With that, she shoved open the front door, pulling in desperate breaths of the fresh evening air. All she knew was that she refused to crumble righthere.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Julietprepared two coffees at the breakfast bar in her kitchen, worrying at the inside of her cheek.
She hadn’t really everplannedthis. And even though she’d played through the conversation in her mind all of the previous night, nothing felt quite right in the light of day.
She turned toward the kitchen table where Robbie sat, staring up at her with his eyebrows lifted slightly, his lips ticked up into the smallest of smiles.
“Here.” She put his coffee down in front of him, unable tonotgrimace at it.
Robbie drank so much sugar in a single cup of coffee, it was a wonder his teeth were still in his head.
Clearly knowing what she was thinking, as they’d had that conversation many times before, he flashed his pearly whites at her.
“Thank you very much.” He reached out, wrapping one of his hands around the mug but not lifting it to his mouth just yet. “So… as far as I’m aware, we still have our schedule planned through the end of next month.”
It was all he needed to say, to prompt her. Because thiswasweird for them.
“Right,” she agreed, feeling oddly nervous.
She considered Robbie one of her closest friends. But… Juliet’s genuine inner-circle was limited to her fake boyfriend and her assistant, so it wasn’t like he had much competition.
For the last eight – almost nine – years, they would meet every three months at Juliet’s house, have coffee, and arrange their schedules for the following twelve weeks. What events they had on the docket, what made sense to do together, what they could reasonably skip. What would have the best, most lasting impact.
But Robbie was absolutely correct; they weren’t due for a coffee calendaring date for another month.
Julietneverfelt nervous around Robbie, because she had nothing to hide from him.
But she felt very nervous right now. Because, for the first time in almost a decade, she was going to do something that would totally change his life.
Strangely, their relationship felt very real right now. In the “break up.”
Robbie sent a knowing look. “It’s not me, it’s you?”
Juliet leaned heavily back in her chair, hands going slack where they were wrapped around her mug. “What?”
She hadn’t expected him toknow.
Robbie sipped his coffee, slowly lowering the cup back to the table. “I figured I’d beat you to the punch. That’s what we’re having this meeting for, right?” His lips twitched into his signature, charmingly crooked smile. “You’re breaking up with me, Juliet Jacobs.”
God, it sounded so… surreal. She was ending her relationship with Robbie. No, it wasn’t “real” in any true romantic or sexual sense.
But it had been a part of her since she’d been eighteen. She’d entered into this relationship with him and hadn’t ever had aplan for when it would end. Juliet had known, at some point, it would. But that point had never been something she could visualize. It hadn’t made sense to her to even contemplate it before. That was a post-fifth album reality.
And Juliet hadn’t let herself dream about that, before. That reality had been so far out of her grasp and she couldn’t do anything to speed up the timeline. It only served to make her mad and sad and claustrophobic when she’d thought about it. Trapped.
However, the dream was very much alive, now. It was alive and glittering, dancing at a distance so close she could almost hold it.
“How’d you know?” she asked.
“Uhhh, the premiere?” Robbie barked out a laugh. In fact, he laughed so hard, he almost started crying. “After all this time together, do you think I’mactuallyan idiot?”
She hummed, teasingly, before sobering. “No. I don’t.”
Robbie wasn’t the most well-read person in any room, but he was far from stupid. Especially when it came to reading people.
He released a soft sigh, holding up his hand, his index finger and thumb an inch apart. “You werethis closeto telling Kerrington Kosta to fuck off and back away from your woman.”
