“Oh. Shit.” His stomach coiled even tighter. “Lola?”
He went into the guest bedroom. Everything was immaculate and tidy. In its proper place. Devoid of even the tiniest hint that Lola Vonn had ever been there. He bent down and sniffed the sheets. Freshly laundered.
In the bathroom, he found clean, folded towels and every surface scrubbed and polished. All of her stuff was gone. There wasn’t even the slightest whiff of her alluring lilac perfume lingering in the air.
Alex’s eyes squeezed shut.
Lo had left him.
His gut wrenched. His heart constricted.
Why not just kill himself now and get it over with?
He tried to be reasonable. He’d pissed her off. Maybe even hurt her feelings—because he’d said he didn’t think it was a good idea for them to sleep together anymore?
Sure, it was possible she’d taken that sentiment as rejection. For Alex, it’d been self-preservation. But Lola didn’t know that, did she?
“Shit. Shit. Shit.”
He opened his eyes and returned to the kitchen, where he found a note on the counter.
I’ll mail the keys to you.
He reached for his cell and punched in the speed dial number for her as he paced the kitchen. His call went straight to voice mail. He texted her.
Call me ASAP.
No response.
Alex went into extreme panic mode, e
verything around him coming to a screeching halt. And crumbling at too rapid a rate for him to get a grip on it all. Or even to breathe normally.
* * *
Lola sat in the middle of the sofa in her parents’ house. Alone. And, once again, lonely.
She already missed Alex. She already missed having dinner with him. Laughing with him. Kissing him. Feeling his body pressed to hers, feeling him buried inside her.
It occurred to Lola that she’d probably been in love with him longer than she’d realized. Like maybe even back in high school, when she’d gone to all of his debates and had been his campaign manager for Student Body President. Rallying support for him because she believed in him as much he did her—and she’d wanted to help him achieve whatever dream he had. She’d had clout, and she’d used it to back him every chance she got.
They’d always been together. Inseparable until she’d moved to Baltimore.
But even that first split from him hadn’t been nearly as painful as this one. Because now she could see and admit that she truly was in love with Alex.
And Alex didn’t want her.
The backs of her eyes burned, and she blinked hard to keep the tears at bay. It wasn’t as though he’d used her, after all. She’d been the one to make the FWB proposition. She’d been the one to instigate the whole steamy and highly dangerous romance.
And it really had felt like a romance. Every single second of their time together had felt to Lola as though they were getting even closer to each other. It’d been a sexy, fun, and intimate affair. One she’d been emotionally invested in, even if that fact had dawned on her belatedly.
Her heart was fully engaged.
But again…
Alex. Didn’t. Want. Her.
She couldn’t hold back the tears. She let the fat drops roll down her cheeks as the sting of rejection sliced through her core, making her ache—for the only thing she truly wanted.