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I had to head back. Everything is paid for, room and car. You’re good in the room until eleven. The car will be ready by then.
He left me…
And not only did he leave me, he paid for everything as if I was some sort of hooker. My hand shook, the pain becoming almost unbearable.
Beneath the writing was a scribble, and I held it up to the light, trying to make out the words beneath, but the scribble was too dark, too hard.
Tears pricked my eyes, and I pulled the blanket up over my naked body, feeling more exposed than ever.
I crumpled the stupid note and tossed it across the room. Pain and anger rushed through me like a freight train. Disappointment consumed me. I thought I knew him better than that. I thought he differed from what everyone else believed him to be. I thought I was different.
I swiped at the tears on my cheeks, refusing to cry.
A knock at the door startled me, and I jumped off the bed, wrapping the sheet around me. My heart pounded in my chest. Maybe he realized he made a mistake. He came back to me.
I flung the door open, my joy immediately melting away.
“Have you been crying?” Sherry demanded. “I’m going to fucking kill him.”
I grabbed her wrist and yanked her into the room before she caused a scene.
“I should have known when he texted me early this morning saying you needed clothes. He could have just bought you clothes. But to do that he would have had to stick around.”
Anger twisted her usually pretty features.
“Can we not do this right now?” I asked, knowing how pathetic I probably looked.
Sherry’s anger slipped into concern… possibly pity. “Of course.” She pulled me into a hug, but as comforting as it was, it wasn’t the arms I wanted to be in. Nero was gone. He got what he wanted—twice— and left me alone in a hotel room two hours from home, yet I still wanted him.
Sherry held up a bag. “Why don’t you go shower and put some clothes on? I brought your ‘Baking because murder is wrong’ t-shirt. Seems very fitting right now.”
“Thanks.” I took the bag from her and let it fall against my legs. I headed for the bathroom and stopped. “Did he say why he left?”
This time I could see the pity in Sherry’s eyes. It was as clear as a summer’s day. “No.”
I nodded and, without another word, headed into the bathroom.
After I showered Nero off me—though, I couldn’t wash away the memory of his touch—Sherry brought me to get my car. She offered to get us brunch, but I declined. I felt bad. She drove the two hours here just to give me clothes. Nero, the bastard, probably knew I’d fall apart and would need her.
But all I wanted was to get home, crawl into bed, and try to forget that this night ever happened.
Forget that I was now another notch on Nero Grasso’s bedpost.
I picked up my phone from the table and noticed the pad of paper that Nero had written his note on. The paper beneath was blank, but indents from what he wrote were visible. I peered at the blank page and realized he must have crossed out the words after he pulled it off the pad.
Staring up at me, indented in the pages like scratches to my heart, were the words, I’m sorry.
The words should have helped. Should have made me feel better. But if anything, they made me feel worse. So much worse.
The bar was hopping. I’d sold eleven cases of wine already and was gunning for my personal record of nineteen in one shift. It helped pass the time and gave me something to accomplish. I might not make the liquid in the bottles, but I sure as hell could sell them.
I’d had a few women bat their fake lashes at me. Sure, I was flirting my ass off to get the sales, but I had no intention of taking any of these women to my place later. Not when Lainey’s lips were still lingering in my mind.
Fuck me.
I couldn’t have her, but I didn’t want anyone else. What the hell was wrong with me? My brain and my dick were not on the same page, and it was messing me up. Normally, getting a number, sleeping with a stranger, would be the best way to forget about Lainey, but every time I thought about it, I got a weird pang in my stomach.
Franc’s words held even more weight since I abandoned Lanes in Philly like some fucking coward. I panicked. Everything until that moment was perfect and the thought of her waking up, seeing me, and eventually realizing I would never be enough for her… It was for her own good. She deserved better and once the sex haze filtered away, she’d realize it too.
