Finally, she looks back at me. “Goodbye, Reid.”
She doesn’t wait for me to say anything before she’s turning around and entering her apartment, shutting the door on me and what we shared. And just like that, I lost my girl and might have lost my best friend, all in one night.
CHAPTER 27
AVERY MOORE
I stareat the text thread Reid sent me over the course of the last couple of days, rereading over and over again.
Him
Please reconsider. I’m begging you.
I can’t breathe without you, baby girl.
Let me have one last kiss, Avery. Please.
God, I miss you.
Today is the first day since I broke up with him that I’ve left my room for more than just the bathroom. My heart is broken, and I’ve spent the days crying against my pillow. This feels worse than Neil. This is a hole in my chest. An ache in my heart. Raw cheeks from crying too much. Bags under my eyes from rarely sleeping for fear of dreaming of him.
I don’t know where to turn. I don’t know what I’m doing anymore other than simply existing. I don’t know who I am or how I got here.
Scratch that. I do know how I got here. I partook in a forbidden romance, and it came back to bite me in the ass.
I should have seen this coming.
I should have saved myself the heartache and walked away from Reid when he caught me.
Fresh tears fall. No. I had a great love. I had something special, and for a while, I got to enjoy it. I’ll always carry those memories, always carry him in my heart, even if it nearly kills me to hold him there, remembering what we shared for the rest of my life.
The front door opens, and I look up from my phone in the spot on the couch where I’m curled up.
Ivy walks in with a box of takeout food with the diner’s logo on it. “Oh honey,” she says, coming to me and kneeling before me. “You’re crying again.”
I sob. “I can’t help it.”
She grabs my phone that’s still lit up and reads the texts. When she’s finished, she looks at me with sad eyes. “This will blow over.”
“No, it won’t.”
She tucks her hair behind my ear. “You’ll find someone else.”
“I don’t want anyone else. I’m done. I’m never dating again.”
She shushes me, snags the box of tissues off the coffee table, and dabs my cheeks with a Kleenex. “Don’t say that.”
I sit up, and she comes to sit beside me. “All I want is him.”
Her lips twist to the side. “Dustin’s still pretty angry. I don’t think it’s a good idea to go back to Reid. He’s barely talking to anyone right now.”
“Is he still mad at you?”
She blows out a breath. “He lets me cuddle now, so it’s not too bad.”
When Ivy went back into the party to try to talk some sense into Dustin, she admitted to knowing. He was so angry with her that she was worried their relationship was ending. Thankfully, that didn’t happen.
“Is he going to kick Reid out?” That’s the last thing I want. I broke up with him so that all of our relationships, aside from mine and Reid’s, don’t come to an end.
