Page 69 of Last Chance Seduction
Another jagged shard.This one larger.Emptier.
“What was a mistake?The fake girlfriend thing?Or everything?”
“What, no.I mean, it’s not that.I just, I’m so off and I shouldn’t have let you do this to me.I shouldn’t have let this happen.”
My eyes widened and I took a step back.“Me.Just me.”
“I should have just ignored,” he began as he paced, not listening to me.“I should have just joked with you and then gone to the event alone.Gia would’ve forgotten about it, and none of this would’ve happened.”
“I’m sorry.I thought I was helping.”
“Well you weren’t,” he snapped, and I blinked at him, wondering what the hell was happening.Because that wasn’t anger in his voice, no, it was hurt.
“I made a mistake,” I said.“But you went along with it.”
“Damn it, Mercy.I’m sorry.For all of this.But damn it.I shouldn’t have gone through with the whole thing.”He shook his head.“I need to fix this.Somehow.”
“Because it was all fake,” I said, hoping he would correct me.
Instead he just stood there, staring through me.Maybe he was thinking too hard, trying to come up with a plan, but he didn’t tell me that it was real.Didn’t say a single thing.And this time another piece of me shattered.
“You need to leave,” I whispered.“Just get out.”
He blinked as if coming out of a trance, confusion etched on his face.“What?Mercy.What?What did you say?”
“I need you to leave.”I would not cry.I would not break down.Maybe he was stressed out about more than one thing, and yes, I had been the one to blurt something stupid, but he wasn’t denying anything.“You said I did this.That it was my fault.That it was a lie.”
Something seemed to shift in him, and his eyes widened.“That’s not what I meant.”
“But that’s what you said.”
“Mercy—”
“No.This job was important to you, I understand that.”More important than me.“You should go.Fix that.What I fucked up.”
“Mercy.Please.I promise that’s not what I meant.”
“Just go.You clearly have a lot to think about, and I am to blame.So leave.And I’ll stay here.Because you need to deal with this.”I shook my head.“Alone.”
His face fell and I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to feel.But with just a few words he’d already hurt me.I didn’t want to chance that again.Not when this already hurt so much.
“I’m just…I just need to think.”
He reached out for me then, but didn’t move forward.Instead, I turned, opened the door, and stood there, not looking at him.
Because I had been wrong.So wrong.
And when he walked past me, his hands once again in his pockets, he didn’t say a damn word.So I locked the door behind him, turned on my alarm, and realized I hadn’t even told him that I had been threatened once again.
I guess it didn’t matter.He had already broken me.And I had let him.
I stood there for far too long, Mr.Darcy weaving through my legs, when my doorbell rang.Part of me hoped it was him.For him to apologize, for me to do the same, and yet, when I looked through the peephole and saw Brooklyn there, part of me shattered.
I opened the door and shook my head.“I don’t think I can be with a Montgomery right now,” I said, my voice shaky.
“Fine.I’m not a Montgomery right now.I’m your friend.And I have ice cream.”
“Brooklyn,” I whispered, but I couldn’t say another word.Instead I burst into tears, and my friend, one of the few friends I had let myself have in this new life of mine, closed the door behind her, and held me in her arms.
