“This is your bedroom. I’ll go.” Tears had streaked down her face, so she wiped them away with both palms before she rose. She sniffled loudly before she grabbed her bag from the closet and started to stuff it with the clothes I had bought for her.
All I could do was sit there and deal with the painful tension, the weight of goodbye. I wanted to leave the penthouse altogether and go to my hotel, but that felt cold and cowardly. Watching her leave would be hard, but not saying goodbye would be worse.
She grabbed her things and left the bedroom without a backward glance. This time, she didn’t slam the door.
She didn’t even close it.
10
Monroe
His penthouse was huge, so I had no problem finding a vacant bedroom upstairs. I just picked one at random and found a queen-size bed, two nightstands, a large TV on the wall, and a dresser underneath it. It had its own bathroom, and I wondered if every bedroom in the penthouse had its own bathroom.
Once I was alone, I finally let my tears fall. Before, I did my best to hold them back, but now I couldn’t restrain them at all.
I wished I hadn’t made such a scene when he gave me that townhouse. It was generous and thoughtful, but it also reminded me that he wanted me to have somewhere to live once he was done with me. I didn’t want to live in that beautiful townhouse. I wanted to stay right here, sleeping with that man every single night for the rest of my life.
He didn’t feel the same.
I didn’t expect him to reciprocate my feelings completely. But I expected him to at least feel something. I expected him to want to take things slow, to see where they went. But he wouldn’t even give me that.
He wouldn’t give me anything at all.
When I heard a subtle knock on the door, I sucked in a deep breath and stifled my tears, hoping it was Slate with a change of heart.
The door opened, and Coen poked his head inside. He took one look at me before his eyes fell in sympathy. He stepped inside and shut the door behind him. “I thought I heard someone crying in here.”
I sat with my legs crossed and a pillow hugged against my chest. “You guessed right.”
He stepped into the bathroom and grabbed a few tissues before he handed them to me.
“Thanks…” I wiped away my tears then blew all the snot out of my nose.
He glanced at my bag on the dresser before he correctly guessed what happened. “My brother is the smartest guy I know, but when it comes to this, he’s also the dumbest guy I know. Simone made me blind to the truth, and fear made Slate shield his eyes from reality.”
I clenched the wet tissue in my hand until I’d rolled up in a little ball. “I tried to talk to him…he didn’t feel the same way.”
“He says he doesn’t feel the same way, but I don’t buy that.”
“It doesn’t matter if he does or doesn’t. He’s too stubborn and afraid to change his mind.”
“Let’s hope that’s not true.” He raised his hand against my back and rubbed it gently, comforting me like he was my own brother. “What now?”
“He bought me a townhouse…”
“And he says you don’t mean anything to him…”
“He expected me to be grateful, but I was just pissed off. I don’t want a townhouse. I want to stay here with him…”
“And he didn’t want the same thing?”
I shook my head. “I told him I didn’t want the townhouse, but he insisted on me keeping it. I don’t have a lot of options anyway, so I guess I will…but it still hurts.”
“Yeah…I can imagine.”
“He said he didn’t want to hurt me anymore. He released me from my obligation. Now I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to sleep alone, even in that nice townhouse. I’m so used to sleeping with him that I can’t imagine sleeping alone again.”
“Yeah, it’s difficult to get used to it. I slept beside Simone for five years…now that king bed is all mine.”
“I don’t want to date someone else either. I was seeing this nice guy named Wyatt when we broke up the first time. He told me to call him if it didn’t work out with Slate, but I don’t want to do that. This is the only place I want to be. But it doesn’t seem like he can let go of the past. It doesn’t seem like he can ever trust again.”
“You’re right. I don’t think he can. Not yet anyway.”
“I’m afraid it’ll be too late when he does trust again.” I grabbed another tissue and wiped away the new waterfall of tears. “Because I can’t mope around forever. The sorrow will kill me.” I blew my nose then grabbed another tissue.