Chapter 48
The days following the breakup with Vic dragged monotonously.
And was that what it had been? A breakup?
And he had instigated it? Cal could hardly get his mind around it.
Even having shut down for the holidays, work was too slow to occupy his thoughts.
Few jobs trickled in—and it would no doubt keep being a very slow trickle until people paid off their Christmas-maxed credit cards and then there’d be a spring flood.
He had hoped the chores related to helping Carrie pack up and relocate would be a distraction. If anything, however, spending time with her made it worse.
He’d made the mistake of telling her about the incident at Jack’s and what he’d learned about Vic’s past—not to vilify Vic.
The opposite. He wanted Carrie to tell him he was overreacting and that people make mistakes and deserve second chances, yada yada yada.
But what had he been thinking? Of course, Carrie didn’t do that.
If anything, the story fueled her fiery opinion that romantic relationships were “for the birds.”
“And birds are pretty much the only creatures that are actually monogamous and mate for life,” she added, snickering. Then she continued with a lecture on how lucky he was to have found out about Vic’s character earlier rather than later.
“It may feel bad right now, but you should stop moping and thank your lucky stars. You dodged a bullet,” she added as her finale.
He nodded, but he wasn’t sure he’d dodged anything. His heart ached for Vic’s company—literally. The pain of longing for her was a huge knot under his sternum. He may as well have been shot.