Page 16 of Single Mom's Secret Diary
I want that back.
Her hand meets my chest when I get too close, and she slips around me, further into the office.
Avery’s frustration is palpable because I can feel that she still wants me, even if she doesn’t want to want me. And I’ll only get the answers I want if I prod her.
“Why do I feel like you’re always running from me?” I turn against the door, blocking her only way out.
“Why do I feel like you’re always being dishonest with me?” She turns, her long hair taking flight and her hands planting on her hips.
I stalk toward her, trapping her against the back of my desk. I didn’t lie to her once. It was easy not to with the way she shaped our conversations.
“What are you talking about?” The intensity from the past melding with the present pings between us.
“Why am I even here right now?” It’s a hedge. This moment is not what she’s talking about.
“That’s not what you meant.”
She shakes her head, staring at my chest instead of meeting my gaze.
“Avery.” I take a deep breath. “Tell me what you’re referring to.”
Because I need to know. I can’t fix what I don’t know I’ve broken.
Finally, that ice queen she’s been this week melts into the fiery Italian I remember. Her hazel eyes are blazing with anger. Her mouth twists cruelly.
“Does your wife know you get so close with your female employees?”
The question jars me like a punch on the chin. “I don’t have a wife.”
No one’s made me feel even close to what Avery stirs in me.
She rolls her eyes. “Girlfriend, then.”
Dread spreads through my chest, a sinking weight that deflates my pride. “No girlfriend, either.”
“I don’t believe you.”
If I didn’t have her trapped between my arms and my desk, she’d have bolted by now. “Why not?”
Her nostrils flare. “Because you lied about it ten years ago. You had a girlfriend when we were together during Spring Break. I saw her text.”
This blow lands in my diaphragm, sending a gust of air between my lips. I remember that text. The one I woke up to instead of Avery.
I’d been ignoring Maddison’s calls and texts the entire week. Not the mature way to deal with my situation, but Ididplan to deal with it regardless of whether Avery was serious about me or not. That text had been more than suggestive, as was Maddison’s response when I told her we were over.
She thought throwing sex at me was going to change things. But it couldn’t.
“That’s why you left without saying goodbye.” She didn’t even wake me up to fight with me about it. To call me out on it. To tell me I’m an asshole.
“Yes.” Such a simple response. It took one text for her to totally give up on me.
Was I not worth the energy? Did she simply want to hurt me more? I search for the answer in her eyes, but I can’t read much beyond the anger.
I take a deep breath, working hard to keep my calm when my body won’t stop buzzing. “I was going to break it off when I got home. I didn’t want to do it over the phone.”
Her sneer only makes me want to kiss her. “So you just cheated on her instead.”
Yeah. Not my smartest move. But at the time, I thought I was being mature. “I was stupid. I thought I was doing the right thing. The moment I felt that spark with you, I knew that relationship stood no chance. I’d only been seeing her for a few months. And I was twenty.”
