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“Must be.” Meanwhile, I waited. For what? I wasn’t sure. He had nothing to apologize for, yet that was what my heart demanded. An apology for her rudeness. For letting her monopolize our date even for a few minutes. I needed a little reassurance. A little confidence. If he was oblivious, it was because he didn’t know what it meant to have the symbol of everything he would never be paraded in front of his face—just when he was starting to feel good about himself too. The way I had been.
“Do you know what?” I drained my glass after finishing a slice I could no longer taste. “Maybe we should get this boxed up and take it back.” He arched an eyebrow— hopeful, reading too much into my suggestion. “I’m not feeling very well,” I explained before watching his face fall.
“What’s the matter?”
“I might have pushed it a little too hard.” It was a copout—a not a very clever one—but he bought it without argument, raising a hand to wave for a server.Probably glad he gets to take you someplace private where nobody has to see you.
All I could do was sit and tremble inside while doing everything I could to hide the disappointment that threatened to crush me.
This was only ever going to be temporary.
He was only ever going to bring me to places like this or to a dark movie theater. Where nobody had to see us together. Where he didn’t have to admit he wanted to date me.
I would be damned if I gave him the chance again.
16
MAGNUS
Something was wrong. She had changed. I knew exactly when the change occurred.
Damn Leila. Of all fucking times for her to rear her nasty head. The fuck did she think she was doing, telling me we need to get together. To do what? Rehash what a fucking mistake it was for us to get married in the first place? What a filthy, cheating little bitch she had turned out to be?
Like I would waste another minute of my life. I had already wasted too many of them on her. Once again, the damage was done. Evelyn’s walls fell back into place. It was impossible for me not to feel them snap into place. Now, I was on the outside, looking in, wishing she would let me get close to her again.
Instead, she insisted on getting herself out of the car and using the crutches to walk in front of me into the apartment building. She didn’t say a word in the elevator, staring at the numbers above the doors like she was willing the car to move faster.
Once inside the penthouse, I left the pizza box on the island in the kitchen while she kicked off her flats and sent them sailing across the living room. “Wow! As soon as you’re healed up, we’ll have to get you a try-out with a soccer team.” My pitiful joke didn’t earn me so much as a snort.
“I’ll be back in Boston by then, anyway,” she pointed out, staring out the window. She was so beautiful against the dark sky with so many lights twinkling beyond the glass.
I would never get a chance like this again. It was the perfect segue into what had lurked in the back of my mind for days. “Are you sure you have to go back? You know…”
“What do I know?” Her voice was flat, emotionless.
“You know how glad Barrett would be if you moved here. He’s been trying to convince you for how long now?”
“And I keep saying no. You know why I do it. This isn’t where my life is.”
She was pulling away, sand slipping through my fingers no matter how I tried to hold it. “What happened? Where did you go? Why are you…”
“What?” She looked over her shoulder, and I realized the Evelyn I’d been getting closer to was gone. The old Evelyn had replaced her. All sharp edges and bitchiness.
“Why are you acting like this? What did I do to deserve it?”
She turned to face me, still leaning on the crutches. “Exactly how am I acting? I can’t wait to hear it.”
“You’re back to being the old Evelyn. I didn’t do a damn thing to deserve this.”
“The old Evelyn? I have a news flash for you. What you see is what you get. I am who I am.”
“That’s bullshit. You’ve shown me your real self. You don’t get to hide now.”
“And you don’t get to tell me how to act. I’m not a child, no matter how some people like to treat me like I am. I’m a grown woman. Considering you sat there and took your sweet time before introducing me to that woman…”
I knew it. Damn that cheating bitch. “That’s what this is about? Her?”
“Do me a favor. Don’t act like it doesn’t matter because it does. I ceased to exist the second you set eyes on her fake tits.”
