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“Yeah, he let you do what you wanted, you said that.”
“That’s mean,” she said, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. “I told you that he’d always say we could do what I wanted. Not let me do what I wanted. There is a big difference and I’m not sure why you would say otherwise.”
She was right, but he was too worked up to think clearly. “Go on.”
“I hated that he never gave much of an opinion. That is more of what it was about. And if he was breaking up with me because there was something he wanted or needed and never said, I wanted to know that and why it never came up before.”
“So that you could say you’d change and work it out?” he asked.
All he saw was this fancy guy in a suit that she’d talked about. One who understood the work she did when all he did was listen and nod his head but didn’t know all of what she was explaining.
“No,” she said. “But when you are with someone for months and they want to break it off suddenly with no explanation, don’t you think you’d want to know?”
“Nope,” he said. “If someone doesn’t want to be with me then they don’t. I’m not begging anyone to stay if they don’t want to. It only ends up worse in the end. You work it out or you don’t. Playing games to break things off without trying to fix them to get your way is manipulation. I want no part of it.”
He’d seen that one too many times with his mother. His father never asked his mother to stay. Just told her to get out.
But his mother had a lot of men that begged her to stay. Or they wanted to stay and work things out and she’d make out for a period of time.
In the end it never changed a damn thing and his mother only took more advantage of the sucker before she found another bed to keep her warm.
“You’re right,” she said. “You can’t make someone stay or love you and that isn’t what I wanted. I just wanted answers. He didn’t give me anything. He said he was moving and we were done. That he got another job. He didn’t even put in two weeks' notice. He up and left the next day.”
None of that made sense and he had to admit he’d have questions too. Or he’d doubt himself for a long time after.
“That’s it. Came to your place, said he was done and then skipped town?”
“Yes! I know you think I’m lying to you, but I’m not. I fully expected to go to work and see him and he was just gone. Everyone was coming up to me to find out where he was. I had no idea. I had to tell them we ended things the night before.”
“That would have driven me insane having to explain anything.”
“That’s right,” she said firmly. “So I’m upset. I’m trying to figure out what is going on. What happened? Then no one knows where he is. I’m thinking did he get hit by a car? Was he abducted? Anything you can imagine came into my head.”
“Did anyone find out where he went or why?” he asked.
“He’d called his boss and said he quit. By the end of the day that made the rounds. I literally heard people talking about it outside my office. No one came in to tell me.”
“And now he’s calling, why?”
“I’m not done explaining the past,” she said. “You want to know and I’m going to tell you it all. A few weeks went by and my father and brother were livid. I’m hurt and confused and still dealing with shit at work. Most of it came from one person.”
“Selena?” he said. “You said her name.”
“Yes. She is the person who replaced me when I left. It all comes back to her. Henry even said that he told Selena we were dating when we said we weren’t going to tell anyone.”
“Why did he tell her?”
“He claims she was coming onto him and he told her he wasn’t single.”
“You don’t believe that?” he asked.
“Oh, I believe it. I’d believe it more if he had an affair with her, but he didn’t. The reason Henry left is because he was in a long distance relationship with another woman for over a year. Before he started to ask me out. Then once he found out his other girlfriend was pregnant, he moved and got engaged and broke it off with me. That was the reason for the sudden move—the pregnancy. But I didn’t find out about the baby for weeks after I found out about the other woman.”
He felt his face all but light on fire.
It was the last thing he expected from Sage.
“So you had an affair with a man who was in another relationship? And you didn’t think I should know that?”
