Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 85593 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85593 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
I gave a tearful smile when I pictured sobbing my guts out to him only for him to scoff. Then I imagined him telling me to “suck it up, Buttercup. Dreams are for fairy tales, and you’re no princess.”
I shook my head at the thought. The truth was I didn’t actually think he’d have said that. Dominic had been sweet and he did care about my feelings most of the time. The man who stepped in to defend me from my father would’ve felt for me right now. He would’ve put his arms around me. Maybe all he would’ve said was, “I’m here,” but God, I could’ve used that right about then.
I hugged my arms around my raised knees and closed my eyes. How did things get so fucked up?
35
DARCY
The bar, like so many others, played their music too loud. Maybe it was a sign that I was getting older, but I really didn’t understand the appeal of music so loud you had to shout all night to be heard. Maybe that was why I always saw thirty-something moms hanging out at more quiet but lame places like chain restaurants with over-priced cocktails. At least the music wasn’t so loud and there were fewer desperate guys hitting on you.
We had all taken a booth in the back tonight because Charleston was able to join us, making our group a little too large for the bar. He had his phone out and was handling some kind of work emergency with a grimace on his smooth features.
Farhad was listening to Polly and Elizabeth, but I could tell from his expression that he was thinking about something else.
I’d been zoning out until I heard Polly mention Dominic’s name. They weren’t stupid, and they knew he was more than sore subject–he was like an infected, abscessed wound I was refusing to go to a doctor to have seen. I perked up at his name and they both froze, realizing their mistake.
“But it wasn’t a big deal,” Polly said quickly.
“What did he do?” I asked.
Elizabeth and Polly shared a careful look. “He’s just being him,” Elizabeth said.
“How has he been, anyway?” I asked. I didn’t want to ask. I shouldn’t have asked. It was like scratching a mosquito bite. Leave it alone, and the itch would pass. Give it one tiny scratch and suddenly it was all you could think about.
“Girl,” Charleston said, setting his phone down. I must’ve been worse than I thought, because Charleston didn’t drop work problems until they were solved. His phone was still buzzing angrily as he stared at me, completely locked in. “You sure you want to go down that road?”
“I don’t know,” I said, hanging my head. “But I just pitched my thing to Jasmine today and it was a disaster. I mean, the pitch went fine, but she pretty much confirmed what I already knew. You don’t make pitches at The Union Coast. You act like a good little worker bee and stay in your office. You type and type and type and do everything in your power to keep any emotion out of the piece.” I could feel myself getting emotional again so I stopped and tried to take a steadying breath. “So no, I don’t know if I want to go down that road again. But right now, I am looking back on the little time we had together and thinking maybe it wasn’t so bad. And I’m curious to know how he has been since we split.”
Polly licked her lips, then looked at Elizabeth. Elizabeth looked away, and Polly seemed to understand she was going to have to be the one to give the report. “Miserable?” she finally said. “He basically never leaves the office. He stays super late and gets there super early. When he interacts with people, he’s short with them and mean. He has fired three people in the last week for the smallest things. The magazine is doing great–Tristan had this idea about turning it into sort of an ebook that published in online bookstores. They couldn’t get backed by a publisher so Dominic figured out how to do it on their own. The digital sales have been dwarfing print sales, so they’ve been shifting everything to the digital side and it just keeps growing. And–”
Elizabeth cleared her throat.
Polly looked down. “And I’m not talking about Dominic anymore. But you’d think he would be happy with how the company is growing. Instead, he just seems more and more mad every day.”
“Almost like he regrets losing you,” Elizabeth said.
For some reason, that made my heart start pounding and my breath catch. No, Darcy. You don’t care if he misses you or regrets what happened, right? You’re settled on the fact that he’s an asshole you are better off without. But I didn’t feel set on any of that. I just felt lost and like I missed having someone in my life who understood me. Someone who could hold me when I was sad.