“No. You don’t get to tell me to calm down.” I slapped the contract on his desk. “None of this matters anyway. You purposely interfered with my marriage, and you did it behind my back. Bill and I are trying to make it work, and I want you to stay far away from us.” I paused as my breath caught in my throat. For a fleeting moment, I saw myself outside my body. My reaction ran deeper than David’s betrayal. I understood that. I understood that I could only leave here one of two ways. With David, or without him. And committing myself to someone as unpredictable as David was, hands down, scarier than anything I’d ever done. “Thank you for making this easy.”
“Olivia, stop,” he said as I started across the office. “I didn’t do this to ruin your marriage. If we could have a civilized conversation, I’ll explain—”
I whirled around. “Go ahead. Explain. Tell my why you made the offer. Why you fucked me against a tree where you knew Bill could find us, then cast me aside like I was trash. And if I hadn’t felt like enough of a whore, you tried to make it better by pledging fifty grand in front of a crowd.”
“I did it anonymously,” he said. “To show my support for something that means a lot to you.”
“You did it out of guilt,” I accused.
He gestured to a leather club chair. “Sit, and tell me how it made you feel. I’ll listen. And I’ll explain whatever you want me to. But I’m not having a screaming match with you. So sit.”
“No.”
“I have no excuse for buying the house, but after everything I’ve put up with, every goddamn way I’ve cut myself open for you, I deserve the chance to explain.” We stared at each other, electricity charging the space between us. If I didn’t run out now, one of us would tear across the room and an explosion would ensue. But what kind? Would we fight, get physical, give in to another angry fuck? I didn’t know. That was the problem. I didn’t know anything about the kind of life David could offer me except for these explosions.
David pointed at the chair again. “I said sit the fuck down.”
I could see that with everything in him, David expected me to obey. That was because he was a charmer, and he was used to getting everything he wanted. If I sat, he’d rationalize all of this away. Maybe he’d even find a way to make it sound romantic. And I’d fall back into him, and be right back where I was when I’d walked in here. Torn between two men—no, between twolives. I had an out. I felt genuinely betrayed that David would do this, and it might be my only chance to escape this. “We’re done,” I said with as much venom as I could muster. “This time I mean it.”
“So do I.” He pointed behind me. “Walk out that door, and that’s it. I’m not coming after you anymore. I will explain everything. I willgiveyou everything. But I’m no fool. I willnotchase you anymore.”
At last, it was a decision. An ending. Maybe not the one I wanted, and maybe not the right one—I would never know. But at least it was finally over. I turned, whipped open the door, and slammed it behind me.
Clare looked at me with huge eyes and started throwing her things into a cardboard box faster.
Alone in the elevator, I ordered myself to curb the tears. This was for the best. I’d just gotten a glimpse into what life with David would be like, and it was too risky for me.
Do not cry.It’s not worth it.
But I couldn’t command myself the way David could. It didn’t work that way. By the time the elevator hit the ground floor, big, dense tears leaked from my eyes. I was drowning quickly, and there was only one person I could call.
Once I’d hit the sidewalk out front of Pierson/Greer, I took out my phone with shaky hands and scrolled my contacts until Gretchen’s name appeared. I needed someone now. Someone who wouldn’t judge or condemn my actions, who wouldn’t push or manipulate me into things I didn’t want.
“Hey, girl,” Gretchen’s cheery voice came through the speaker. “What’s up?”
“I . . .” I said through a clogged throat. I held the cellphone away from my cheek for a moment, waiting out the urge to sob. “I’m upset, and I need to talk.”
After a moment of silence, surprise laced Gretchen’s response, which also verged on excited. “Really? Okay, yes. Let’s talk. Right now?”
I nodded. “Can I come over?”
“I’ll leave work now and meet you at my place.”
I wondered if she’d still have ice cream and wine from when Lucy and I had been there. We were going to need both.
When I arrived at her apartment, I only had to knock once before she whipped open the door. It was so comforting to see her that I lunged into her arms and hugged her tightly.
“Holy shit,” she said, peeling me off by my shoulders. “What is it?”
I swallowed. “David Dylan.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh my God.”
“Yeah.”
She checked the hallway as if I were an undercover spy who might’ve been tailed. “Come in,” she said, pulling me through the door, taking my purse, and setting it on her entryway table. As she coaxed me to the couch, she said, “Tell me everything.”
I started at the beginning. I told her about the first night at David’s apartment—how I’d lied about going home sick from the Meet and Greet at Gryphon Hotel, and the months of rock-bottom despair that had followed. I clawed at an innocent decorative pillow when I relayed how being with David in his hotel room with the pool had changed everything. Our connection had solidified and powered through me like a tornado. My feelings were strong and deep-rooted, I admitted, and I didn’t know how to handle them. Everything was out of control. I hung my head as I confessed how David and I had had sex against a tree at the masquerade ball, and how he’d been so upset afterward, he wouldn’t even look at me.
