“There you are.”
I startled so hard I nearly knocked over my drink.Joe slid onto the stool beside me, already checking his phone before he even looked at me.
“Sorry I’m late.Had a meeting that ran over.”
“On a weeknight?”
“Client dinner.”He flagged down the bartender without looking at me.“Scotch, neat.”
No real apology.No asking how my day was.Just sliding into the seat beside me like I hadn’t been waiting alone for the past hour.
Something cold settled in my stomach.
Dinner was painful.Joe talked about his father’s investment firm, about the deals he was learning to close, about his future.He talked about himself.About his ambitions.About the vacation house his parents were buying in Aspen.
Our food arrived.We ate.He checked his phone eleven times.I counted.
I wondered if I’d always been this invisible to him, or if this was new.
“So.”He set down his fork and looked at me.Really looked, for the first time all evening.“I’ve been thinking.”
“About what?”
“Us.The future.”He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small velvet box.
My heart stopped.
“We should just do it,” he said.“Get married before you leave for school.Makes sense, right?Lock things down.”
He opened the box.A diamond ring glittered inside, cold and perfect.Expensive.Practical.
“Joe…”
“It’s practical.”He was already nodding, like I’d agreed.Like my answer was a formality.“Long distance is hard.This way we’re committed.Official.Your dad would probably be relieved.”
I stared at the ring.At him.At the man I’d been dating for two years, who was proposing to me in a hotel restaurant after ignoring me all through dinner.Who’d mentioned my father’s relief before my happiness.
“That’s not a proposal.”My voice came out steadier than I felt.“That’s a business merger.”
His face went hard.“What?”
“Where’s the romance, Joe?The declaration of love?The ‘I can’t imagine my life without you’?”I pushed back from the table.“You didn’t even get down on one knee.”
“I didn’t think you were the type for all that.”
“Every girl is the type for all that.”I stood up.“The answer is no.”
His jaw clenched.That entitled anger I’d been seeing more and more lately.The one that made me feel small when I disagreed with him.“You’re making a mistake, Lena.You think you can do better than me?”
“I think I deserve someone who actually wants me.Not just someone who wants to lock things down.”
I walked away before he could respond.My hands were shaking.My eyes burned.
But underneath the hurt, underneath the humiliation, I felt something else.
Relief.
I didn’t want to go back to my room.Didn’t want to sit alone with the echo of Joe’s voice in my head.So I walked.Through the lobby, past the elevators, up the grand staircase with its worn red carpet.
