11. Chapter 11
Iwas humiliated. I sat still, hoping I wasn”t crying—because I couldn”t feel my body—and that would only add insult to injury. I couldn”t believe what had just happened.
Pierce put his hand on my shoulder. ”Hey, you okay?”
I looked at him, still in shock. ”Yes, of course,” I said as if on automatic pilot.
”I”m sorry. It”s my fault. I never should”ve insinuated to him that we were on a date,” he apologized. ”But he was being such an arrogant ass that I wanted to rile him up.”
”Well, you riled him up good,” Luna scoffed. ”Aurora, snap out of it, honey. He ain”t worth it. What this shows is you dodged a bullet.”
”I am sorry, Aurora,” Pierce persisted.
”Please don”t be,” I said easily. The mask was back on. Fuck, Gabriel Rhodes. ”We are out on a date. It may be casual, but he doesn”t get to be an asshole about it.”
Nova whistled. ”Did our Aurora just cuss?”
”Bless her heart, she did,” Luna chimed.
I chuckled.
Nina Davenport sat down and looked at me pointedly. ”Do you want Savannah Lace to drop Rhodes Hotels as a client?”
I was flabbergasted at the question. ”What?”
”No one talks to my people like Gabe just did. I”d be happy to kick them to the curb.”
Nina was, first and foremost, a businesswoman. She didn”t let emotion rule her, and the fact that she was supporting me made me feel validated in ways she couldn”t imagine.
”Nah,” I said breezily, ”If we get the Miami Beach hotel project, it”ll be a few million in the bank. Maybe you can negotiate a better contract, squeeze him for more of his money.”
Nina grinned. ”Yeah. Let”s make that motherfucker pay.”
”Ah, I”m in your good books, right?” Pierce asked. ”Cause I don”t want to be on the wrong side of y”all.”
I laughed even though my chest felt tight.
Gabriel had been jealous. He was always possessive, but I didn”t think he”d be so now. He was the one who ended us, and yet, he was seething with envy when he saw me with Callum. A part of me loved that. A very small part. Mostly, I was humiliated.
I had no defense for the ”she”s not maternal” statement. My parents had abandoned me. I had grown up alone. My aunt had only taken me in because she needed a caretaker herself, and since she had no children, it fell upon me. She wasn”t mean, but she wasn”t loving either.
I managed to convince everyone that Gabriel hadn’t affected me—well, everyone except Luna, who cornered me on my way to the ladies” room.
”You okay?”
I nodded. ”Of course.”
”Stop with the of course, will you?” she snapped.
I leaned against a wall by the sink of the opulent restroom. ”I”m hurt. I”m humiliated. I”m embarrassed.”
She was about to say something when the door opened, and two women walked in. One of them, because the universe hated me, was Iris Rhodes.
She came to stand in front of the mirror and opened her bag, ignoring Luna and me.
”Will you be coming for the Mason engagement party next Saturday?” Iris”s friend asked her.
”Oh, we can”t. Gabe is taking us to the Rhodes vacation place in South Beach. You know they”re building a hotel there.” Iris put on her lipstick.
”Are you and he getting back together?” Iris”s friend asked in surprise.
Luna tilted her head, indicating we should leave. I pulled away from the wall.
”Looks like,” Iris said with a big smile and looked at me through the mirror. She lifted her wrist. ”See this? He got it for me.”
”Tiffany?”
”It”s a little bauble, sure, but you know, it was his way of saying let”s get back together.”
Well, at least Sophia will be happy, I thought. Maybe not Gabriel, though. I felt sad at the thought. I still loved him even if right now I couldn”t stand him. He”d never been happy with Iris, he”d told me. They”d gotten married because she was pregnant, and he”d stayed married for as long as he could stand it for Sophia. But when Iris became violent, throwing things at him, a glass vase crashed at his feet, and he”d had to go to the ER to sew up his foot; he”d decided enough was enough.
”She did that on purpose,” Luna quipped me as we walked back to our table.
I was so tired. The heartache. The headache. All of it was too much. ”I”m going to go home,” I announce.
”Yeah?”
I nodded. ”I”ll call an Uber.”
She kissed my cheek. ”I love you.”
”I know.”
I went out to the lobby, called for an Uber, and waited outside by a magnolia tree, enjoying the scent of the blossoms.
When Gabriel had first shown attention, I”d decided to reject his advances. Wealthy men like him wanted a woman for just one thing, and I wasn”t one-night stand material. But he”d taken his time with me. He didn”t rush me. I honestly believed that he cared for me. After he introduced me to his brother and daughter, I”d convinced myself this was the real deal. He said he loved me, and I trusted him. But the man who”d so callously used my lack of love and support as a child against me just now—that man didn”t love me. Sure, he was jealous, but he”d said what he had to inflict pain. It was mean and cruel. And so unnecessary, especially since he was getting back with his wife.
Maybe it wasn”t jealousy, I decided, perhaps it was just some alpha male bullshit.
He”d ask me to say I was his when we made love. Maybe it was some kind of twisted sense of ownership.
But all in all, it was my fault, wasn”t it? Someone with my background and pedigree couldn”t compete with the old-money, affluent, white Savannah society.
My Uber arrived, and I got in.
My phone beeped with a message. It was from Gabriel. I didn”t read it. I just went to my contacts and blocked him. I didn”t want to hear from him. I didn”t want to see him again. It hurt too much. He hurt me too much.
That night, as I struggled to fall asleep, I decided that love wasn”t worth it, and I”d steer clear of it. My parents had taught me a lesson about love, and though I”d forgotten it for a moment, I would not do so again. I wouldn”t fall for its allure. The pain and chaos it brought seemed far too high a price to pay for fleeting moments of happiness. Instead, I resolved to focus on myself, my ambitions, and my well-being, building a life unencumbered by such emotional turmoil.