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“Sorry, London,” she whispered, her voice ragged.
“Please tell me you’re not actually going to—”
“There are a lot of other people’s livelihoods wrapped up in my brand,” she said distantly. “It’s not just me.”
“But—”
She gave me a lopsided smile. “Pity it’s so complicated, because what a dream girl, the way you go in guns blazing telling him to fuck himself like that.”
“Oh, uh.” I cleared my throat. “Sorry, I, uh… just lost my temper seeing—”
She put a finger to my lips. “Never apologize,” she said, her voice soft, just the ghost of it there. “For letting out the way you really feel. Especially when it’s for my sake. It means a lot… you mean a lot. To me, darling.”
“I…” I swallowed, my face hot, my head spinning. “Cameron—angel, you’re being too sentimental right now. Don’t tell me that means you’re actually thinking of going—”
“It means I’m going to talk to my team. Thank you, London. And I’m sorry.” She stepped forward and pressed a kiss to my lips, a sweet, gentle ghost of all the passion we’d had before—heart-wrenching, straining my insides until I thought I’d scream. “I’ve really… been falling for you, too. Very fast. And very hard. And I haven’t minded it.”
“Do you…” But I didn’t even know what I was saying. She pushed away from the wall, walking back towards the elevator.
“Would have liked this place,” she said distantly. “I think it really should have been the one… maybe I was lying to you all along.”
But she wasn’t. I knew she wasn’t. Cameron and I…
She left me alone. I think I said something back to her, too, but I wasn’t really even sure what… left drifting, standing there under the wall of windows, rain pelting them, watching after the elevator door as it shut in front of me.
She’d… forgotten her latte. Maybe if this were a romance movie, I’d chase her down with it and we’d kiss in the rain and skip to the happily-ever-after.
Real life wasn’t like the movies. I’d just drink the stupid thing. Oat milk wasn’t my favorite, but I could have liked it for Cameron.
Chapter 29
Rain had let up, but not for long. Still a haze over the area when I met Ruth at News Café, thick and dark clouds overhead, and the streets outside the window were still slick with rain, glistening in the headlights of passing cars. The ocean looked darker, angrier, in that way it did in a heavy storm, even after the rain had stopped falling, and maybe it was pathetic fallacy, but I felt like I was being beaten down by the universe as I headed over to where Ruth was sitting by the window.
“Judging by that dark look,” Ruth said, “ambitious close didn’t work out.”
I sat down in front of where she’d ordered me my usual, setting my umbrella down next to me and pulling up to the table. “You ordered for me,” I said lightly. “Thanks, Ruth.”
“Hiding from reality?”
“Call it an addiction.” I tucked into the sandwich, letting my eyes wander as I chewed slowly. Out the window, out to the endless expanse of the dark ocean. “But sometimes you gotta… indulge. Relapse a little bit. Sometimes, when things suck, you have to let yourself suck too.”
“Thanks for that, Socrates. Now let’s get back to the topic at hand. What happened? Cameron refused to buy?”
“Had she ever really been looking to buy?” I said thinly. “Not that she was lying, but… maybe just… hiding from reality herself. When you pretend something isn’t there and go about your life, but you know deep down that it’s lurking and you’re just pretending.”
“Christ, woman, this really got to you. Did you two break up?”
I sighed. “Not yet. But if she gets back together with her husband, that’s probably bad news for a relationship.”
She pushed her plate aside, leaning in and folding her arms. “You’re not serious.”
“He showed up, timing of all timings. Waltzed in while I was trying to convince her that she deserved it all, that it was okay for her to have the damn things she dreamed of, and…” I shook my head. “Gave her until midnight before they finally drop the bomb. Played on her insecurities about how… how…” I gestured vaguely. “How she wasn’t really suited to luxury. To living like royalty. And about how many other people are on her brand—”
“As if he’s not the one threatening it?”
“That’s basically what I said.” I took a bite of my sandwich, talking with my mouth full. “Told him to go fuck himself, that he was a sniveling weasel with no soul and no one would care when he died. I got a little carried away.”
She scowled. “A little carried away? Girl, I’d have said more.”
