Page 95 of Forget Me

She said nothing.

I stalked around her to the front door and flung it open, not caring that my father’s gold ring was the only thing I wore. She’d ripped my heart out of my chest, shredded it, and then stomped on the pieces. If I were smart like Cooper, I’d have seen it coming. Mimi was shiny, precious, vivacious. Too fine for someone like me to keep.

I held the door open, my anger burning so hot I didn’t feel the winter chill. “I’ll consider myself already dumped. Tell Larissa whatever you want, but I can’t”—my voice cracked, and I had to clear my throat—“I can’t do this anymore. You want to do this on your own. You don’t need me. You don’t want me.”

She peered up at me through her lashes, standing close enough that I could have twisted one of her rogue curls around my finger, that I could have leaned down and kissed those stubborn, pouting lips.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

I could have taken it back then, said I’d go with her to the gala. But I loved this woman, and now I had to stop. Seeing her looking gorgeous in that rose-gold gown when I knew she’d never be mine would torch the ruined sludge she’d left of my heart.

I should have learned weeks ago, when the alcohol and her hangover had scrubbed away her memory of me and our connection at the bar that night. I was forgettable, and I’d never be good enough for her.

“Go,” I said.

She went.

Fool that I was, I watched her walk across the motorcourt toward the street.

Fuck.

“Mimi!” I called.

She turned.

“You didn’t drive here, did you?”

“No, I took the bus. I’ll catch it back home.”

The bus? This proud woman would be the death of me. Already had been. “No, you won’t. Give me one minute to put on some clothes, and I’ll drive you.”

“No, I—”

“Thirty seconds.” If she stubbornly kept walking, I’d catch up to her before she made it to the bus stop. Where the fuck was there a bus stop in Pacific Heights? How long had she walked to get here last night in the dark?

I sprinted to my bedroom and threw on jeans and a shirt. Not sparing time to brush my teeth, I grabbed my toothbrush so I could take care of it at my tía’s and jogged out to my Jeep. Mimi had the sense to be standing beside it.

Silently, I unlocked it, and just as silently, she got in.

I might be frosted over with anger, but I was no monster. Even the woman who’d used me to advance herself at work and then broken my heart deserved a safe, warm ride home.

Who was I kidding? She deserved so much more than a safe ride home. More than the fucking assistant job under Larissa.

She deserved plenty more than me.

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