Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 66453 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66453 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
I spent the entire day in my cubicle, only leaving to use the bathroom. I skipped the big group lunch outing, but that left me practically alone on the fifth floor, which reminded me of the last time I’d been here alone after the company happy hour. The time he came after me. The time he kissed me for the first time.
My heart twisted painfully, remembering. I half wished it had never happened so that it couldn’t haunt me for the rest of my life the way I knew it was going to. The thought of erasing the last six weeks was even more painful though. If it had never happened, I wouldn’t be in so much pain, but the pain was a direct result of the joy. My time with Dominic had been the happiest six weeks of my life. I wouldn’t trade it for anything, not even to put my heart back in one piece.
I left a few minutes before 5:30, sure that Dominic would stay late and there was no way I’d see him on my way out. Even though I’d done everything possible to ensure I didn’t see him, I still felt desolate when I got in my car and put Marks Wealth Management in my rearview mirror. I’d thought–I’d hoped–he would come looking for me. That he would stride across floor 5 with that burning, purposeful look in his eyes and find me no matter where I was. Kiss me in front of everyone.
But he never did.
My heart felt like someone had tied boulders to it and tossed it in a lake. It sank to the bottom of my chest and beat feebly against the binds of sadness. Christi saw it all over my face when I walked in. Her own face crumpled.
“You didn’t talk to him?”
I shook my head as I hung my purse on the cemented refrigerator hook. “I didn’t see him. Not once.”
Christi bit her lip, searching for something reassuring to say. Finding nothing, she held her arms out. I walked into them and felt her slim arms close around my shoulders. “He’s an idiot,” she said fiercely.
Thankfully, Christi let me go to my room to nurse my broken heart in peace. I heard her on the phone with Mrs. Kloss. They were finalizing the last few details for the party. I should probably be part of the call, but I couldn’t muster up the energy. I didn’t even know if I’d be able to go to the Christmas Ball like I promised. I couldn’t imagine celebrating anything forty-eight hours from now, much less putting on the dress I’d bought for Dominic to take off and smiling my way through four hours of merriment.
I curled up in bed and turned off my light. It had been a long time since I went to bed at 6:30, but I was exhausted. The emotional toll of the day felt suffocating. It dragged my eyelids closed, and I fell into a miserable, shallow sleep that was filled with dreams of Dominic. Dominic turning away from me. Dominic finding me. Both were so painful in their own way that I’d drag myself out of the dream, remember that the pain was in my waking life, too, and fall back into unconsciousness.
When I heard Jake’s voice, I thought it was another dream. But then, he kept talking even as I surfaced from sleep. He was speaking quietly, but I’d recognize his voice anywhere. I caught the words my uncle. Christi responded in a murmur too low to decipher. Realizing this wasn’t a dream, I threw back my comforter and walked out of my bedroom. If I hadn’t been so out of it, I would have been nervous about seeing Jake again. If I had been, though, his sympathetic smile would have immediately put me at ease.
“Hey, Selena You doing okay?”
My eyes filled with tears. I went back into my bedroom to grab a box of tissues, then came back out. He and Christi were sitting together on the couch, and there was only room for two, so I sat on one of the barstools. “I’m okay,” I said, my voice cracking.
“She is obviously not okay,” Christi said to Jake pointedly.
He patted her knee. “Yeah, I can see that.”
“It just ended so suddenly,” I said, as if there were any way it could have ended that wouldn’t have shattered me.
Jake made a face. I didn’t have to tell him how suddenly it had ended. He’d witnessed it all. “Uncle Nic is…complicated, Ari. I would have never set the two of you up. Not because he’s my uncle, although that is weird as shit, but because he’s just not capable of a real relationship. I’ve never seen him in one that lasted longer than a gallon of milk, and I don’t mean the shelf stable kind that lasts for months, I mean the–”