Page 22 of Mr. February

Wade wished he could take away the anguish coating her voice.

“I was heartbroken, not because I was in love with him, but I trusted him and let down my guard. Later, he claimed he was stressed about the holidays and work, and I was overreacting. He always had some lame excuse, and he made it seem like I was petty and childish when I didn’t believe him.”

Wade snorted, and Jenny quirked a half-smile that disappeared as soon as it arrived.

“The night of the In-Tech party, he started drinking before we arrived. He didn’t want to go. I wished he had broken up with me then, or that I broke up with him. But if it was just stress and holidays, I didn’t want to lose what we had before. Or what I thought we had.”

Jenny fell silent. Wade wanted to smash something.

He cleared his throat and asked, “What happened?”

“We went to Christmas with his extended family, and everything was great again. Chad was the guy he’d been before. He was so fun and sweet, as if the previous weeks had never happened. But they did, so I didn’t trust it. But I stayed because I’m a fool.”

“He’s the fool, not you.”

She wiped a line of tears from her cheek and raised her chin defiantly.

“The day before New Year’s Eve, he broke up with me. He said he wanted to party all night without the inconvenience of a fat girlfriend who might interfere with him getting drunk and getting laid.”

“What an asshole.” Wade gripped the steering wheel harder.

“No,” she said with a shaky laugh. “That was the only good part. The asshole part was when he told me the reason he dated me in the first place. It was to get his parents off his back, so they’d keep paying his rent.”

“What? How old is he?”

“Thirty-five.”

“What the fuck?”

“Long story short. His family has money. Lots of it. And he blew through his annual allowance on drugs, alcohol, and pretty girls before we met. They insisted he settle down. Apparently, they said if he kept a job for six months and was in a stable relationship with anicegirl, they’d reinstate his money.”

Wade grew tense as he guessed the direction the ugly story would turn.

“When he broke up with me, he told me he picked me because no one would think he’d ever date someone like me unless it was real love. No one would confuse me with one of the skinny girls he actually wanted.”

“That motherfucker.”

“So,” she said with a bright voice, “whatever you have to tell me about Suzanne won’t surprise me.”

“Did you make him pay for using you like that? Did you contact his parents or anything?”

“No, I don’t want anything more to do with him. Tell me about Suzanne. Please tell me I’m not the only fool.”

Wade huffed out a disgruntled breath. He seldom wanted to commit violence against another person, but he would respect Jenny’s wishes.

“He’s the fool, not you. Anyone who can’t see how amazing you are is blind and stupid. As for Suzanne, she and Chad appear to have a lot in common. She picked me because she thought I could be manipulated into doing her work for her and help her get a promotion.”

His derisive laugh filled the cabin of the car.

“Oh, and she tried to convince me to steal financial data.”

“What?” Jenny gasped.

“Yeah, she floated it as an intellectual exercise, but I couldn’t trust her after that and broke it off.”

WADE

Wade checked his rear-view mirror before he exited the highway. He hid his disappointment that they were about to arrive, but he worried that their newer friendship would revert to casual acquaintances once they went their separate ways at the hotel.

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