Tapping on his arm, she whispered, “Blake, I need to—”
“Okay, go ahead,” he cut in, turning away from her and responding to the person he’d been wooing for an hour now.
Go ahead. He hadn’t even listened to what she wanted. Done. Yup, she was done. It wasn’t his fault, and she wasn’t mad at him. It still hurt. His job tonight was to get donations and she didn’t want to be petty that he’d ignored her, but so many things started falling into place. Her place was obviously not at his side.
Chapter twenty-four
Now that she’d made the decision, Carli wasn’t sure what to do. Blake had dismissed her. Most likely, he thought she was heading to the ladies’ room again.
Taking her time, hoping that Blake would miss her and come looking for her, she strolled around the outside of the room. At all costs, she avoided his parents and Harrison and Annie, who were knee deep in conversations of their own. This wasn’t where she belonged. Even knowing a good deal about the hospital, she still couldn’t carry on a fully fledged conversation in this environment.
By the time she collected her shawl and took the elevator to the lobby, tears had built in the back of her eyes. It wouldn’t do to start crying here. It was humiliating enough that she was leaving without her date. Her phone remained still.
With her shawl wrapped around her shoulders, she checked again to see what time it was. She might have looked for a message, too. It had been thirty minutes since she’d walked away from Blake and nothing. Had he even wondered where she was? Her thumbs went to work, and her stomach unclenched when an Uber was available within ten minutes from here.
Again, she walked slowly to the door, allowing time to still be caught. She wasn’t. The car ride home was silent, her processors pulled off and dumped in her purse. Unfortunately, she had to dig for her keys, seeing as Mercedes hadn’t expected her to come home tonight. The cold breeze blew the shawl from her shoulders as she inserted the key into the lock. Not exactly how she expected the night to end.
Her roommate lay snoozing on the couch, the TV playing in the background. When the door closed, she jerked awake and stared, confused.
“Why are you home? I thought you’d be staying with Blake tonight?”
There wasn’t much she could do, except shake her head.
Bolting off the couch, Mercedes crossed the room and tilted her head. “What happened? Why are you crying?”
Crying? Was she? Swiping her cheeks, she pushed the tears away. “Tonight was a disaster.”
“Oh, sweetie.” Mercedes dragged her to the kitchen and started making tea, no questions asked. What a great friend.
Finally, Carli told her what had happened.
“But you knew this was a business event.”
“That’s not why I left or why I’m upset. It’s more the fact that we don’t belong together. That was proved to me tonight. I can’t fit in his world, no matter how hard I try.”
Her phone vibrated and danced on the table. Her hands were trembling so much, could she even answer it? Swiping across the screen, she saw the text was from Blake. It had been over an hour, and he was only checking on her now?
—Where are you?—
—Home. CIs were bothering me.—
Valid excuse. They’d been echoing all night.
—Why didn’t you tell me?—
—You were busy.—
Too busy to listen to her when she wanted to talk. She couldn’t see him anymore. It hurt too much.
—Thank you for inviting me. It was a different experience. But it helped me to see that we don’t belong together.—
Her heart raced, waiting to see what he’d say. Little dots jumped on the screen. She held her breath.
—What are you talking about?—
—We live in different worlds. You’d be better off without me. I enjoyed our time together. Thank you.—
Her soul cried when she typed those words.
