What did I ever see in him? He used to seem tall and dashing, smart and charming. He had a way of talking that made the clothes fly off me. But he never took me out anywhere, maybe to a café across town once in a while, never to a local restaurant. It wasn’t until I confronted him about it that the truth came out: Jeremy didn’t want to be seen with me, and that’s why he never introduced me to any of his friends.
And then he dumped me. Today, he just looks… bland, tepid, tasteless.
He’s nothing compared to Alex, Max, or Vincent.
“You didn’t lose me,” I remind Jeremy. “You threw me away, and I was a fool for letting you treat me the way you did. But I’ve learned my lesson.”
“I’ve learned mine, too?—
I don’t even let him finish. “It sure doesn’t look like it. You’re still trying to gaslight me like I was born yesterday.”
Jeremy takes another step toward me, and I raise my hands to stop him. He shakes his head, increasingly more disappointed by my rejection, but I doubt he feels even a small fraction of what he made me feel.
“I’m trying to make it up to you,” he says. “First, I need to apologize, and you need to listen. It’s the decent thing to do.”
“I need to listen to you?” I laugh. “That’s fucking rich. I don’t need to do anything, Jeremy. And I certainly don’t owe you a damn thing. You ended it. It’s over. I’ve moved on; so should you.”
“I heard you’re working with Alex Forbes,” he says. There’s a tremor in his voice that wasn’t there before. If I didn’t know any better, I’d call it desperation.
“Let me guess. You overheard Vivian talking about that, too?”
He smiles broadly. “I was sitting at a table behind her. I couldn’t help it. For days now, I’ve been wracking my brain, trying to find the right way to come to you, to talk to you, to try and make things right. I was a fool, Raina, I’m the first to admit it. I was selfish and superficial.”
“You were a dick.”
“Absolutely.” He lets a dry chuckle out from the back of his throat. He doesn’t really believe it, though. I can see right through his lies. “Listen, Raina, I heard Alex Forbes and his partners are opening a new restaurant in town. You’re going to work there, right?”
“Maybe. But it’s none of your business.”
“You’re right, it’s not. I was just surprised at how fast their venture is growing. They have a few huge projects already, insanely successful and profitable. I think Keller & Partners are representing them, if I’m not mistaken.”
“So?” I cross my arms, curious.
“It’s just a shame, seeing that Keller is notorious for overcharging his clients,” Jeremy replies with a casual shrug. “But anyway, that’s irrelevant. I was just thinking, if you want, I could totally write you a letter of recommendation for Alex Forbes for your future employment. I’ll even use my law firm’s official letterhead to make it stand out, to make sure you get?—”
“Get the job?” I reply with a raised eyebrow. “You would do that?”
“Call it my way of making it up to you.”
“That is so nice of you, Jeremy.” I take a moment while he settles into a smidge of confidence that he might actually get away with this nonsense before I clip his wings.
But with a flat smile on my face, I’m ready for the next part.
“So let me see if I’ve got this straight. You dumped me, humiliated me, you lied to my former boss and got me fired from one of the most prestigious restaurants in Portland, then you blocked me everywhere, and now, you accost me outside my apartment building, asking for my forgiveness and even so generously offering to write me a letter of recommendation to make sure I get a new job?”
“Maybe you’re oversimplifying things just a bit.”
“I have no trouble finding a good job for myself, thank you very much. I got by long before you came along and almost screwed everything up. I will get by long after you’re gone,” I say, reveling in the speed with which his confidence is now waning.
“Raina—”
“You are to keep your distance from me and from my bosses, Jeremy. Do not call, text, or write any letter unless you want me to file harassment charges against you. You may be a lawyer, and a slick one at that, but you forget that my best friend is also a lawyer, and she’d love nothing more than to crush you in front of a judge for what you did to me.”
“Hold on, I?—”
“No! Get the hell away from me, Jeremy. We’re done. We’ve been done for a long time,” I say and wave him away. “I’m going to go inside and grab a few things. You’d better be gone by the time I come back out, or I swear, I’m calling the cops.”
Jeremy’s shoulders drop in defeat, yet his eyes shimmer with the most vivid antipathy I’ve ever seen. “That’s a tad extreme, Raina.”
