“I don’t mind. I think you’re very professional,” she says, and I hear almost begging in her voice.
“Drive safely, Sam. I’ll talk to you soon.”
Before she can try to kiss me since that seems to be where this is going tonight, I walk back into the house and straight up the stairs to my old room. I’d go to the penthouse, but the idea of waiting around for Eden to get home after Rob the IT guy doesn’t exactly sound like how I want to spend my night.
I flop down on my bed and close my eyes as I silently recap the night. My assistant now thinks I want to sleep with her, which wouldn’t be problematic if she hadn’t made it perfectly clear she’s into me for the past six months. Okay, you don’t have to say it. That was a shitty thing for me to do. Trust me. I know. If I give her a really big bonus like buying her a new car or a paid vacation to some island resort with all the bells and whistles, maybe that will fix things?
And then there’s the issue with Eden. All I wanted to do was show her how much it fucking hurt to see her with someone else. Why couldn’t she understand that?
I bet you’re saying I deserve whatever she’s going to do. Fine, you might be right, but if I know my Duck, it’s going to be big and bad and hurt like a motherfucker.
Maybe I’ll give her the night to cool down.
As I drift off to sleep, I know things will be okay. She loves me, and I love her. We’ll be good after she has some time to think things over.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Eden
My phone vibratesacross my desk as I look at the time on my laptop. Just a few minutes after five. Normally, I’d be in a hurry to get out of the office and go home, but what’s the point? It’s been a week since Ava’s party, and all I do is go to work and then go back to the penthouse to climb into bed and hide underneath the covers.
I don’t have to look to see who’s messaging me. It’s the same person it’s been all week.
Marius.
He thinks I’m still angry with him, but that’s not true. I passed anger the day after. All day Sunday, I wanted to scream and then kill someone. That night, though, a strange calm came over me, and I finally knew what I had to do.
Now I’m just in the stage of a breakup that feels the worst. The one where all you want to do is cry until there are no more tears left inside you.
Marius has texted me over and over every day. It started out with I’m sorry, and then it went from there to I’ll do anything tomake it up to you. The crazy thing is I think he would, except for the singular thing I need him to do.
I haven’t responded to even one text. I half expected him to show up at the penthouse. It wouldn’t be out of the question. He did buy it, so it wouldn’t be outrageous to think he’d try to find me there.
Part of me wishes he had. Then again, what else is there for us to talk about now? He finally pushed me too far. I had no choice but to do what I did.
My phone vibrates again, but this time it’s a call from Ava. I take a deep breath and put on my happy voice before I answer so she doesn’t know anything’s wrong.
“Hey, mama! What’s up?” I ask in an exceedingly cheery way that is very unlike me.
She picks up on that immediately, just like I should have known she would. “Hey, are you okay? You sound off.”
“Just a great day at work. Living the dream. It’s also Friday, so who doesn’t like the idea of two whole days off? What’s going on with you and those beautiful babies?”
I say that knowing anytime anyone mentions her children Ava is off to the races talking about them. It’s not a great thing to pull on my best friend, but right now, I just don’t want to talk about how I’m feeling because I don’t know if I can stop myself from telling her everything.
Or completely breaking down into a sobbing mess. It could go either way.
“Oh, Theo actually said ma-ma today, or at least it sounded like he did. Matthias hasn’t stopped bragging about how he said da-da first, so it might be wishful thinking. As for Matty, he really is such a good baby. I’m hoping to break him of his love of that stroller, though. I don’t think it’s healthy to stay in that thing as much as he does, even if he does love it.”
And just like that, Ava isn’t paying any attention to how I sound.
“You are so lucky. You have a great husband and those two beautiful boys. I hope you know how lucky you are.”
For a moment, she doesn’t answer. I probably sound pretty pathetic, and she wants to ask what’s wrong. Since I can’t tell her, I should have kept my mouth shut.
Finally, she says, “I’m sorry Rob didn’t work out. He told Matthias he thought you had feelings for someone else. I told my husband he’s nuts, but it’s okay. There are more fish in the sea.”
“If it’s okay with you, I’d like to cut bait for a little while when it comes to men and dating. I think I just need to figure out what I’m doing with my life.”
