Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 91058 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91058 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
I hate that my voice shakes with nerves. I’d love nothing more than to match his boldness step for step. Usually, I can, but not tonight.
He relents with an easygoing shrug. “You’re right. I shouldn’t. Enjoy the rest of the party.”
He’s already backing away and my mouth opens like I’m about to plead with him to stay or maybe even apologize about cutting off his line of questions, but it feels necessary to keep the wall up between us. Safer that way.
But damn…I wish I’d picked the reckless option instead.
I wish I’d told him the truth: Jasper and I are almost certainly done as of ten minutes ago.
Now why do you care?
Chapter Thirteen
Scarlett
I give Jasper the benefit of the doubt about the party, but when I open up Instagram the next morning and see that he’s been tagged in a bunch of photos with friends from last night, I realize how done we really are.
It’s one thing to skip out on the Halloween party to meet his parents for dinner. It’s a completely different situation to ignore my calls and ditch me to hang out with other people, most of whom I don’t even recognize.
I know he’s been going out without me the last few weeks, and I haven’t been concerned about it. Just because I’ve been working around the clock doesn’t mean his life had to stop, but we let it go too far. We missed the chance to repair what’s damaged, and now, the thought of trying to slog through all this mess just doesn’t seem worth it. I don’t care about him enough to try, and that’s damning in and of itself.
He finally returns my call later that morning, and I suggest we meet somewhere for brunch. He’s hungover when he arrives at the diner. I’m already in a corner booth working through my second cup of coffee, and before he apologizes to me for being late, he waves down a passing waitress and orders a cup for himself. His usually soft features are held in tight tension, like there’s a headache brewing just beneath the surface.
When she’s gone, he sheepishly turns to me. “Hey.”
He barely holds eye contact before he grabs the menu, and I’m kind of taken aback by his demeanor. I mean, I know I’m about to break up with him, but as far as he knows, everything is hunky-dory between us.
“How was your night?”
He nods, looking anywhere but at me. “Good, yeah. You?”
His blond hair is a little disheveled, like he just rolled out of bed a few minutes ago.
“It was fun. My parents asked about you…”
“Yeah, same,” he says defensively.
Right.
“Didn’t you tell them I had my company party?”
The waitress comes back with his coffee, and he thanks her before topping it off with enough cream and sugar that it’s about to spill over the rim.
“Jasper?”
“Yeah, I told them.” He has no patience for me this morning. “It just doesn’t really matter, Scarlett. They were disappointed you couldn’t make the time to see them, especially after what happened a few weeks ago.”
This is getting a little ridiculous. “I think you’re being unreasonable.”
“I don’t feel like arguing about this.”
I swallow my retort as he rubs his temples.
“Okay, I’m sorry.”
“Whatever.”
He still hasn’t looked at me.
“What’d you end up doing last night?”
He shrugs. “Just hung with the guys. We went to a bar in Uptown.”
“Cool.”
He doesn’t ask about the Elwood Hoyt party and I don’t feel like continuing to ask him questions about his night, so we revert to browsing the menu in silence. Once the waitress leaves with our breakfast orders, Jasper finally glances over at me, and I see the end is there for him too.
It’s obvious to me now that everything I’ve been feeling in the last few weeks, he’s also been struggling with. In a way, I’m glad. Jasper isn’t a terrible guy. I’d prefer if our breakup was amicable rather than one-sided. It’s better for everyone.
“Jasper…”
He shakes his head. “Yeah, I know.”
“I really needed you at that party last night.”
“And I really need to feel like a priority for you.”
I sigh.
“It’s not just the work stuff. I feel like we could figure it out if that was the only issue…” He winces and shakes his head like he doesn’t want to go down that road.
“I mean, I agree it doesn’t feel like we’ve been on the same page lately.”
I’m trying to help him out, but he doesn’t look relieved. “It’s not really that. I mean, I guess it is…in a way.”
I’m so lost.
“Is this about last night? About your parents?”
His eyes widen with horror. “No.”
“Okay…”
He sighs and rubs the back of his neck, mumbling, “Forget it.”
That’s impossible. The more he doesn’t want me to know, the more I have to press. It’s human instinct.
“I’m just trying to understand your side of it,” I say, trying to be helpful.