“Why not?It’s not like we’ll be doing it in the bed or anything.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose.“I can’t believe you’d say that to me.”
“I can’t believe you either, by the way.Which I thought I’d tell you how much I loved seeing the picture of you and Mr.Fuck-up in the sports section this morning.Looks like the two of you are very comfortable with one another.So, just cut the crap about Bianca, okay.”
I knew exactly the picture he was speaking of.
“You two looked at one another like you were together.Shocked the shit out of me, if I’m honest.Perhaps I’m the foolish one of the two of us.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Perhaps you used work as an excuse.”
Of course, it would look that way to him.I never had the chance to explain what I was really doing with this case because the moment he’d heard about it, he announced we were breaking up.He would have thought I was simply overseeing the project like I always did, not taking part in it.
“Using work as an excuse for what?”I asked.
“To leave.To be with him.”
“For the love of…Mark, this is my job.You have no right to say that to me.You announced the end of us the moment I mentioned getting assigned to a case.”
“Honestly, Emma, if you’d have stopped giving all your attention to broken men and focused on me, we’d still be together.”
Once again, anger flooded my body.I didn’t want to hear any more.
“I’ll let you know when you can drop by.I don’t want her in my space.I mean it.I’m going now,” I gritted.
I hung up and threw my phone down on the table and placed my head in my hands.I could feel the tears burn my eyes, but I focused on my breathing, stopping the emotion from taking over.I took one more deep breath, trying to center myself, and jumped when I heard someone clear his throat.I looked up to see Colton leaning in the doorway looking at me.
“My God, you scared the shit out of me,” I said.
He looked at me, empathy in his eyes.“Everything alright, baby girl?”he asked, his voice nowhere near as harsh as it normally was.
I hated how he kept probing because I could feel myself breaking down again at his question, but I knew there wasn’t any way I could do that in front of him, so I straightened up in my chair and smiled.
“Just a little headache.Otherwise, yes, all is good.We need to be ready at five,” I said, turning my attention to the screen in front of me.“You have the address, right?”
He looked at me, concern lining his eyes, but said nothing regarding what he’d asked me.“Yeah, I have it.”
“Great, I think I’m going to go get ready,” I said, getting up quickly and gathering my things into a pile.“Give my eyes a break from the computer.I’ll see you soon.”
“Okay, but are you sure you wouldn’t rather talk about what’s really bothering you?”
“Well, if there was something to talk about, sure, but there is nothing,” I said, pushing past him, making my way to my room, shutting the door behind me.I put my things down on the small table, placed the lamp on the floor, and then stepped on my mattress and leaned against the wall as tears slipped down my cheeks.
I could pretend all I wanted things were fine, but they weren’t, and I needed to talk about it.The worst part was I knew Colton had always been a great listener.I also knew he had a heart of gold, even if I didn’t want to admit it.
I slid down the wall until I was sitting on the mattress and grabbed my phone.I opened up the chat between Chantal and me and sent out our SOS message.Then I wiped the tears away and focused on the job I was sent here to do.
Chapter Nine
Emma
I’d just finishedmy makeup and checked my phone to see that Chantal hadn’t messaged me back yet.
“Ready to go?”I heard Colton call from down the hall.
I stared at myself in the bathroom mirror.I’d decided to wear my favorite dress, and while it wasn’t anything fancy, I hoped it would be good enough for the opening event tonight.I really hadn’t planned on attending any type of black tie or formal events, so if there were going to be more, I’d have to get some new things.
