Page 85 of Hearts on the Table
“Not when you go behind my back like this. I’ve done this once before, Sam. Losing my relationship, all my friends, my job? I’m not doing it again.”
“Lainey, you can’t leave—”
“That’s the only thing Icando.”
“I’m in love with you!” I blurted the words, pain and panic sending my brain into a fever pitch. Her chin quivered. Then she turned on her heel and left without another word.
???
Was four-thirty in the morning too early to call a woman after you broke her heart? Probably. Still, I stared at the screen of my phone, knee jiggling.
Five was possibly more acceptable. Lainey was an early riser. I watched another minute go by.
I’d stood frozen in my living room long after she left. She hadn’t even slammed the door. All I’d had to mark the moment she walked out of my life was a jumbled pile of papers and the memory of her disappointed face.
But she couldn’t just leave like that. It was one fight. We could fix this. She just needed some time to cool off.
At least, that’s what I told myself last night, laying in bed, clutching my phone as sleep eluded me. Now, I wasn’t so sure. For the hundredth time, I replayed the best hits from her tirade.
“Once again, my life is falling to pieces all because I picked the wrong guy.”
“I didn’t want this. I knew better.”
“It’s too late.”
Four-thirty-five wasn’t too early, was it?
“What’s wrong?” Tiago yanked on the door handle, impatiently gesturing for me to unlock it. The door jerked open. “Is it Jas and the baby?”
“No.” I pulled myself out of the car, feeling sore. My headache hadn’t fully dissipated. My limbs were dead weight.
“Your mom? Will?”
“Everyone’s fine, T.”
“Well, what the fuck, Sammy? There’s a reason you’re sitting in front of the store at four a.m. looking like someone died. You’d better spit it out.”
“Lainey left.”
Jordan wrapped his arm around Tiago’s waist, thumb stroking his side. They shared a glance more intimate than any caress. I looked away.
“Come in,Amor. I’ll make you a cup.”
Parking my ass between R3and Molido before the sun came up had been a strategic move. Lainey liked to work out the morning after a bad day, and Tiago was one of the best listeners I knew. I figured one of them would eventually show up and put me out of my misery.
While Jordan prepped the ovens and pulled out rack after rack of dough from the walk-in, Tiago cranked up the espresso machine. I helped him flip chairs off the tables and told him the whole story.
“It didn’t occur to you to talk with her before you reported her?” His hands planted on his hips while he watched me.
“I didn’t reporther, I reported us.”
He’d only turned on the bronze star lanterns clustered on the ceiling. I let the dim glow and increasingly powerful scent of coffee ease some of the tightness in my skull.
“I’m not sure there’s much of a difference when you do it behind her back.” Tiago clicked his tongue, not bothering to help me with the rest of the chairs.
“I didn’t…” I rubbed gritty eyes, sagging to a seat. “It wasn’t behind her back.”
He rubbed my neck as he placed a Cubano and biscotti in front of me. “I know you were doing what you thought was best,Hermano, but consider this from her point of view.”
