"Your face is so familiar to me." Her finger darts to her chin. "Maybe we've seen each other in the city. What do you do for work?"
"That's none of your business," Crew says from where he's standing to our left. He has his gray pants on and his hands are making quick work of the buttons of his black shirt.
"I'll get ready to go." I glance at Damaris one more time. I should be polite and tell her that it's nice to meet her, but that's a lie.
"He needs a friend." She jerks her thumb at Crew. "I'm glad he has a good one in you."
He has something in me. I'm not sure what it is anymore.
***
Once we're on the highway, I ask the question that has been perched on my lips since Damaris walked into the foyer with Kade. "When were you two together?"
"That altar stuff is bullshit." He doesn't look at me. His eyes stay on the road as he handles his BMW with ease. "I broke off our engagement in person before we'd even picked a date. It was brief, Ad."
"It was before we met," I say that aloud even though I don't mean to.
"Years before." He nods his head. "We were only together for a few months."
I stare out the window at the traffic passing on the other side of the highway. "Where did you meet?"
He hesitates before he answers. His jaw tightens as his hands fist the steering wheel. "At a club. I always met women at clubs."
We met outside a club in Vegas. It's not the same though. He didn't even acknowledge me that night. He was focused on Ellie because he wanted to offer her a job, and then on Lucia because he wanted to offer her his cock.
"You loved her." I push my hands against my thighs. I changed into jeans and a white sweater. They were the first items I grabbed as I heard Crew's shoe tapping on the floor outside the door of the bedroom.
"No." He briefly looks at me before his eyes are on the road again. "I liked what we did together. I liked the high she provided. That's not love."
"Have you ever been in love?" I ask because maybe his gauge is different than mine. I don't know what love feels like to anyone but me.
"No," he answers quickly. "I love people, but that's not the same."
He's right. It's not.
He clears his throat. "You loved Leo."
My head darts in his direction. I feel a sense of panic hearing him say Leo's name. I've spoken to him about my ex-boyfriend before, but that was right after Crew and I met. I was still hung up on Leo because he had helped me heal after the end of a relationship that damaged me in countless ways.
I missed Leo's presence in my life for months after our split. I didn't miss the arguments we constantly had over our undecided mutual future.
Leo wanted to get married and have a child right away. I want a career and the chance to grow into the person I'm supposed to be before I hold my own baby in my arms.
"I did love him," I admit on a sigh. "It wasn't a good fit for me though. If it were, I wouldn’t have fallen out of love with him so easily."
He reaches for my hand and brings it to his thigh. "Leo was a lucky man."
Damaris was a lucky woman. She got him to drop to his knee and offer his life to her. Knowing Crew the way I do, that's a shock.
"Do you ever regret ending it?" I try to pull my hand back but he holds it tightly.
"Never."
I look back out the window and the darkening sky. "I take it you two don’t talk anymore."
He lets my hand slip away when I give it another tug. "There's nothing left for us to talk about. She was part of my life, now she's not. It's cut and dry."
I fall silent as we make a turn.