Total pages in book: 26
Estimated words: 25827 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 129(@200wpm)___ 103(@250wpm)___ 86(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25827 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 129(@200wpm)___ 103(@250wpm)___ 86(@300wpm)
Look back.
Look at me.
Please!
But he doesn't.
I watch them leave. Francine still by his side. And not one of them looks back. Because in their world, I'm just the paralegal.
But in my world, though...
Don't do anything stupid. Don't. Please don't.
I hear Francine talking to him.
“I'll meet you at the car, darling.”
That means I was right about him. Them. Wasn't I?
They're dating. And that's why he can look away from me like I'm nothing. Because in their world, I'm just the paralegal.
So please just let it go.
Forget him.
And just accept that all your dreams of him are just—
I take one shaky step forward.
My notepad falls to the floor.
And then I'm running after him, which means...
Yes, I'm acting silly and foolish, no, I can't just let it go, and so yes, I'm going to run after him, and okay, okay, think, think, Juniper!
They've taken the elevator, they're going down the basement, so okay, that means I'm going to take the staff stairwell, and I'm running as fast as I can, almost falling flat on my face several times, and all the while telling myself that I'm not going to think, I'm just going to feel and go with my guts because the man I've been...
The man I only spoke to for a few minutes...
The man I couldn't forget for the past six months...
That man who had me kicking myself in the head every time I remember how I didn't say or do a thing as I watched him walk away—
I don't care if I'm being silly or stupid. I don't care if this is right or wrong. And I don't care—well, okay, I kinda sorta slightly care that he's with a woman so beautiful she makes me feel I'm less than human.
Yes, I care about that.
But not enough to stop me—
Oh, finally.
I burst into the parking garage corridor just as the guest elevator chimes, the doors open, and we come face to face. Again.
His jaw clenches as our gazes meet, and I tell myself that's a good thing even as my heart flinches because it believes otherwise. You have to be really flexible in situations like this. Sometimes, you let your heart rule. Other times, you let your brain take over. To deceive yourself into still thinking this...
This is okay even though the way his lips tighten tells me that a part of him had expected this.
Braced for it even.
And that same part of him had nonetheless hoped it wouldn't be so.
Oh, the gall of him.
I should be pissed and offended, with how he's treating another encounter with me like it's a virus to be avoided. But I can't muster the energy to feel upset because what's killing me even more is how I'm still choosing to be foolish.
Because I'm still blocking their path, my heel in one hand, hair in sweaty disarray, while every composed piece of me has been unassembled in the last five flights of stairs.
I open my mouth, but he deliberately beats me to speaking.
“Sara, isn't it?”
Is he trying to intimidate me? Infuriate me? Shame me?
His beautiful Francine, on the other hand...
She has no trouble feeling infuriated as she looks at me. “You know this girl?”
Nate doesn't even look at her. “Please go ahead and wait in the car for me.”
“I can wait—”
Big mistake.
No one actually says this, but we can all see the invisible writing on the wall, the moment his gaze slides to her direction, and the words die in her throat.
I have no idea how freaky their relationship is, but it's clearly the kind where Nate does the ordering, Francine does the bidding, and that's why all she can do now is shoot me a vicious look before stalking off like a bully that's been shamed by a bigger bully.
Not that I'm saying either or both of them are bullies. I'm not. It just...it just looks that way, and oh no, here we go, he's turning to look at me now, and he's still beautiful like I remembered, but so much more terrifying than I remembered.
We stare at each other, and I think...I think he's giving me a chance to forget that this happened. To just turn my back and walk away, and he'll do the same. But instead—
“My name's Juniper.”
I'm still choosing to be silly and foolish.
“Is it?” His voice has changed, the words drawled out lazily this time. Softly and mockingly, too. “Does that make you Sara Juniper then or—”
“It's neither and you know it.”
I'm not going to play this game with him.
And so when he simply looks at me—
“Why did you walk out on me that day?”
I still don't back down. I've already gotten this far. The only way not to lose is to see this to the very end, no matter how terribly awkward and painful the truth—
“Because I was dating another woman then.”