I’d finally said, in less than two minutes, everything I’d ever wanted to say to him.
Everything he never thought I’d ever have the guts to say to his face.
After explaining to Mindy I needed her to cover the store because Micah was out there, I headed up to our apartment above it.
The first thing I did was block Micah on all my social media. No more internet stalking him. No more pining for a guy who was never really the right guy.
It was time to date again with conviction.
I wasn’t sure Ville would be Mr. Right, but at least this time I’d give a guy a real shot.
7
Micah
AGE 27
* * *
“Oh, come on. You knew. Everyone knew. Even my parents knew I was in love with you.”
I shook my head, trying to get Valentine’s voice out of it.
I couldn’t.
It had been three days since our altercation in her store.
Three days since my whole fucking life got turned upside down.
“Because that’s what I was to you. A chubby failure. God forbid Micah Green think with anything other than his dick when it comes to women.”
Squeezing my eyes closed, I tried to shove her words out.
Tried not to care.
But there was this ache, deep and gnawing, in my chest that I couldn’t shift.
“You look like you’re in physical pain.”
Opening my eyes, I found my best friend and roommate, Wells, standing at my side. It amazed us both the same firm offered us jobs when we graduated. We’d interned at Watkins & Holtz, but never expected we’d both get something permanent there. They were a firm that specialized in making eco-living beautiful and interesting, something we both wanted to achieve in our designs.
“I think I am.”
He took a sip of champagne, following my gaze to Elizabeth. She was across the room, elegant in the chic black dress she bought from Valentine. When Valentine’s business partner, Mindy, took over for Val in the shop, she’d told Elizabeth the dress was Valentine’s design. I swear Elizabeth wasn’t going to buy it when she heard that. But her better side won out.
And whatever Valentine had said about Elizabeth, she had a better side.
Problem was, that side of her was never fully engaged.
I hadn’t just come to this conclusion because of Val’s split-second judgment of my girlfriend. Elizabeth’s attitude had been bothering me for months. Yet I felt caught. I’d made the stupid mistake of saying yes to a date with the daughter of Richard Meyer, a partner at the firm. He set us up. I thought it was a great idea. Elizabeth was sexy as hell, smart and independent. However, for the last few months I pushed her snide comments about almost everyone to the side.
She had her moments of kindness too.
Elizabeth did a lot of work for charity organizations.
“You can break it off with her, you know.” Wells turned to me, a knowing look on his face. “Richard won’t fire you. Look, I saw it in Peru, man. The woman is gorgeous but she can be downright nasty. And controlling. Every time she swapped out the food you ordered for a salad, I thought my head was going to explode. Cherry can’t stand her. She almost left Peru because of her.”
Cherry was Wells’ girlfriend. She was a sustainability expert we’d met through our work.
We’d spent three weeks in Peru touring the country to study the architecture. Our firm had actually let us do it as research. It was supposed to be the time of our lives, but tension had seethed between the four of us toward the end of the trip. I hadn’t realized it was all down to Elizabeth. “You should have said something.”
“I didn’t think I needed to.”
“I saw Valentine,” I blurted out.
Wells knew all about Valentine Fairchild. And how I’d felt about her. His eyes widened. “When?”
“E saw her store online and wanted to visit it. I didn’t know how to say no.”
“More like you didn’t want to say no.”
I shrugged. “Okay, I admit I wanted to see her.”
“And?”
I felt like I was going to throw up. “While E was in the changing room… Val let me have it. Basically implied I’m a shallow piece of shit because I’d rather have someone like E than someone like her.”
“What the hell?”
I looked him straight in the eye. “She outright said she used to be in love with me… and she said I knew it. That everyone knew it. But I didn’t want her because she didn’t meet my shallow standards.”
Wells looked like he’d been punched in the gut for me. “Fuck, man. What did you say?”
“I didn’t say a thing. I was in shock. And then she just walked out.”
We were quiet a moment as we watched Elizabeth move through the crowd of employees and their other halves, a born hostess.
Then Wells said, “It’s not on you. She obviously doesn’t know you all that well after all.”
“I pushed her away because of her parents. I called her a screw up. I cut her out of my life when she married that prick.” My heart hammered. “I could have prevented all of it if I’d just grown a pair and told her how I felt. So it is on me.”
“How do you feel about her now?”
Remembering how every part of me had come alive as soon as I’d seen Valentine the other day, I knew the answer to that. Not only that, I’d been internet stalking her for years. Scrolled through her Instagram and Facebook photos until my eyes were blurry. After her divorce, I wanted to go to her, but I’d been afraid it would send me back to that place where I constantly pined for her. With distance, the pining was kept at a minimum.
Yet in doing that, I’d broken her heart as much as she’d broken mine.
“I need to end things with Elizabeth.”
Wells clapped me on the shoulder. “About damn time.”
The right thing to do after breaking up with your girlfriend was to wait at least a month before moving on, right?
I could barely wait a week. I guess that made me a prick.
But the heart wants what it wants.
I’d promised I’d give it some time before I went to Valentine to clear the air between us. But I’d been home on a Friday night, working on some plans for a couple who were building an eco-home on a tiny plot of land in Beacon Hill at the end of one of the historical row houses. It was a miracle we’d even got planning permission.
Wells and Cherry were out on a date.
Fingers itching, I reached for my phone and opened Instagram. The first photo that came up on my feed was from Elizabeth’s account. She hadn’t blocked me.
Now I knew why.
The photo was of her kissing a guy. It looked like they were in a nightclub. The caption stated, “He’s a better kisser than the last guy I dumped.”
Nice.
Elizabeth wasn’t exactly devastated when we broke up. She was more pissed off that I’d ended things.
“You do not get to break up with me. No one breaks up with me. I’m ending this. And don’t think for one second you can come crawling back when you realize what an epic mistake you just made.”