I start to apologize, but Stone shakes his head and says curtly, "It's fine, Ms. Cavendish."
My chest suddenly feels tight. I've always been 'Mary' to him, even during the time he was just my boss, and not my sugar daddy. So why is he calling me 'Ms. Cavendish' now?
"I'll see you on Monday."
Stone turns his back without a word, and the older woman sniffs at me before turning away as well.
I can't remember feeling this painfully humiliated, and when I start to walk, and I feel the bare flesh between my legs—-
My eyes start to burn, but I quickly blink them away. Stone has to have a reason for doing this, I tell myself desperately, and I say the words over and over in my mind when I'm back home.
I wait for him to call and explain.
But he doesn't.
Saturday becomes Sunday, but I work hard to convince myself that he'll still call. That he'd have a valid explanation for acting the way he did, and he'd give me a reason to forgive him.
Please, Stone, please.
But the weekend eventually comes to pass, and when it's time for me to head back to work, that's when the tears finally start to fall, and I find myself drowning in shame.
How could I have been so stupid?
Stone never promised to love me. He didn't even promise to make me his woman, and he certainly didn't promise that what we had would last.
All he told me was that he wanted to fuck me, and now...
I suppose he no longer does.
Stone
I'm already at the office at four in the morning, and every second is a constant struggle not to call Mary or drive to her place and beg her to hear me out.
Memories of Jocelyn have always tormented me, but the past became even more unbearable when I discovered the truth about her death.
The girl I thought I loved never existed. I had thought she was an angel, but when I learned of how she had willingly stepped in front of someone's car to kill herself, I realized there had to be a deeper reason behind her actions...and I was right.
Having hired a team of investigators to dig into Jocelyn's past, I soon found out that Jocelyn has been leading a double life since her early teens. We all thought my former girlfriend was this perfect girl, but instead she spent countless nights partying and hooking up with celebrities while experimenting with drugs.
When one of her dealers blackmailed her with a sex tape he had secretly filmed while she was out of her mind on cocaine, that was when Jocelyn decided suicide was her only salvation...and she hadn't cared how her death would affect her parents or me.
I've avoided meeting Jocelyn's widowed mother since learning the truth, but having bumped into Augusta last night, I realized I needed to help her move on from her daughter's death. It hadn't been easy, and the older woman had been a wreck when I showed her all the evidence that my investigators had gathered.
Last night would remain one of the worst nights of my life, but at the same time, it was also something that needed to happen. Talking to Augusta had forced me to relive the past, and doing so made me realize that it's time I ended things with...
Mary.
I've been hanging out at my office's reception area, having made up some stupid excuse to go through last week's visitor log just so I'd be one of the first to see her when she arrived.
But now that she's finally standing in front of me, I suddenly have no idea what to say—-
"Good morning, Mr. Verhoff."
Mary actually beats me to speaking, but before I can answer her, Nic and Francesca are also coming out of the elevator, and my friend grins at my obvious disconcertment.
"Francesca wanted to have breakfast with Mary," Nic explains, "so we picked her up at her apartment."
"I see." I can't help following Mary with my gaze as she walks ahead of us, and she's already hard at work when I walk past her desk. She's back to being the perfect secretary she used to be, and I tell myself this is a good thing.
Talking to Augusta made me remember how easy it was for Jocelyn to make a fool out of me, but more importantly than that, reliving the past also made me realize what I once felt for my former girlfriend isn't even a fucking fraction of how much Mary makes me feel.
If losing Jocelyn had nearly killed me, I can't even imagine what I'd end up doing if Mary ends up leaving me as well—-and that's something I don't fucking care to risk.
Nic
I'm not sure what's changed, but the moment I join Stone and Mary in the conference room, I know right away things are no longer the same between them.