Page 22 of Remember When We
“Eventually.”
My chest tightened. “What does that mean? When are you coming back?” I was afraid of the answer that I saw in his eyes.
He shuffled around to face me and held my gaze. “I’m not. I’m not coming back. I’m selling the house and I’m not coming back.”
I shook my head in complete disbelief. “What do you mean? What about us? What about … me?”
“No …”
I think I preferred it when he wasn’t looking at me, because his stare boring into me now was unbearable.
“No?”
“Lyssa, there is no us. No us. We’re done.”
“Gio, what are you saying to me? How can you say that?” How could he say it just like that?
“Lyssa, look, we were just a thing. A thing I shouldn’t have encouraged. I’m older than you and I should have known better.”
“That’s bull shit, we’ve never cared about age before. It was never a factor.”
“Stop it.” He snapped and bared his teeth like a wild animal waiting to lunge at its prey. “Fucking stop it and listen to me. We’re done. I’m leaving. You need to wake up and see reality. I can’t be with you.”
A lump formed in my throat. It lodged there and I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t breathe and I couldn’t think straight other than to speak my heart. Speak the words that were always in my heart when I looked at him.
“I love you.” The words fell from my lips. “I love you, Gio.”
He just looked at me, he just … stared like I had spoken some foreign language he didn’t understand.
“No. You are little more than a child and you don’t know what you’re saying.” He furrowed his thick brows and the dimple in his left cheek I usually found sexy became visible when he smirked.
My blood heated up at his words like he’d just slapped me in my face.
Child.
“If you thought I was little more than a child why did you come to the lake house?” I retorted. “Why would you do that? Why? Why didn’t you just leave me alone?”
I may have been the child he was calling me, but I thought you could look at someone and know when they loved you. It was how I felt when I was with him. Not just the last two years when we got intimate, but always.
“You misunderstood, or maybe … maybe I just liked sleeping with you too much.” He paused and something dark flashed in his eyes. A cold look in his brown eyes that I’d never seen before. “You have no experience with men, if you think me coming to the fucking house meant anything.”
It was like the rug of reality pulled out from under my feet and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
He was right though I didn’t have any experience with men, because he was my first; my only. He was the first man to touch me, the first and only man I’d ever been with. So, this was on me and it was like I was talking to a stranger who I had mistakenly thought I knew.
Desperation took over, because this was the last thing to break me. It was the very last straw that would break me. Crushing my soul and destroy all that I was.
“Gio, how can you talk to me like this? I wouldn’t have the experience you’re talking about, because I wanted you. I just wanted you. Only you, because I love you.” That was the third time I’d told him that and he didn’t return the sentiment.
Instead he shook his head again. “I don’t love you Lyssa. I’m not that guy, I’m not that guy who ties himself down to one woman and you should have known not to expect anything from me. You know what I’m like.”
I brought my hand up to my mouth to stop from crying. It was all I could do during this whole time, just cry.
“You wanted to take me to Chicago, you wanted to go back to Browns with me.”
“Baby doll, I said that while we were in bed. I said what you wanted to hear. Lyssa please, we’re all going through a bad enough time as it is. Don’t make it worse.”
The way he was talking, the things he said … I just couldn’t believe it.
