“I don’t believe you,” she said. “You left before.”
“Never again,” I growled, and I had never felt anything so true in my bones. “I was an idiot. I know what I lost, and I know I’ll do anything to win it back.”
She turned to look me straight in the eyes.
“Grayson, for two years I trusted you. I would have leaped out of a plane if you said you were there to catch me.”
There was a raw expression in her eyes that I hadn’t seen before, and the pain she was trying to hide felt like it was twisting a jagged knife in my gut.
“I’m sorry,” I said hoarsely. “I’m so sorry. If I could take it back, I would.”
“I know you’re sorry,” she said, twisting my heart. “But I don’t see any way I can trust you again.”
My heart almost stopped, my heartbeat pounding in my ears.
Please no
At first I thought I only screamed it in my head, then I realized I had said it, and was saying it again.
“Please, no. Please, no. I never want to leave you, Clementine.”
“Look at it this way,” she said. “There’s millions of men in the world. And none of them have lied to me for two years. Cheated on me for two years. Your marriage proposal wasn’t even real, Grayson. It was a private helicopter ride over the ocean, and it was all a fake. Why would I ever choose you, when you’ve already done those things to me?”
“Please, darling”
It was only a moan, my voice cracking with emotion.
“I can’t live without you. Nothing is right without you.”
“I don’t even know anything about you,” she said. “Nothing about your life. Nothing about your job. You’re a stranger to me. And I don’t even know if I can trust anything you say.”
She yanked the door to the supply closet open and left me.
My legs didn’t seem to work properly and my face was numb.
For the first time, I had to face the brutal truth.
I might not be able to convince Clementine to give me another chance
This might be it for me.
Fuck.
A cold, miserable emptiness filled me.
I absolutely could not live without her.
My arms full of costumes Clementine was still working on, and props I was going to fix, we headed back to her SUV. I could tell she was tired because she handed me the keys and let me drive.
There was a stiff, awkward silence between us.
“Let’s get a burger,” I said. “You need to eat something, Clementine. You haven’t eaten since lunch.”
“I’m not hungry,” she said. “I’ll just have some more coffee.”
“You will not just have coffee,” I said. “I am here to keep you safe, and I don’t want you fainting from exhaustion. I’ll go wherever you want to.”
For a moment, she said nothing, then she said, “Tacos. Greasy tacos.”