Page 100 of Objection to Love
The door swung open, and Em opened her mouth, only to shut it when she recognized the man behind the door.
“Noah?”
Garrett’s friend leaned against the doorframe. “At your service. Though, to be honest, Garrett made it sound like I wouldn’t be seeing much of you.”
Em was at a loss for words.
Noah waited with raised eyebrows, but when she said nothing, he asked, “Uhhh… Want to come in?”
She shook her head, finally finding her voice. “What are you doing here?”
“Garrett offered me his house.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Why?”
“Because he’s in Texas.”
All the anger melted from her. So that was why he wasn’t answering her calls or texts. That was why he wasn’t even giving her the common courtesy of turning her down politely instead of straight ghosting her. Because he was gone. He’d taken that job he’d told her about. He’d left without saying a word, and therefore she was no longer worthy of a text.
“I thought he still had a month left in this job.”
Noah shrugged. “We didn’t talk particulars. All he said was that he had work in Texas, so he wouldn’t be here. He told me where he left the key, and that’s about it. I’m just staying for the week because my roommate has a bunch of family staying over and I didn’t want to go crash at my folks’ place. Too small and too many people digging into my personal issues, you know?”
Em nodded absently, but she’d already checked out of the conversation. She had to—to hold herself together until she could escape.
“Well, thanks, Noah,” she said, already walking down the steps.
“Sure… no problem.”
She walked across the lawn in a daze. Then she walked into her house and straight back to her bedroom. She needed ice cream. And a bath. But both reminded her too much of Garrett and the hole where her heart used to be, so instead, she just crawled into bed. It was too late. She dug the heels of her hands into her eyes, trying to keep the tears back, but it didn’t work. Hot and wet, they spilled around her palms and down her face into her pillow.
Her chest hurt—physically hurt with the evidence of her heart breaking. She’d made the biggest mistake of her life, and there was nothing left for her to do.
She’d fallen in love and realized it too late.
Em might not have made a good spy, but she still made a good lawyer—and, newly, a good sister. She threw herself into work and spent an increasing amount of time with April and Jackson. She even managed a semi-harmonious conversation with her dad, wherein he informed her they weren’t mad at her and were honestly thrilled with their new choice of partner. Of course, he’d coupled that with a couple of likely unintentional jabs over how competent the man they’d chosen was and how there couldn’t possibly have been a better choice.
Em got the hint that she wasn’t the best choice. She was getting used to not being the best choice. But in the ways she could fix that, she was trying to.
Still, even with everything she tried to occupy herself with, Em had too much spare time over the next week. With her newfound determination to separate her identity from work, she was strictly working from eight to five. She still arrived earlier than most colleagues, but she left when they left and took lunch when they took lunch. Stephanie had even invited her to karaoke night the Friday after Em found out Garrett was gone. It was a nice invitation—and Em did appreciate it—but she turned it down anyway, with a request that Stephanie invite her the next time they go. Maybe sometime in the future she’d be up for a fun night out with the office, but right now she hurt too badly to put on a face.
After Em told April about Garrett—which she broke down and did the day after her run-in with Noah—April had continually tried to convince Em to call him again, just to be sure. Which was what she was doing at that moment.
“Come on, Em, you’ll regret not trying; I know you will. This wasn’t some fling,” she coaxed from her spot on the couch, wrapped up in a cozy blanket.
Em paced into the kitchen to pull a water bottle out of the fridge. “You don’t know that. By all accounts, it was just a fling to him.”
April shook her head—both at the offered water bottle and at Em’s comment. “I don’t believe that. A person only needed eyes to see how much he cared about you.”
Em grimaced. “That’s your biased-sister outlook. I bet anyone else could see he was out of my league and never intended me to be anything but a good time.”
“In his defense—” She raised her hands when Em turned narrowed eyes on her. “Hey, I’m on your side, but in his defense, you did break up with him. Maybe he thought you saw him as just a fling?”
Em bit her thumbnail. April had a point.
Her sister tilted her head to look in Em’s eyes until she stopped biting her nail and acknowledged her. “Call him, Em. Call him one more time. Then I promise I’ll stop bugging you.”
“I’ll think about it.”