Chapter Nineteen - Verity
CHAPTER NINETEEN
VERITY
“ H ello, my love. I come bearing gifts.” The front door slams open and heels click against the floor alongside Hannah’s loud greeting.
There’s a bunch of rustling and clanging.
“Turns out the guy I banged lives next to that cronut place. You know the one that’s doing those Dubai pistachio fillings?
The sex was fine. Probably would’ve been better if I was less drunk, but also probably not because his dick was thin as a number two pencil.
So, maybe it woulda been worse if I was sober.
Height does not always equal penile girth.
” My bedroom door swings wide, forcing light to filter into the darkness.
“Still, I managed to get the cronuts out of—Hey, are you even awake?”
I let out a groan, and the bed dips as Hannah bounces onto the end.
“I’m surprised you’re still in bed. The event must’ve drained the life out of you, huh? Looked great online, from what I saw. Bridget Vaughn was even there.”
I groan again, curling into an even tighter ball under the sheets.
“All right, all right. I’ll stop bothering you. The cronuts are on the counter when you want them, ‘kay? Oh, and I think your phone’s dead. My texts weren’t going through earlier.”
The mattress straightens out as she gets up to leave.
“Hannaaaah,” I whine.
“What? You want coffee? I can put some on, but I think you’re running low on creamer.”
“My life is over.” I poke half my face out from under the sheets.
Her easygoing smile quickly drops into a concerned frown. She crouches next to me, hands instantly reaching out to smooth some of the hair away from my forehead.
“What’s wrong? Did something happen at the event? Your eyes are puffed up like marshmallows.”
I groan again, flipping onto my back and pressing the heels of my hands against my eyes. I press hard enough that little dots start fuzzing the black expanse of my vision.
“Hey, hey.” She pulls my hands away from my face. “Do we need to murder someone? That wasn’t exactly on my Sunday agenda, but I can make it work. Just say the word.”
“I fucked up.”
She gets up and scooches her ass onto the edge of the bed.
“Whatever it is, we can fix it.”
“It’s too late. The deed is done.”
“The deed? What’d you do? Fuck a client?”
She laughs, but I groan again, causing her temporary smile to sober.
“Oh shit. Seriously? I mean, hey, look, it’s fine. These things happen. Work won’t find out, and you’ve only been officially dating Cullen for twenty-four hours, so that’s not really cheating. Well, it is. But it’s fine. It’ll be fine.”
“I didn’t fuck a client. I didn’t fuck anyone, thank God. That would make this so much worse.”
But I’d thought of it. God, had I thought about it.
How am I supposed to face Celine when I’ve had sex dreams about her ex-freaking-husband?
“I’m going to need you to use your words then, babe. Cause I’m hella lost right now, and the stories I’m spinning in my mind are going to be twelve times worse than whatever you actually did.”
“I’m dating my boss’s ex-husband.”
“What?”
“Well, I was. I broke up with him.” My voice hitches on the words, the pain still raw.
Hannah’s mouth opens and closes a few times like a guppy, her eyes narrowing then widening, brows raising and lowering.
“Mmm.” She purses her lips and points a finger at me. “You’re gonna have to elaborate.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Clearly you do, otherwise you would’ve just let me waltz out of here to make you coffee.”
I hate when she is right.
I shift, sitting up and resting my back against the headboard. Hannah pulls one of her legs onto the bed and tucks it under her ass as she twists to face me.
Explaining the situation to someone who is still wearing the remnants of last night’s makeup and a chain-link crop-top helps it feel a little less daunting. There’s also the fact that Hannah is the least judgmental human you will ever meet when it comes to the laws of love.
“You know Cullen.”
“Yup, Mr. Flowers.”
“He’s divorced.”
“Oh.” She nods her head before dramatically tilting it to the side. “Wait. How old is this man?”
“I never asked, but somewhere early to mid-thirties.”
He has to be around the same age as Celine if they were high school sweethearts. I’ll be honest, while I’d known he was older than me, I hadn’t imagined him being this much older.
“Look at you, going after those silver foxes. Didn’t realize you went for that.”
“What? No. He’s max thirty-five, Han, not fifty-five. Seriously.”
“Still, that’s a max ten-year difference.”
“This is beyond the point.”
“Okay, so he’s divorced. What’s the big deal?”
“His ex-wife.”
“Ah. She’s a bitch?”
“She’s Celine.”
“What?”
“His ex-wife is Celine.”
“I—He—What?”
“Yup.”
“Your boss’s ex-husband is your boyfriend.”
“Correct.”
“The man you are dating, Cullen, used to be married to Celine, your periodically bitchy boss.”
“Now you see the issue.”
“I mean…” She curls her lips inward, and her cheeks puff out like she is trying to hold in a laugh.
“Hannah.”
“I’m so sorry, it’s kind of funny. Like, how many people accidentally date their boss’s ex?”
“It’s not funny, and we’re not dating anymore.”
“Why?”
“Because I broke up with him.”
“I thought you liked him?”
“Did you not hear a word I said? He’s Celine’s ex-husband. That woman once fired her assistant for using the wrong naming convention for files. You think she won’t murder me if she finds this out?”
“What’re the odds she finds out?”
“That’s not a risk I’m willing to take, Han.”
“You always say that.” Her eyes narrow quizzically. “You sure you didn’t sleep with him?”
“No. We just made out.”
My stomach flips remembering that kiss, and I curse it for not being on the same page as my head. It is hard enough trying to mentally separate myself from Cullen, I don’t need my body betraying me as well.
“Well, then you’re totally peachy. Everyone makes out. So long as no bits and bobs ended up in places, the slate’s clean.”
“I know. That’s why I ended it before it even started.”
“So, why do you sound so depressed?”
“Because I liked him,” I whine, dragging my knees to my chest and resting my forehead against them. “I really fucking liked him, and instead the universe had to say no, fuck you, Verity. You don’t get to fall in love and make me throw him away like he was used trash.”
I was mean last night. I blame half of it on the exhaustion and sleep deprivation, but at the core of it, I was hurt and freaking out, and I used that pain on Cullen.
I don’t actually give a rat’s ass that he’s divorced. Sure, it would’ve been a little weird to get my head around at first, but a small bump in the road, something I’d get over quickly.
The Celine factor? That was like a damn grenade.
It blew everything up with no remorse. Clearing that rubble was a total no-go, beyond saving.
“I’m sorry, Vee.”
Hannah places her hand on my shoulder blade and gives my back a soothing rub.
“This sucks.”
“I know.”
“I’m going to be single forever.”
“You won’t. You’ll find someone else.”
The thought makes my heart twist.
The buzzer for our apartment goes off.
My head whips up, and I stare at Hannah. “If that’s him, don’t let him up.”
“I would like to point out that I still have no clue what this man looks like, but no shit.” She slips off the bed. “I’ll go check it out and then bring you back some water, okay?”
I nod my head and then tip over into a cradle position on my side.
I don’t want to find someone else.
I’m not sure how to explain it, but this felt different.
There was an ease with Cullen that I hadn’t experienced before.
Our conversations never felt one-sided, and he was always putting in the effort to talk to me and check in, even if it was mundane.
He genuinely cared about me and remembered all the little things I mentioned.
It was like he had a folder in his brain with my name on it. No guy had been like that before.
I was also super attracted to him. He was so damn hot in all his six-foot plus, dark hair, muscley body goodness.
Do you know how hard it is to find a financially stable, attractive, caring man in the city? Really freaking hard. The trifecta rarely exists, and if you do somehow find it, you’re supposed to hold on.
Instead, I’m letting him slip through my fingers because fate decided to give me the middle finger.
Tears begin to well up again even though my face is already puffy as hell.
I am going through the mourning process of a breakup with a man I’d been officially dating for less than twenty-four hours.
A man who had given me one of the most sensual make out sessions of my entire life, the kind that has your toes curling and pussy tingling.
I hate life.
“So.”
Hannah pokes her head through the open door, and I quickly wipe away the beading tears.
“Yeah?”
She steps into the room, a giant bouquet of pink lilies and roses in her arms. Yes, arms, because giant means there have to be over a hundred flowers combined.
My chest twists all over again.
“So, going to go off on a guess and say he sent these.” She lays the flowers on my desk and plucks out the cream envelope skewered within them. “Are you sure you broke up with him?”
“Yes.”
“Yes, but?”
“No but.”
“Sounded like there might be one.”
I clench my jaw. “Yes, I broke up with him, but I might have run away as soon as I did it.”
“As in you broke up with him and then bolted without giving him a chance to reply?”
“Yes.”
“That’s…okay, okay. Whatever. I’m reading the note.”
“Don’t. I don’t want to hear it. I can’t.”
She looks like she wants to argue, but she concedes, dropping the note on the table.
“Fine. What do you want to do, Vee?”
I want to carve him out of my brain, that’s what I want to do. I want to rewind time so that I never met him and didn’t put myself in this situation.
There is only one way I’ll get out of this. One way in which I can survive and still work at Delute Designs.
I have to cut him off completely.
“Throw them out.”
“What?”
“The flowers, throw them out. I don’t want to see them.”
“That’s a little—”
“I don’t want to see them, Hannah. I don’t want to think about him. Get them out.”
“Okay, okay.” She quickly gathers the monstrosity back in her arms. Her eyes rake over me, worry swimming through them. “I’m here for you, and I love you.”
She leaves my room, and I disappear back under my sheets, squeezing into a ball again.
Today, I’ll mourn. I’ll sulk and recover from the loss.
But tomorrow? Tomorrow, I’ll erase him from my brain. I’ll act like I’ve never heard the name Cullen before in my life, and I will find a way to survive.