Page 55 of The Breakup

I wouldn’t be begging Christian for sex.

Abandoning the search for my phone, which seemed futile, I turned and said to Christian with as much dignity as I could muster, “Can I borrow your phone?”

“Sure.” He handed it to me like he was vaguely afraid of me.

“I want to call an Uber.” I swiped over his screen until I found the app and ordered myself a car. “It shows it’s a twenty-minute wait.” That was the downside of being in a small town. I could call my father, but I didn’t want him to bail me out either. I considered calling Sophie, but she had no ability to be stealthy. It wasn’t in her nature, and my mother would end up in the car with her, and that would be horrible. I would rather walk than talk to my mother right now.

“If you need to be somewhere I can drive you.”

“No, thank you.” I forced myself to look him in the eye. “I appreciate what you’ve done for me, but I think it’s time for me to leave.”

If I had been holding on to any sliver of hope that he would try to talk me out of it, he took that away without hesitation.

“If that’s what you want.”

Yeah, that was a man who was busted up over my departure. Not. He looked like…nothing. Not pissed off. Not emotionally devastated. Just nothing. Disinterested. Like I hadn’t sucked his dick while he was driving and he hadn’t been the first man to give me three orgasms inside of an hour.

We were fucking. That’s what he had told me and he was right. I was nothing to him.

And he needed to be nothing to me.

So without a word I just went into the cabin and gathered up my stuff, cramming my purse and my wedding shoes into my overnight bag. I carefully draped my wedding gown over my elbow and went back outside. I reached out and touched Camp’s cheek, my heart squeezing a little. He really was a cute kid. “Bye, Campy. I’m glad we got to hang out.”

He gave me a drooly smile and a wave. “Bye.”

It was like a knife to the heart. I glanced at Christian over Camp’s soft blond hair. “Bye, Christian,” I whispered. “Thanks.”

He just nodded.

I started walking down the driveway.

“What are you doing?” he asked, astonished. “You can wait here.”

“I’d rather walk.” Before I changed my mind and relapsed into pathetic again.

So I trudged down the gravel drive, carrying a twenty-thousand-dollar wedding dress and my bag. What a cliché from hell.

It occurred to me I had left my underwear there, but he could just toss them when he cleaned up the caboose for his or his brother’s next sex partner.

He’d probably forget me in about three days.

Dragging all my shit and no small amount of bitterness, I sniffled and got to the road.

Then I sat down on a giant rock and waited.

—

I wasn’t even sure what the hell had just happened. I watched Bella walking slowly down the driveway, hauling her giant wedding dress with her. Yes, she had refused my ride. But no, I was not going to let her walk. There was no way. She could stop being stubborn for five miles and let me take her home.

But by the time I found my keys and strapped Camp into his car seat, we pulled down the drive and watched her climbing into a car, hauling her dress in with her, chin up. She was beautiful and dignified.

And I was an idiot.

I wanted to swear profusely, but Camp was at an age where he was starting to acquire language. The kid only knew a couple of dozen words. It would be just my luck if he started dropping F-bombs. So I swore inside my own head.

Sure, I had known this was the end of the road with Bella. But I had wanted to end it on good terms. I wanted this to be a good memory for her. Not another disappointment on top of her shitty week.

Watching the car carry her back toward town, I drummed my thumbs on my steering wheel, not sure what to do. But there was nothing I could do. I looked at Camp in my rearview mirror. “Well, buddy, it’s you and me. What should we do today?”

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