Page 55 of Saved By the CEO

I rub a hand over my face. “Josh, I don’t think I can do this.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means this.” I gesture vaguely, even though he can’t see me. “Us. Whatever we’re doing. I can’t do it.”

A beat of silence.

“Are you breaking up with me?”

The word feels too big. Too serious. Like we had anniversaries and toothbrushes at each other’s apartments instead of a handful of dates and one uncomfortable, almost-relationship I kept trying to force into place.

“That’s—” I swallow. “Yeah. I am. I’m sorry.”

He hangs up.

I sit there for a while, staring at my phone until the screen goes black. I hate that the feeling rising to the surface isn’t sadness or even guilt.

It’s relief.

Annie was right. Whatever I felt for him wasn’t enough, and it never would have been.

I set the phone face down on the bed and sigh, reaching for the Pringles. If Andrew doesn’t knock on my door in the next half hour, I’m going to bed.

Probably.

Just before onein the morning, I hear a soft knock.

When I open the door and see Andrew leaning heavily against the doorframe, my first worry is that he’s drunk. Andthat’s a big, fat, red line for me. I will not do this with him if he’s drunk.

But as he takes a few steps inside, yawning so deeply his whole face changes, I realize alcohol isn’t the culprit.

It’s exhaustion.

He looks wrecked. Still handsome, of course, but wrecked all the same. His hair is slightly mussed, his tie is loose, and there’s a heaviness around his eyes I don’t think I’ve ever seen before.

He drops onto the edge of the bed and starts pulling off his tie. His gaze drifts to the takeout boxes on the desk.

“I bet your dinner was more enjoyable than mine.”

“How so?”

Andrew shakes his head as the tie comes loose. “The food was too fancy and too small. I’m still hungry.” He tosses it onto the chair. “And those men are the dullest people I have ever met in my entire life.”

I sit down beside him. “So why did you stay so long?”

He scoffs. “It wasn’t by choice, I’ll tell you that. I tried to leave multiple times, but they kept finding new things to discuss. They’re our investors, so I can’t exactly tell them I’d rather chew glass than hear another opinion about luxury market positioning.”

A laugh slips out of me.

His mouth twitches, but the expression is gone almost immediately.

“I’m sorry for keeping you up.”

I put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s all right.”

I stare at the hand that I just placed on his shoulder. I quickly remove it.

I’m getting way too comfortable.