He raised an eyebrow, clearly puzzled. “Convenient? Come again?”
“Yes, convenient,” I repeated, forcing a smile that I hoped didn’t look as strained as it felt. “Because, funny story, I was actually coming here to tell you that I’ve met someone too. And now that you’re with Sparky, I guess I can finally be with him.” I gave a slight shrug, like this was all perfectly casual. “So… I’m breaking up with you.”
The words tumbled out. And as soon as I said them, a little pang of guilt twisted in my stomach.Ugh.I wasn’t a liar. I wasn’t the kind of person who cheated or played games or blurted out fake boyfriends just to save face. But standing there, still reeling from his elevator love story, I couldn’t stop myself.
Alex squinted at me, clearly unconvinced. His brows lifted, skeptical and just a little smug. “You... met someone?”
And just like that, the guilt vanished. Poof. Replaced with pure anger.
Not that I would ever cheat on anyone,ever, but the way he looked at me, like I couldn’t possibly have someone else interested in me?
No. Absolutely not.
Alex blinked, and for a split second, I thought I’d thrown him off balance. But then he looked at me with pity. “Right… Kathleen,” he said, his tone as patronizing as a preschool teacher’s explaining why we don’t eat glue. He took my arm and walked me back into the hallway. “So, you’ll be leaving now, then?”
“Of course,” I replied, nodding enthusiastically. “I’ve got plans to see my new boyfriend.”
“You do that,” Alex said, with a look drenched in pity. “Your ‘boyfriend,’” he added, complete with air quotes, like I was a mental patient who’d just invented an imaginary friend.Oh, wait.
Great, I thought,now I’m the crazy lady who invented a boyfriend on the spot.
I needed to get away from Alex, fast. When his back was turned, I dashed into what looked like another empty patient room. I leaned against the door, mentally kicking myself for thinking I could bluff my way through that disaster.
The room was dimly lit, casting long shadows across the walls. I quickly glanced around, and the room appeared to be deserted, but then I heard a noise. Something like the clacking of keys on a laptop. My heart skipped a beat as I peeked around the curtain.
Sitting in the hospital bed, typing furiously on a laptop, was none other than Mr. Workaholic from the airport. He looked just as grumpy as before, his brow furrowed in concentration.
I froze, my mind going blank with shock. Of all the people to run into here, why him? I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks as I scrambled to come up with a way to back out of the room without being noticed.Just slip out quietly, no big deal.
I took one slow, careful step backward—right into a metal tray stand. The clattering noise echoed through the room like a symphony of disaster. The tray skidded across the floor, clanging against the wall with a final, resounding bang.
Workaholic’s head snapped up, his eyes locking onto mine. For a split second, neither of us moved.
I gave a sheepish grin. “Hey,” I said, my voice a little too high-pitched. “Just, uh, passing through.”
“Passingthrough?” he repeated, raising an eyebrow. “You meancrashingthrough?”
A jolt of panic shot through me. I should’ve turned around and left, but the words tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop them. “Thanks to you, I got fired.” The moment the words left my lips, regret washed over me.Why did I say that?I never open up, never let anyone see what’s really going on. And now, I’ve just thrown it all out there like it’s no big deal.What’s wrong with me? “Everything is going wrong in my life today.”
Mr. Workaholic raised an eyebrow, unfazed. “Yeah, I could see that.”
His casual acknowledgment stung, and something inside me snapped. “Oh, really? And how exactly could you see that?”
He shrugged, barely sparing me a second glance as his attention drifted back to his laptop. “Well, considering the way we met... Let’s just say you didn’t exactly strike me as someone who has it all together.”
The casual way he said it, the way he barely even looked at me as he made that judgment, made my chest tighten with anger. It was like he had decided, from the very first moment, that I was some kind of disaster.
Maybe I was. But hearing it from him, in that cold, detached tone, made it feel so much worse. “Hey, mister, if you had stayed, I wouldn’t have been fired. Your liar of a limo driver said I ran into him.”
He sighed, not even glancing up from whatever he was working on, which was probably some critical spreadsheet that the world would end without. “It’s unfortunate, but that’s how the world works. You can’t expect everyone to be honest.”
The audacity of this man was unbelievable. Here I was, my life unraveling at the seams, and he had the nerve to sit there and lecture me like I was some incompetent child.
But of course, once I started, it was like the floodgates opened, and I couldn’t stop. The words just kept tumbling out, each one more dramatic than the last. “I lost my job and my house and found out my boyfriend was cheating on me all in the same day. So thanks for asking. I’m doing just great! Really, I should start writing self-help books.”
The heat of embarrassment crept up my neck. I never spill my guts to anyone, especially not to a jerk workaholic.
For a moment, just a split second, I thought I saw something soften in his eyes. But it was gone as quickly as it came, replaced by impenetrable coolness.
