Anguished (Crimson Elite 2)

“Come on, baby, I’ll be back.”

Her eyes narrow. “What is it that you do exactly, Echo? After all these years you’ve never really told me?”

“We own a private establishment, you know this.”

Her hands cross over her chest. “Do you ever plan to tell me what you do in there?” I scratch the top of my head unsure of how to answer her. “You’re trying to come up with a lie right now, aren’t you?”

I shake my head at her crazy words. “Of course not, it’s just very elite for a reason, baby.”

She stands, doing up her dress. “Don’t baby me, you asshole. I’m leaving.”

“Okay. Want me to grab something for dinner tonight?”

She walks to our closet, pulls out a bag and starts throwing her shit in it. “I’ve found someone else, Echo. Someone who can give me his all. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about today. But, of course, you get distracted easily as usual.” She keeps packing, then stops and looks up when I don’t answer her. Selena’s words try to process through my brain as if I didn’t hear them correctly.

“You’re fucking someone else?”

Selena groans loudly, standing up with bag in hand. “Of course, that’s all you hear. I’m leaving you, Echo. And I’m not coming back this time. I can’t.”

She’s left me before. But she’s always come back the next day once she’s cooled down, but seeing someone else hasn’t happened before. She pulls the bag up her shoulder, and it takes me a moment longer to realize what she’s saying.

“You can’t do that to me. To us.”

She scoffs at my words while she reaches for her cell and places it in her pocket. “I’ve already done it, Echo. See, you’re not listening again. It goes in one ear and out the other. I don’t love you anymore, I love someone else.” Her hands are flying around, but the words coming from her mouth don’t make sense. I look at the bed which shows evidence of our sex. How the fuck can she say that after what we’ve just done?

“You don’t love me anymore?” Pinning her with my stare, I will her to tell me the truth.

She looks at the floor then back to me. Conviction in her eyes. “I want more. You aren’t more for me, Echo.”

I can feel the knife she’s just placed in my heart twist, and it twists so fucking hard.

“You want to leave me?” I say the words more to myself, but she answers them anyway.

“I am… leaving you. Not want. I am, Echo. I’m sorry. I know this isn’t easy. But when you really think about it and move on, you’ll see that you don’t love me the way you think you do. You just don’t.” My hands reach for her, gripping her arms tightly. Her eyes go wide as if she’s afraid. But I would never hurt her, so I remove my hands but stay in front of her.

“Don’t tell me how I love or who. I love you, Selena. I have from the moment I met you. Don’t twist this to make yourself feel better by finding someone else.”

She steps back as if I’ve slapped her. “I was hoping we could end this on good terms, Echo. I want to be friends. Because I do love you.”

“Friends,” I grunt at her, then point to the door. “Leave my house.”

“See, was it ever ours? Your house. You don’t do that to people you love. This was meant to be a partnership, Echo.” She walks past to leave me forever.

“I hope to never see you again, Selena. I really fucking do.”

She smiles a sinister smile before she walks out shutting the door behind her.

I drink myself to sleep that night. And the next, and the next.3StormYep, it’s my last time. I swear it is. I shake my head as I laugh at the show, the one that suckers me in every time I’m bored out of my brain. Which seems to happen a lot lately, work and no friends do that to you.

Yes, I have no friends.

That’s because I know no one in this goddamn city, and left everyone I love back home. I’m being a grown-up, doing grown-up things and standing on my own two feet with no one around me to tell me how proud they are. Is it smart? Possibly not. But I did it anyway. My job’s demanding, and when it isn’t, I don’t want to do much anyway. I’m surrounded by women and very few men all day. Being the boss though, doesn’t work well with mingling with my staff. I prefer for them to see me in the light I show them, not this girl who likes to sit in her non-fashion pajamas and eat popcorn mixed with chocolate all night watching some stupid comedy.