Page 62 of Apparently, I’m Torture

“Lilly, I swear, it’s fine. Just go.”

“Lilly? We have to leave if we’re going to make it in time.”

At the sound of Trevor’s voice, she stiffened, turned and yelled out, “I’m coming.”

Stepping away from the door, she mouthed, “I’m so sorry,” once more, and left.

I sank to the ground as the door tinkled shut.

Now

Chapter 23

Lilly

Monday Morning

Verra Convention Center

Mia stared after me as I stomped out of the kitchen, muttering, “That absolute asshole.”

This wasn’t Tristy’s, we weren’t college graduates, and I wasn’t going to let him get away with touching me like that, and then walking the fuck away. Who did that? Who kissed someone and then turned their back on them? The great Shawn Jackson, apparently.

I slammed open the meeting room door to find him pacing behind it. His suit jacket was gone, his tie loosened, his sleeves rolled up. I hated how good he looked, I hated that it was so easy for him to walk away from me, and I hated how he made me feel. He had me so on edge, my thighs were still shaking. But I was hurt too. Hurt and rejected. It wasn’t fair. The way he treated me wasn’t fair.

Without looking up, he muttered, “Please, not now, Lilly.”

“Not now?” I repeated, stepping in and shutting the door behind me. “Are you kidding me?”

He stopped pacing and ran his hands down his face and then through his hair. “I can’t do this again. I can’t.”

A lance of pain cut across my chest. “You can’t do what?”

He shook his head. “It shouldn’t be this hard.”

“What shouldn’t be?”

He finally looked at me, and I could only see grief. It was in the set of his chin, the furrow of his brow, the tension in his eyes.

“It’s been so long, but you still…” he trailed off and shook his head, turning another pace around the room.

Choosing to speak to the walls instead of me, he said, “It’s our fourth week on this fundraiser. We’re almost done. I need to get through this without any more issues. That means no more fights between you, Stacey or Mia. I want professionalism from the three of you from now on. Do you think that’s something you can manage?”

I almost jerked back from the hard edge of his voice. “Are you really asking me that?”

I reached out and gripped his arm, but he was an immovable wall. Rounding him, I took in his tightened lips, his clenched jaw, his downcast eyes. He couldn’t be shutting down like this. Not again. Not this time. He had to talk to me.

“You kissed me.”

His glance lifted and he searched my face. “I know. And if anyone other than Mia walked in, that could’ve been–Lilly, it was a mistake. It won’t happen again.”

My desperation snapped back to anger so fast. “You can’t just pretend we didn’t–”

Shawn’s phone vibrated in his pocket and I huffed as he reached for it. “I can’t do this right now.”

I shook my head. “Yeah, well, neither can I.”

I walked out, shutting the door on him as he answered his phone. Making it back to my desk, I slammed my forehead against my keyboard. It didn’t exactly make me feel better, so I laid there and stewed before I remembered I was still covered in buttercream frosting.