“This isn’t the first time you’ve been abandoned. That’s why it bothers you.”
I turned to him slowly and felt the pain bubble in my stomach as I stared.
“Your father walked out on you, and now, someone you trusted did the exact same thing. The fact that he doesn’t realize that or care shows his character.”
I was surprised he even remembered that.
“It’s okay that it bothers you.” He pushed off the wall and came toward me, this man beautiful in more than his looks. He was intelligent and deep and aware. “It hurts like hell right now, and it’ll hurt for a while, but it’ll get better.” He nodded to the door. “But first, you’ve got to do this. And itdoesn’t hurt to show himhisreplacement.” He gave me a gentle nudge in the side, wearing that charismatic smile as he knocked on the door.
I went from the lowest of my lows to the highest high in the span of a couple seconds—thanks to him.
Enzo opened the door, made eye contact with me with a slight look of shame, but then he turned his attention on Constantine and kept it there. With wide-open eyes and a stillness to his entire body, Enzo clearly didn’t know what to make of the big, muscular, sexy man who accompanied me.
“Con.” He didn’t extend his hand to shake Enzo’s. He stared him down in a way he’d never once looked at me, and I was grateful for it. “Here to get my woman’s things.”
My woman. He’d never called me that before and I knew it was just for show, but it sounded so nice.
Constantine gave my ass a gentle smack. “Come on, sweetheart.”
Enzo awkwardly stepped aside. “Uh ... yeah.”
When I walked inside, I could easily see how much it had changed. There were children’s toys on the couch, a toy chest against the wall, a pink indoor bike visible from the kitchen. I noticed other changes too, blankets I’d never seen before, women’s shoes by the door that weren’t mine.
She’d already moved in—with her two kids.
I did my best to keep a straight face, to pretend I didn’t care because Enzo clearly didn’t even try to hide all the evidence. He obviously didn’t address the last text I’d sent him with all the fuck-off emojis either.
Enzo moved to one side of the living room, where all my boxes were grouped. He’d packed everything for me, so who knew what he’d actually grabbed or how he’d organized it. My entire life was compartmentalized and stacked in the corner, a discreet reminder that I’d ever existed. It was how I felt to him now, just a thought in the corner of his mind.
Constantine walked to the boxes and got to work, putting the lightest ones aside for me to carry. He went for the boxes atthe bottom of the pile, the ones that contained my books, shoes, and clothes.
It was an awkward situation, Constantine and me coming back and forth and grabbing boxes and putting them in the back of his Range Rover before returning to the apartment to grab more.
Enzo sat on the couch and waited. He didn’t offer to help.
At the end, it was only the heavy stuff that Constantine didn’t want me to carry, so I stood there awkwardly and waited for him to finish. Enzo stayed in the living room, and I stayed in the kitchen. We’d been close for years, but now we couldn’t even be in the same room together.
When Constantine grabbed the last box, we headed to the front door together.
“Aurelia.”
I stopped at the sound of Enzo’s voice.
Constantine continued into the hallway. “I’ll meet you downstairs, sweetheart.”
I kept my back to Enzo, feeling weak without Constantine present to give me strength. But I slowly turned around and looked at the man I’d thought I would marry at some point. “What’s up?” I folded my arms over my chest, did my best to pretend I didn’t give a damn, that my heart wasn’t racing like mad.
He held my gaze for a long time before he answered. “I’m sorry ... about everything.”
It was the first apology I’d gotten. The first admission of wrongdoing. I’d been waiting for that for months. I’d waited for it on the trip. I’d waited for it when he packed up his things and left. And now that I’d gotten it, I realized it didn’t make a difference. It didn’t make me feel better. It just ... didn’t matter. “Take care, Enzo.”
Constantine pulled up in the cobblestone alley next to the apartment building. He parked his vehicle in a place where he wasn’t supposedto park, but he did it anyway, like he could do whatever he damn well pleased.
He turned off the engine but didn’t move to unfasten his safety belt. “Doing all right?”
I hadn’t said a word after we left Enzo’s. Our final parting was just so ... anticlimactic. “If you’d told me this was how it would end a year ago, I wouldn’t have believed it. It’s hard to picture, but we were happy. Really happy.”
“He’ll come to regret it. I promise you that.” He looked straight out the windshield, one arm propped on the armrest.
