Page 84 of Man Vs. Woman
Serena
“Serena…”
“I don’t want to hear it.”
Folding my arms over my chest, I stare Colt down. Sure, he made his grand entrance and kicked Hiram’s ass, but what does it matter? He might not have been collaborating with that conniving bastard, but that doesn’t change the fact that he betrayed me.
“Don’t you see? I did it for us,” he insists, reaching for me with one hand. Reacting instinctively, I take one step back. If I allowed him to touch, there’s no way I’d be able to resist him.
“Stop with the lies, will you?”
“Lies? Serena, I was only meeting with Hiram so that I could figure out exactly what he was about...and I did. I kicked him out of the fucking picture, can’t you see? The path is clear for us. And about that picture with the girl -”
“Colt, stop it!”
I can already feel the tears welling up in my eyes. Gritting my teeth, I do my best not to start crying in front of the man that broke my heart. He might have crushed every single notion of love I ever held, but I’ll be damned if I’ll break down in front of him.
“I don’t wanna hear it, I think I’ve already told you that, haven’t I?” I continue, trying to keep my voice steady. “You’re free to date whoever you want. You’re free to do whatever the hell you want to do. Just leave me alone.”
“You’re not listening to me,” he sighs, frustration showing in his tone. Unexplainably, he then opens up into a smile and takes a smile back. “Alright, if you won’t listen to me...maybe you’ll listen to someone else.” Stepping to the side, he points toward one of the rows of seats right behind us.
What the…?
Sitting there, and looking straight at me, is the woman I saw Colt with in the photograph. As she notices me staring me, she smiles and waves her hand at me, as if I was her friend. My jaw drops a little, and I fight back the tears as I struggle against the urge to simply run out of the room and jump inside the deepest hole I can find.
Why the hell did Colt bring her? To make me look like a damn fool, and to humiliate me even more? Isn’t it enough that he took away my heart? Why does he want to destroy my dignity as well?
That’s when I see it.
There’s something glinting in her finger as she waves her hand at me. Something golden...something that looks suspiciously like a wedding ring.
“She’s married, Serena,” Colt says, gently placing his hand on my lower back.
That’s when I realize that she’s holding hands with the woman sitting to her right.
She’s...gay?
I do a double take, blinking as I try to put all the pieces together.
“Her name’s Anna,” Colt whispers into my ear, “and that’s Susan, her wife.”
Holy shit.
I read this all wrong.
“Colt...I’m so, so -”
“Save it,” he grins, lacing my waist with his arm. Before I can say a word more, he pulls me into him and kisses my lips. I close my eyes, allowing the taste of his lips to overpower him.
My God, I’ve missed him so much.
“Okay, okay!” The vice-president clears his throat from the dais, rapping his knuckles against the table. “I know this has been a long evening and all that, but there’s still some business we need to attend to.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t trust you,” I whisper at him, ignoring the vice-president and biting my lips as I say it. How could I have been such an idiot? I should’ve trusted Colt. Still, the vice-president is right: this isn’t over yet. “What do we do now? We still have to fight for the retail space...one of us will lose.”
“I got this, baby.”
His smile never leaves his lips as he leans in and kisses me on the cheek.
