“Fine. But don’t come crying to me when you fuck everything up.”
I ball my hands into fists at my side. “I can assure you, I won’t be coming to you for anything, ever again. Good bye.”
With another huff, he turns and storms out, almost colliding with Hayley on her way in. I stare after him, unable to believe what just happened. He thought we’dend up together? How he came to that conclusion, I have no idea. It’s as baffling as it is infuriating.
But now I see his odd behavior lately in a whole new light. He lowered the rate when he thought I might leave, because he was scared of losing control over me. He was hostile toward Myles for no reason. Well, not no reason, obviously; he was jealous. And after everything he put me through, he doesn’t get to be jealous. He doesn’t get anything more from me, ever again. Despite everything, I feel a spasm of triumph. Becausefinally, I’ve had a chance to put Mark in his place.
Hayley eyes me warily as she approaches the counter. “You okay?”
“Peachy,” I say, plastering on a smile. I might have had it up to here with men and their shit, but I don’t want to dump that on Hayley. “Ready to take some things over to the market?”
“Sure,” she replies, not moving her gaze from me. “Have you heard any more about the website?”
I pause, considering how to answer. It’s been a week since Myles walked away from my doorstep. A week since he told me the site was ready to go. A week without a single word from him.
And no website.
I shouldn’t be surprised, but I am. Even after everything that happened between us, I never expected he’d bail on the website just to punish me. He even promised as much. But he’s let me down and disappointed me in ways I never expected. Turns out so much about Myles was disappointing, I just fooled myself into thinking otherwise.
Anyway, that means I won’t have my online business, which was the major part of my plan going forward. And I haven’t exactly figured out my next move without that. I’ve been too busy stewing over Myles leaving me in the lurch.
“Um…” I reach for a box, stalling. I never told Hayley about what happened with Myles—any of it—and while it’s great that I don’t have to rehash all that with her, it means I don’t have a good explanation for our current predicament. “I think it’s delayed.”
She frowns, pulling her ponytail over her shoulder. “Really? That’s annoying. We need to get it going as soon as possible.”
“I know that,” I snap, pushing past the counter.
“Okay… Well, have you spoken to Myles? Because if it’s going to be much longer—”
“No, I haven’t spoken to him. And I don’t plan to, okay?” I haul the box onto the front table, immediately cringing. She’s quiet behind me and I turn around, taking in her shocked expression.
“Is everything okay?”
“Everything is fine,” I say automatically. It’s like a reflex.
“Right.”
I stand there, grinding my teeth. Ugh, I’m being an irrational bitch and she has no idea why. It’s not fair on her. “Look. I’m… not sure we are going to get a website, after all.”
“What? Why?”
I draw an unsteady breath, avoiding her gaze. For some reason I feel my throat closing up and the last thing I want to do is lose it in front of her.
“Cat,” she says, taking a step toward me. “Did something happen?”
I fight the urge to laugh maniacally.Did something happen?Well, yes. Yes it did. I opened myself up to a guy—I took a huge risk in more ways than one—only to have him hurt me.
But while I expect to be mad as hell with Myles, I’m surprised by how angry I am with myself. The whole point of creating the online store was to get away from Mark—away from relying on someone in my business. The irony of expecting help from someone else is not lost on me, especially since he hasn’t come through. It’s like I learned nothing. I let Myles into my heart and into my business and he did nothing but let me down.
God, I feel stupid. Why on earth didn’t I see this coming—I mean, all of it? Now I’m back where I started, just a whole lot angrier. But the anger is manageable, at least. It’s energizing, it’s spurring me to action. And it’s much easier to deal with than the awful, heavy, misery bubbling up underneath it. Sometimes when I’m in bed late at night, and I don’t have the energy to be angry anymore, the weight of sadness tugs at me. It’s usually at that point that I take a sleeping pill, because—honestly?—I’m not sure I have what it takes to fight that off once it takes hold.
Still. Lesson learned, right? And now, after that confrontation with Mark, I find myself feeling strangely empowered. I’m an idiot for letting Mark—and Myles—hurt me, but I’m not going to do that again. I can make this work without them. Without anyone.
I glance at Hayley and guilt swoops through me. She deserves to know the truth. Well, most of it.
“Yeah, something happened. I’m not going to go into all of it, but I made a stupid mistake by trusting someone to help me with my business again. I was too reliant on Myles and this online business idea, and that wasn’t good. So I’m going to sort something out. I don’t know what, but I’ll come up with something. On my own.”
34
