Page 2 of A Roommate for Christmas
Cheated?Girlfriend?Paige felt like she was falling from an airplane, tumbling toward earth with nothing to catch her.
“What the hell is happening?”She didn’t realize she had said the words out loud and that her legs had moved her forward into the room until she was standing face-to-face with a pale-faced Chance.
He looked like a deer caught in the headlights, and Paige immediately knew that whatever she heard next wouldn’t be good.
“I’ll leave you guys to it,” Trey said awkwardly before backing away and out of sight.
Paige’s hands were shaking enough to send some of the wine from her full glass over the edge.
“Paige, I—”
“What is going on, Chance?”she demanded.“That sounded super sketchy.Please tell me it isn’t about what I think it is.”
“Fuck,” he groaned, rubbing his hands down his face.In their three years of dating, she had only seen him in a state like this once when his brand-new car had been rear-ended after a Cubs game.
“I slept with Diana.”
Paige stared at him blankly, sure that she must have heard him incorrectly.
“You ...slept with ...Diana?Diana, the new employee on the finance team?Diana, the pretty twenty-two-year-old blonde who always has her oxford shirts unbuttoned just one button too low, Diana?Diana, the—”
“Yes, for Christ’s sake.Yes, that Diana,” he admitted in a near whisper.“Paige, I’m so sorry.I didn’t mean for it to happen.We were both at the office working late one night and got to talking, and one thing led to another and ...well, you know.”
Paige felt like she had gotten slapped in the face.Surely this is all a dream, she thought.Surely my boyfriend is not actually admitting to cheating on me with a twenty-two-year-old.
Paige took a step backward, and her eyes were suddenly glued to the toes of Chance's dress shoes.“I can’t believe this is happening.”
“You have to believe me, Paige.I feel terrible.It was a one-time thing.I’m begging you to forgive me,” he pleaded.Paige reluctantly raised her gaze to find that Chance’s face was as white as a ghost and he looked like he was about to puke.His eyes were wide with fear.
She didn’t have it in her to feel sorry for him.
“Are you freaking kidding me?”Paige snapped."Chance, you can’t cheat on your girlfriend of three years and expect her to just forgive and forget on a dime.”
Her world was collapsing in on her.Just ten minutes ago, she was staring out over the cityscape and the worst thing she could imagine was getting stuck talking to Gerry about lizards.Now she was staring at the man she thought she would marry with the knowledge that he had betrayed her.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to trust you again.”
She took a few more steps away from the man she barely recognized anymore, her vision blurring as tears welled in her eyes.
“Paige, please.”Chance took a step toward her, but she batted away his arm and left the room, heading past the ice sculpture to the elevator, trying to remain undetected in the sea of her colleagues.Right before she reached the elevator, she stopped and turned around.Chance stood at the opposite end of the room, looking worse by the minute.But instead of closing the gap between them, she angrily snatched a goodie bag off the nearby table and pivoted back to the open elevator.
She didn’t have the end of her relationship on her bingo card for the year, especially not right before Christmas.She was meant to be driving to Chance’s family house in Wisconsin in a week to spend the holiday week with them.Instead, she had tears falling on her phone screen while she sat in the back of a cab and looked up last-minute flights to visit her family in San Diego.
Twenty minutes later she was unlocking the door to her apartment and falling into the arms of Nadia, who she had texted on the elevator ride down at LondonHouse.Nadia already had a bottle of wine with two glasses sitting on the coffee table and a Lindsay Lohan Christmas movie queued up as she led Paige toward the couch.
“So, should we slash Chance’s tires first, or build up to that?”The expression on Nadia’s face was both serious as shit and sympathetic as she lifted a wine glass in Paige’s direction.Through her tears, she managed a smile and an eye roll.
“No need for violence.”Paige sighed, plopping down next to Nadia.Instead of taking the glass from her hand, she reached for the full bottle on the table and settled into the couch.
Nadia slung her arm over Paige’s shoulders and pulled her into a tight squeeze.“Good thing I brought two bottles.”
Chapter 1
Eleven months later ...
This is certainly not what the movies prepared me for, Paige thought as she leaned back in her office chair.She swiveled around and watched her gray cubicle blur around her.
Paige grew up watching movies likeHow to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, where the female lead character got to work on marketing and advertising campaigns for a diamond company.She saw big boardrooms with floor-to-ceiling glass windows and corner offices with incredible views.
