Page 88 of This Time Around
I hadn’t even realized I’d said it.But damn she didn’t miss a beat.Yet a heat suffused my chest at the thought.A peace I couldn’t ever remember feeling.It was insane.Not the time for reality to hit me like a slap to the face.
I was falling in love with a woman who would want nothing to do with my life or my career.I was falling in love with a woman who would never leave her land.
And I didn’t give one, tiny, shit.
“My home is no longer any of your concern.Sign the papers.”
She set down her champagne and opened the first folder.At least she had the grace to seem embarrassed by the photos my PI had taken.She was in a few positions I’d never seen before and she and I had always been adventurous.When I saw them, I felt nothing.They were like looking at poorly made porn photos taken of strangers.That was all Camilla was to me.
She closed the folder and opened the next one, scanning the papers.“The house?You think I’m going to agree to only getting the house?”
“I told you I’d reconsider if you could be a decent person, but don’t play me for a fool and expect me to be kind to you.”
“You always were too nice, too trusting.”
I took it as a compliment.
She chewed on her bottom lip, fingertip tapping the table.She did it when she was thinking, and for the longest time I thought it was cute.Always tapping her fingers.The gentle click grated my nerves.
“What do you really want, Camilla?Why play this game?Is it to salvage your pride?”
“No one will hire me,” she said, and her honesty stunned me.“My agent is on the verge of dropping me.I’m getting too old for spreads, replaced by models barely into their twenties.And now, everyone thinks I’m some evil woman.”
“Quit acting like one,” I said, in a rare moment of not bothering to filter my words.
“I’m broke, Cooper.”She peered up at me through lashes so thick and long it was obvious they weren’t real.She was always so made up, I’d long gotten used to it, but some mornings, I wanted to touch my wife, not the plastic version of her.Although who knows?Maybe she was always fake.“I thought if you and I could at least pretend to work on our marriage, I could get some work.Then we could split amicably.”
“We could have done that in the beginning if you hadn’t played your games.It’s too late for that.Now, if you’re broke, you can sell the house.That’s ten million at least you can live off but that’s all you get.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“You’re wrong.”And I was done.I took my first drink of my water and grabbed my wallet from my pocket.“Sign the papers, Cami,” I said, using a name I’d called her early when we began dating that she despised.“Now, or I leave with the photos.”
“You’re going to destroy me.”
“And like I said, had you been honest with me, I would have worked with you.”I stood and dropped a fifty-dollar bill onto the table.Quite the tip for a single glass of champagne, but I wasn’t waiting for change.“I don’t enjoy being a dick to you.I have a lot of wonderful memories of us, but the problem is that now, I don’t know when I started being played or if any of it was real.I would have had your back, but not like this.You don’t get to treat me like shit and expect me to lay down and beg for more.”
“Please, I can be different.”
“No.You can’t.”I stood to my full height and glanced outside.A few of the photographers had left.A handful of groups in the restaurant were glancing in our direction.I gestured toward the files still in front of her.“What’s your decision?”
She opened her purse and pulled out a pen.“I hope you can sleep at night knowing you’ve just ruined me.”
God, it was amazing how narcissistic she was.She couldn’t even see how this was all her doing.Nothing I’d said had left any impact on her.If I’d had second thoughts about dissolving my marriage to her and giving her nothing other than the house, her attitude now confirmed I’d done the right thing.
She scribbled her name on the signature page and handed me the files.
“I’ll have Paul get a copy of these to Stefan as soon as possible.Take care, Camilla.”
I left the restaurant without looking back and when lights flashed in my eyes, questions shouted at me so loudly they rang in my ears, for the first time ever, I stopped for the paparazzo.“Thank you everyone for coming tonight.You can take this as my official statement that my marriage to Camilla Rinaldi has been dissolved amicably.Please respect our privacy.”
I ducked my head from the lights and stepped toward the Town Car I’d had waiting for me, pulling to a sudden stop as soon as a question was shouted that chilled me to my bones.
“Cooper!I hear the woman you were photographed with is your new girlfriend, Rebecca.Are you heading back to be with her?What is your relationship with the widow?”
Shit.I froze while that question pummeled against me, chilling me to my core.They’d already been looking into her.Which meant soon, they’d find out everything about her down to her favorite color of underwear.
I slid into the Town Car and shut the door behind me, faces of photographers crammed against the windows for a shot of me.I’d spent a decade masking my expression, but I wasn’t hiding anything then.
It’d taken Rebecca what felt like forever to want to take a chance on me, and even now I didn’t know where I stood with her.
No doubt hearing the news of her husband’s death splashed across gossip magazines would send her running before I could get on a plane back to her.
