Page 56 of My Infatuation with Isabella

“Fran, shit...she got the worst of it...and she didn’t deserve that at all.” He sneers, looking disappointed with himself. “I was on autopilot, just going through the motions. We stopped touching. We stopped kissing. We stopped...talking. And she tried. Fuck, she tried, but mentally, physically, emotionally...I. Tapped. Out. I was a walking zombie. That went on for a long time. I was numb to the world, just dead inside...until one Christmas eve...” He looks over at me then. “...when I was doin’ a catering gig at the Royale...and you walked back into my life.”

“Wow,” I say, coating the word in sarcasm. I feel bad for what he was going through. Really, I do. I’m sitting here, hearing the pain in his voice, and my heart is breaking for him, but I’m not about to let him use that as an excuse for having sex with me, then lying to Fran about it. “I was like a ray of happiness in your otherwise dreary existence.”

“No, no, don’t twist what I’m saying,” he fires back. “Your crazy ass doesnotbring me happiness. Frustration. Anger. Annoyance. Those are the feelings you invoke. Happiness is right at the bottom of the list. All I’m saying is that I’m not numb anymore. You sorted out that problem for meveryquickly.”

He keeps a straight face and says it in his usual robotic tone, so I know he meant that as a joke, but I’m not going to allow him to make light of the situation, either.

“Either way, it still sounds like you’re trying to romanticize that...event. We both know what happened, De Lorenzo. It was a cheap thrill for you, a short-term escape from this depression you were going through. Stop trying to make that night more than what it was.”

“No, you stop trying to make itlessthan what it was. You keep trying to cheapen it to some hookup when it was so much more than that. But for you to believe me goes against the screwed-up narrative you’ve got running in your head.”

Is this guy for real? It was a hook-up. There’s no other way to describe it. “It’s not screwed-up. It’s true!”

“True?” He gapes at me, shocked by my statement. “You said last week that I had sex with you to getrevenge. Nothing could be further from the truth. You’re hurt, and that’s somehow distorting everything that happened that night.”

Dr. Burkman steps in then. “Isabella, why don’t you explain what happened on Christmas eve just so we can see where this disconnect is coming from.”

“Okay.” I nod and take a deep breath to steady myself. “Where do I begin...”

10. Isabella

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