Page 73 of City of Sin (Men of Manhattan 1)

Loved. Past tense. "You should probably get back to your girlfriend. Or are you just talking to me because you're hoping you can cheat on her too?"

Patrick laughed. "I just wanted to see how you were doing."

"I'm good. No, I'm great. I've never been happier." I was having trouble holding back my tears now. I blinked faster.

"I'm glad that you're happy."

"Are you?"

"Of course I am. I still care about you."

Fuck you! "If you cared about me, you wouldn't have betrayed me."

"I didn't betray you. I made a mistake."

"A mistake is something you make once, Patrick. It's not something you make dozens of times."

"I told you I was sorry. I don't understand why you won't forgive me."

&

nbsp; "Because I loved you. Your betrayal hurt so much because I loved you so much."

"I know. But I'm not doing that anymore. I just don't understand why you wouldn't give me a second chance."

"Because it was more than one time. You had a million chances to tell me the truth. We were engaged, Patrick. If I hadn't found out, you would still be doing it. And we'd be married."

"That's not..." He sighed. "I would have stopped. I have stopped."

"That's great. I'm happy for you and your new girlfriend. Hopefully that'll work out better for you."

He ran his hand through his hair. "We're not even serious. It's not like she's you."

"Well, sorry." I hated him. I hated him for saying he missed me and pretending he cared about how I was doing.

"I miss you," he said again. "I miss what we had."

I wiped underneath my eye where a tear had finally escaped. "What we had wasn't real."

"That's not true. You know that's not true."

"You really should get back to your girlfriend."

"Let's get out of here," he said, ignoring my comment. "Maybe we can walk through Central Park and talk? I know how much you love that."

I wanted to slap him. He never offered to go to Central Park with me when we were actually together. "No. I told you, I'm here with someone. We've already talked about all of this. It is what it is. We don't have anything else to talk about."

"I think we do. You don't seem fine, Bee. And I'm not fine either. You're all that I think about. You're my other half."

"Give me a break. You're so full of shit."

He grabbed my wrist. "Let's just go somewhere quiet to talk. You can see my new place..."

"You have a girlfriend. What is wrong with you?" I pulled my wrist out of his grip.

"Fine, I'll go break up with her first. Would that make you feel better?"

"No. It would make me feel better if you stopped talking to me. I don't want to be having this conversation. I don't want anything to do with you."

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