouldn’t have believed I was good enough.”
When it came to insecurities, it didn’t matter what I said; nothing would change her opinion.
If it were physical, I could preach about beauty, and the words would bounce right off her ears. If it were financial and I promised security was in the future, she wouldn’t hear me.
In this case, it was professional.
She had an executive of a hotel brand sitting in her hand like fucking putty, and knowing my familiarity with her role, she didn’t want to paint that picture.
Could I understand that?
Could I accept it?
Goddamn it, this wasn’t easy.
And it only became harder as more quietness passed between us, tears now streaming down her cheeks.
“What did I do to make you think I would have cared what your job was?”
