“So, we don’t have to complicate this, right?” Caterina took a shaky step toward me and planted a kiss on my cheek. Memories of last night exploded in my head at the feel of her soft lips on my skin. My hand fell on the small of her back in the long minute it took her to pull away. Touching her felt too natural and too good, making that much more difficult to stop. “Friends?”
“Friends.” I nodded, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear before I pressed my lips to her cheek. The scent of vanilla mixed with maple syrup flooded my senses. She was sweet all over, and my mouth watered to taste her again.
“See you around, Caterina Rose.”
“Bad enough you won’t call me Cat like everyone else.” Her mouth twisted in a scowl, and my lips tingled to touch hers again. How could she be this beautiful and not have a single clue? “Using my middle name will make me drive one town over to eat, no matter how awesome your pancakes are.”
“I told you, I didn’t want to be like everyone else to you.”
She flinched at my admission before I backed away.
I really didn’t want to be just anyone else to her. It went against logic and everything I’d ever known to be true about myself, but she was already under my skin in a way no other woman ever had been.
And despite what she’d said, nothing about us felt finished.
8
Caterina
“I’ll be homein a week. That’s plenty of time for you to pack and get out.” I paced around my hotel room, my hand balling into a fist at my side. Our conversation had been going around in circles for what seemed like hours, and I almost wished I was close enough to Trent to wrap my hands around his neck.
True vacation, where I could relax and regroup from the demise of my relationship, couldn’t happen unless I knew Trent would be gone by the time I arrived back in Brooklyn. He hadn’t stopped me from walking out the door, but, in an odd and aggravating-as-hell twist of events, he refused to leave our apartment.
After spending the day chasing some kind of peace, the closest I’d come was nursing a light beer next to the pool and almost forgetting the mess that was my life for a few sweet moments. Talking to Trent brought it all back. As my breathing quickened, I finally understood what brought me all the way out here alone. He wasn’t even in the same room, and the rage and sour sting of betrayal suffocated me once again.
“When you get back, you’ll be in a better mood to straighten things out.” The nonchalance in his voice had me seeing red.
Blood roared in my veins, giving me a headache. How often did Trent dismiss me? And why had I stuck around? My faded memory of the charming man I’d met years ago had clouded my judgment of the jerk he was now, but the misfortune of coming home early brought me unwelcome, but undeniable clarity.
“There’s nothing to talk about or straighten out. You cheated. In our apartment. Where I could see. And you didn’t care. After what you did, there’s nothing to discuss. You have a week to pack your shit and get out.” As tough as I attempted to sound, my voice quaked with a flood of emotion. Fury topped the list for sure. What kind of a man gets a blow job in the apartment he shared with his girlfriend and doesn’t even say he’s sorry?
As much as I’d thought about it, it was hard to pinpoint exactly when we became nothing more than roommates, but I still reeled from Trent’s betrayal. No matter what we’d been or hadn’t been to each other in recent months, his lack of respect for me hurt.
“I’m surprised you even noticed. Your head is always buried in your laptop or your phone. You’re working when you aren’t evenatwork. Maybe it wasn’t my finest hour but—”
“Not your finest hour?” I screamed, wincing at the piercing pain caused by my own shrill voice. This had been his go-to since I’d caught him: I was a workaholic who neglected him and was to blame for it all.
“If you paid attention to me and the people around you once in a while, they’d stick around. I’m surprised you still have friends who invite you on vacation,” he huffed. More than anything, I wanted to be home to clock him and obliterate the smug smile I knew was spreading his lips.
“You’re right,” I said in a scratchy whisper.
“I’m right? You’re serious?”
“I must have been really distracted to not notice when you became a cold and heartless asshole. I’m not sure what’s worse, if you set out to hurt me, or if you just didn’t care that you did.”
“Look, Cat.” I almost heard a trace of contrition in his voice. “You have to admit, you’re distracted all the time. No one can get close to you. You made this job your focus and don’t see anyone else or anything around you. You can’t blame people for moving on.”
I took a sharp breath, willing back the angry tears. My friends hadn’t cast me aside, even though I canceled plans with them all the time. My family loved me—though, they tended to hover along with my mother, worrying I pushed myself too hard.
Trent was playing dirty and trying to get to me, and I loathed how easily it worked. Even worse, as much as I’d fought against it, guilt rolled in my gut for how Trent and I ended. I didn’t push his dick into that woman’s mouth, but had my constant absence given him justification that it was okay? It was a ridiculous thought, but it wouldn’t stop repeating in my head.
“No, I suppose you’re right. Luckily, my friends and family care about me too much to cast me aside and disrespect me like I’m trash. You, by all means, can move on. Out by the tenth, or I call the cops to remove you.”
I stabbed the red end button on my phone and threw it onto my hotel bed, trying to forget Trent’s ugly words. I had a small circle of friends and family. I figured that was life as you grew up and started a career. Was I really missing some kind of connection gene? I’d never considered it before, and now it was all I could think about.
Rather than stew in my room, I threw on a tank top and cutoffs and headed out. Maybe I could sit by the beach and get lost in the sunset before drowning my sorrows in the homemade ice cream shop I’d spotted next to the hotel. In my teenaged years, ice cream after a breakup was a must. But it wasn’t a broken heart I was nursing; it was a broken spirit.
I strode past the main office of the hotel, stopping when a colorful flyer caught my eye.
