She put her napkin on the table and her cheeks were pink and gaze warmer than what I’d just seen when she said, “No. Of course not, but I should be telling you the same thing I told Richard. You need to leave me alone.”
The air wasn’t going into my lungs. I’d never lost anyone or anything before. “I never cheated on you.”
She wiped her eyes and kept her voice down, but she said, “No, but you didn’t trust me, and you lied to me.”
She stood up and collected her purse when I said, “So what we shared doesn’t matter to you?”
She stopped and cupped my face. For a second, it was like we were alone when she said, “I wish it didn’t. I wish I didn’t love you, but I do. And yet, that doesn’t matter. Because the truth is…I’m not good enough for you. And nothing I ever do will prove to you that I am. So thank you for the dinner, but I have to go.”
She loved me? My chest was hollow, but my heart yelled that I was a damn fool. I jumped up and said, “Stephanie, wait.”
“Goodbye,” she said, and ran out of the restaurant.
I signed the bill and left right after her. If I lost the one good woman I ever found, then I didn’t deserve any of the blessings in my life.
I needed to apologize.