Page 92 of Now or Never

His stomach rolled. “I shouldn’t have done this,” he muttered.

A long silence spanned the distance between them.

“You won’t change your mind,” Chelsea said, looking down and speaking more to herself than him. “And I’m naive enough to think that if I show you how much I care about you, you’ll stay with me.”

Adam squeezed his eyes shut against the self-hatred.

“Why did you come here?” she asked.

Adam took a deep breath. “I went to your place to talk, and Vincent told me you got a call about Ben,” he said, running his hand through his hair.

What the fuck was he doing?

“I sort of . . . tracked you here. I thought maybe you’d need me.”

Chelsea calmly nodded. “What did you come to my house to talk about?”

He couldn’t look away from her eyes. There was pain there. And it wasn’t just because she was dealing with her son in surgery. It was from him, too.

“We can’t keep this going,” he said. He hated what he was doing. The timing couldn’t be worse. But he couldn’t go through something like this and let her think they would be together.

Chelsea laughed a humourless laugh, looked away. Her eyes landed on the screen, then came back to his. “You came to tell me you’re walking away. I could puke over this déjà vu.”

All the air in Adam’s lungs disappeared as if she’d punched him in the gut. “What?”

She slumped over slightly in her chair. “Same old story. I fall in love. He walks away. Is it me? Is there something wrong with me? Or just my horrible taste in men?”

“If you’re implying that I’m like Jasper . . .”

Her eyes jerked up to meet his. “You’reexactlylike Jasper. Hit a speed bump, and you bail. And no matter what I say or do, or how deeply I feel, I can’t convince you to try with me.”

Adam stared at her, disbelieving she could draw a similarity between him and that little fuckwad. “You’re completely wrong. I refuse to abandon you. That’s why I won’t be with you.”

Chelsea shook her head. She opened her mouth to say something, then snapped it closed. Finally, she said, “I won’t beg you to change your mind like I did with him. And I shouldn’t have to.” She glanced at the screen and stood.

He couldn’t understand how she wasn’t seeing that this was best for her and Ben. She could move on and find someone to actually build a life with. They weren’t even together, really. They were just friends.

When he looked up, she was gone. He glanced at the screen and saw Ben was out of surgery, so he hopped up and followed Chelsea to the doors. He’d almost caught up to her when the surgeon came through the doors.

“How is he?” Chelsea asked.

“Perfect. Everything went great. They’re just waking him up now.”

Chelsea pressed her palm to her heart. “Can I see him?”

“Yes, right this way,” she said, turning.

Adam followed until they made it to the door, and Chelsea finally realized he was there. She stopped up short and turned, staring silently at him.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m still your friend, Chelsea. I’m here if you need me.”

“Adam, we’renotfriends. We never were friends. We’re awkward acquaintances. And Ben and I don’tneedyou. We wanted you. But that’s over now.”

Adam’s head dropped as she disappeared through the doors.

He wanted to see Ben. Wanted to make sure Chelsea was going to be fine. She needed someone there to listen to the instructions from the surgeon so she didn’t miss any information. Maybe she’d need someone to pick up medicine, or groceries, or something.

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