Total pages in book: 163
Estimated words: 164828 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 824(@200wpm)___ 659(@250wpm)___ 549(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 164828 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 824(@200wpm)___ 659(@250wpm)___ 549(@300wpm)
“Not turning your phone on?”
“I’ve nothing to say.”
Silence hangs between us.
“You know, when he winked at me—.”
“I don’t want to hear it,” I cut him off.
“Look, I feel shitty enough about it, okay?”
I shake my head in disgust. It’s always all about him. “Okay,” I reply flatly.
“I apologize; I should have kept quiet.”
“Yeah, you should have.”
We fall silent.
“That’s it?” he asks.
“What do you want me to say, Nathan?”
He exhales heavily, and we fall silent again.
“Is your room nice?” he asks to try and make conversation.
I roll my eyes. “Yep.”
“You’re not going to talk to me?”
“I told you, I have nothing to say.”
“This is about the Stephanie thing, isn’t it?”
I shrug, is it…I don’t even know. “Maybe.”
“But we talked about it and you said you understood.”
“I didn’t say I understood. I acknowledged what happened. I also acknowledged that she’s your friend and you’ve been spending time with her since it happened.”
“Stop it.”
“Those are the facts, Nathan, are they not? Do you or do you not spend time with her?”
“At work, Eliza. I can’t help seeing her there.”
“At a ball, two meters from me, while you laugh at your secret jokes with her is not fucking work, Nathan. Stop insulting my intelligence.”
“But we spent all afternoon in bed. How can you still be going on about this?”
“I’m not going on about it.”
“You are.”
We fall silent again. He’s right, I know I need to let this go. But for some reason, I can’t control it.
“I don’t like you there without me, feeling like this.”
“You think I want to feel like this?” I snap. “You think I like feeling betrayed?”
“Lize.” He sighs sadly. “I didn’t betray you, babe, and I know how this sounds. I would be angry, too, if I were you. But I swear to God, there is nothing between Stephanie and me. I’m in love with you, and this all happened before we started. It’s purely platonic between her and me. I would never betray you.”
I hate sounding insecure and whiny, and I know I do. My eyes well with tears. What’s wrong with me? This isn’t who I am.
“I’ll call you tomorrow.” I sigh sadly.
“I love you.”
I frown through my tears. “Goodnight, Nathe.”
He stays on the line, unable to hang up.
“I love you,” he whispers again.
“I love you, too.” I sigh sadly. Before he can reply, I hang up the phone.
I exhale heavily and switch the television off. I can’t even stay mad at him.
Sleep, I need some sleep.
* * *
I walk into the breakfast restaurant, feeling a lot better with some sleep under my belt.
A new day and all that. “Morning.” I smile at Henry as I take a seat beside him.
“Hello,” He says as he butters his toast. “I should have gone to bed when you did last night,” He mutters dryly. “I’m suffering this morning.”
I giggle. “Sucked in. I feel great.”
He rolls his eyes.
“So, what’s today’s agenda?” I ask.
“God, do we have to go?” He sighs.
I giggle and pour myself a coffee from the pot. I look around the restaurant and notice a heap of men in business suits. Many have women with them that are in work clothes, too. “Are these people all from the plastic’s industry?”
He sips his coffee as he looks around the restaurant. “Pretty much.”
“Do you know everyone?” I ask as I serve myself breakfast from the platters.
“Yes, but if I don’t know them personally, I know who they are.”
“You come to conferences often?”
“There’s so many new developments in the industry that we have to constantly attend to be able to keep up.”
“Like products and things?”
“Yeah, and techniques. Take this afternoon, for example. It’s a surgical tutorial on a new method of lower rhytidectomy.”
“Neck lift?” I frown.
“Yeah. When someone is using a new method in surgery and getting good results, they are asked to give a class at one of these things. I imagine Nathan is always teaching at these. He’s very respected in his field.”
“He is,” I agree.
Nathan didn’t call me this morning like I thought he would, but he had his rounds so...
“Anyway, you have the afternoon off,” Henry says.
“I do?”
He smiles. “You do. Get a massage or whatever it is that women do in their spare time. But we have a dinner on tonight.”
“Where’s that?”
“It’s in the restaurant here—nothing fancy. Just drinks and dinner for opening night.”
“Okay.”
“There’s a black-tie ball on Friday night for closing of the conference, but I said we wouldn’t be attending. We both want to get home as soon as possible. These things are long enough, I’m happy when they’re over.”
I smile. “Okay, great. Sounds good.”
* * *
I take a look at myself in the mirror, I’m wearing black pants and a cream silk shirt. I didn’t feel right putting on a dress to go for drinks tonight. My hair is down and full, and my makeup is natural.