“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” He stepped in front of me as if I might make a break for it. “What’s going on?”
I crossed my arms into myself. “I shouldn’t have come here. I thought I could do this, but I can’t.”
“Olivia,” he said softly, but with authority. “Say what you came here to say.” The hopefulness in his voice pulled at my heart. Did he think I’d come here to choose him? “Don’t shut me out. Tell me why you’re here.”
I wanted to tell him that Bill knew everything and that David and I could never see each other again. I wanted to say that he’d hurt me on Saturday night. That I felt used and disgusting. I wanted to tell him that since I’d met him, life meant something different.
My stomach heaved. “I don’t think I can do this right now.” I ran the back of my hand over my clammy forehead. Nausea struck my gut. “Everything is going to be fine,” I told myself.
“Fine?” he repeated, his voice rising. “You’re going to pull that shit with me?”
I blinked at him for a long moment. My knees may as well have been knocking together.
Oh, God, this is it. This is it.
“You don’t look well. Do you need—”
“He knows!” I cried.
“What?”
“He . . . knows.” I wrung my fingers. “It’s over. This,” I clarified, motioning between us, “is so over.”
“You told him?”
“I don’t want to lose you,” I said, sniffling back tears. My breaths were short and shallow as I continued. “But that doesn’t matter. I—can’t—dothis anymore.”
“No. You’re right.” He shook his head. “If Saturday night proved anything, it’s that this needed to end.”
His unexpected words pierced through my heart like small knives. I didn’t want him towantthings to end this way. But he was right.
Noticing my shudder, his tone softened. “I only meant that we couldn’t keep going like this,” he explained.
I nodded. “Like I said, it doesn’t matter anyway.” I glanced out the windowed wall behind him. “I don’t know why I came here. But I thought you had a right to know that Bill knows. I didn’t tell him it was you, but if I do, I can’t promise he won’t tell others. Your reputation—”
“I don’t give a fuck about my reputation. Look at me, Olivia.” When I turned to him, his eyebrows drew together. “You look scared shitless. Did he hurt you?”
“Bill would never,” I said.
“You should’ve come to me first. I would’ve done it with you so he could take it out on me. Tell me what happened.”
“There’s nothing to tell yet. I told him right before he left for work.”
“He went to work?” he asked, incredulous.
“He said we’d discuss it tonight.”
David rubbed his hand over his forehead, muttering something about Bill being a fool. “Fuck. He might ask for a divorce. Is that what you want?”
“His family is strictly against it, as is he. He won’t.”
“But what doyouwant, Olivia?”
“I don’t know,” I said with blurry eyes. “I came here to tell you that you and I are done.”
After a brief silence, he asked, “Don’t you want to know what I want?”
“No,” I lied.
