For today, the deal’s off, and we’re becoming strangers again.
What else is there when she won’t give me the slightest opening to talk her down from the ledge?
The game just ended with the goddamned table flipped upside down.
“So that’s it,” I growl, still trying to convince myself to move my legs.
Walk the fuck away while I can.
“Y-yeah. That’s it.” She nods, but she won’t look at me, swiping at her tears with the back of her hand. “But wait.”
I turn around, my throat so tight as I look at her, but she’s back in the kitchen. I watch her grab something off the counter before she marches back to me, refusing to meet my eyes.
“Here.” That’s all she says. One word before the ring I gave her, symbolizing this farce, gets mashed into my palm.
I’m a dead man walking.
With my dignity in tatters, I clench my fist around that lying metal and turn my back on the prettiest little liar I’ll ever know, marching back to my vehicle.
Her total silence devours me one last time in an eternity condensed into seconds.
XXI
Cardinal Blues
(Lena)
I wish I could pinpoint the moment when life became so brutal that I can’t even appreciate the loveliest turquoise blue water I’ve ever seen.
Even Lake Tahoe’s beauty can’t fill the crater in my chest. It feels like I’ve been ripped apart with a meat hook, and I’m left with only threads holding me together.
One second, I’m staring out across the unbelievable water, the distant trees visible on the shoreline.
The next, I have to blink through my vision blurring. I see Brady’s face for the thousandth time, angry and hurt because he knows I lied point-blank.
What a pathetic ending.
I might as well have given him George Costanza’s infamous “It’s not you, it’s me” speech.
I should’ve known he’d see through it, but I had to wing it when he showed up in my driveway, determined to talk sense.
The worst part is, it wasn’t enough.
I have a rotten feeling he’s still trying to piece together the missing bits I wouldn’t give him.
I just hope he stays away from provoking Harry, at least. There’s nothing left to fight over now that I’ve basically surrendered.
I blink again.
This time, when I open my eyes, there’s a huge smiling face staring down at me, pinched with laughter and concern.
Elle watches me through her blond hair hanging over the sides of her face like curtains.
“What is it?” I ask weakly, glancing around and wondering how much of the day I’ve wasted in this chair with a romance thriller on my lap.
I didn’t know I could feel like I’ve aged twenty years in one week.
My bestie blinks, looking like she’s about to say something. Probably something true and to the point and dusted with optimism like powdered sugar.
