Page 140 of The Storm

It is what it is.

He left.

If I’m being honest with myself, I don’t really want to forgive him for that either, so we’re on even ground.

He doesn’t want you here.

And suddenly, in a haze of too little sleep and too many shots, this starts to feel like an opportunity.

I will be here.

He will have to see me.

He will have to remember.

And he will hate it.

And that prospect… Well, it’s starting to seem more than a little appealing.

Because fuck you, Nicholas Hayes.

Fuck you for forgetting me.

FORTY-FIVE

INDY

Once my hangoverclears and I’ve let about five seconds of film reel from last night play through my mind, regret kicks in like a motherfucker. I throw my arm over my eyes and squeeze them shut.

Accepting a job—while drunk—working for the new boyfriend of the ex-love of your life.

I’m so fucking dumb.

I’m so unbelievably fucking dumb.

Monday morning,I’m standing in front of the mirror, staring at myself.

Charcoal slacks. A sky blue button-down. Matching belt and shoes.

I can’t be myself. I have to look sophisticated and in control of my life. I have to look better than I actually am because Nick’s shacking up with a hot-as-fuck football player, and I’m renting a room from my sister and picking up Nick’s incredibly successful boyfriend’s clothes from the drycleaners.

He will hate it, though.

It’s the pettiness that finally gets me out the door.

“Break a leg,” Dia calls as I pass the living room doorway.

“If I mysteriously die in a rich-people accident, avenge my death, will you?”

She raises her brows at me. “What’s a rich-people accident?”

I lean my shoulder against the doorframe. “Being pushed off a yacht. I googled him last night, you know. He just signed a five-year, sixty-five-million-dollar contract. For all I know he hunts people for sport.”

Dia snorts a laugh into the coffee cup she’s holding. “I survived. You’ll be fine.”

“Fingers crossed.” I wave and head out.

The elevator ride, once I make it to Callum’s building, seems to take very little time compared to when I was here last time. Probably because I’m sober and haven’t a hundred percent decided whether I’m actually going to go through with this.