Page 13 of Semi-Rejected Life

He blushed and turned away. “I know… sorry about that. This sort of thing… doesn’t happen very often.”

“What sort of thing?”

Vincent lifted his gaze to mine. “I don’t get asked out on dates very often.”

That word made my heart nearly stop. “Woah,” I said, holding a hand up. “This isn’t a date.”

He furrowed his brows. “It’s not?”

I shook my head and I wasn’t sure if he looked irritated or just confused.

“Then what is it?”

“Can I be really honest with you?”

“If it includes an explanation, yes.”

I took a deep breath. “You remember I said I’m leaving in a month, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well… regardless of how much we get along or potentially like one another… that’s not going to change.” I tried desperately to search for the right words to get my point across. “There’s no room for a boyfriend in my life once I go home. And there won’t be any contact or long distance things happening. I’ll probably never come back to this town again.”

Vincent just sat there, his slice of pizza limp in his hand as he stared at me.

“I know that sounds harsh… but it’s the way it has to be.”

Suddenly I became very aware the Vincent’s expression was no longer confusion, but actual irritation.

“So… you just flirted me up like this for the past couple of days to get my hopes up or something?”

“No! I meant every word of it!”

“But I’m undateable.”

“That’s not–”

“No, it’s okay,” Vincent said, dropping his slice back in the box. “I get it. I’m not good enough for you.” He chuckled to himself. “Honestly, I don’t know why I expected anything else. I’m never good enough for anybody. If I was, I wouldn’t be here in this town to begin with.”

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

He got to his feet. “Honestly, it’s fine. I’m just glad you told me up front so I didn’t get involved in something I don’t want.” He grabbed the warming bag for the pizza, leaving the box behind. “Enjoy the pizza.”

I got to my feet as he started to walk away, grabbing him by the arm. “Listen, Carino, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings–”

“What feelings?” he snapped, pulling his arm away from me. “You said that can’t happen for you, anyway.” He paused, a low growl building in his chest. “And keep your fucking pet names to yourself.” Turning away from me once more I heard him mutter, “Asshole.”

There was nothing I could do to stop him. I was at a loss for words. As he disappeared into the woods, the breeze kicked up, taking the last of his sweet scent along with it.

It was supposed to be a beautiful night…

Chapter Seven: Vincent

I don’t know why I’d gotten my hopes up for my meeting with River. It was a naïve and foolish thing to do. To think that the first man who moseyed into town looking for a piece of ass was going to fall in love with me was fucking stupid. Of course I knew that wasn’t going to happen, so why the hell did I let myself get excited?

Idiot.

I spent most of the night not sleeping as I tried to forget about River. Then, when I finally did fall asleep, it felt like my alarm went off less than a minute later. So, when I got up to head to the coffee shop to complete my morning ritual, I was not only exhausted, but grumpy as fuck. And that’s not how I wanted to start my day.

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