Page 87 of Accidental Vegas Vows

“I know,” I breathed. “I almost wish I had.”

The silence that fell between us was thick and weighted. The only sounds that cut through it were the gulps of wine, the sloshing of it between our teeth, and a handful of gunshots from the television inside where Lucas was showing Noah how to play Halo.

“Do you want it to work with her?” she asked.

“Of course I do. Desperately. But I’ve ruined?—”

“Then you should try to fix it.” She set her empty glass on the table and turned back to me. “I’m sure you can figure out a way. Don’t let it go because you’re feeling sorry for yourself and don’t think there’s a hope in sight.”

“Car, you literally said that I’ve ruined it so badly it can’t be fixed,” I snapped. She was right then and she was wrong now.

“I said might not be fixable, asshat. The least you can do is try, and then if it doesn’t work, tough shit. You move on for your son.” She grunted as she pitched forward, her hands on her knees, and pushed herself upright until she was standing. “You need to think about whether what you’re doing right now is from a lack of trying or a lack of faith. You owe it to yourself and you owe it to her.”

Chapter 35

Olivia

Ididn’t think I’d be standing outside of his private office again, staring down the name plate and calming my nerves. But here I was.

I’d sat there for upwards of thirty minutes staring at his email, working out if there was a way I could feasibly get out of his summons. But he was the owner, he was the CEO, and I was an employee. At work, I had to play by his rules.

And his rules dictated that I come up to his office.

Swallowing my pride, I pushed the door open.

He sat behind his desk, pen and tablet in hand, his temple resting on the side of his fist, his wristwatch reflecting the downpour of sunlight through the large windows. The instant I stepped through the door, his brows rose and his eyes snapped to mine.

“Liv,” he breathed.

I shut the door behind me and leaned against it. “What do you want, Damien?” I sighed, crossing my arms over my chest in an effort to feel contained.

He stood, and I couldn’t stop myself from flinching. “I needed to talk to you.”

“About work?”

“About us.”

I stilled. I should have known. God, I should have known, should have imagined this. I’d given him the benefit of the doubt again. “There’s nothing to talk about.”

“There is everything to talk about,” he pushed.

“Unless you’ve invented a time machine and can take it all back, there isn’t.”

“Liv,” he sighed, coming around to the front of his desk and leaning on it. “I’m sorry. I understand that I fucked up. I understand how I made you feel when you had already done everything I’d asked for and more. You were never… You were never just there as somebody for me to use physically or emotionally.”

I turned my head from him. I couldn’t look at him, couldn’t hear him and take him in at the same time. It made it too hard. Instead, I stared across at the sofa on the other side of the office and the smattering of plants around it, watching how the little particles of dust in the air almost glittered in the sunlight. “That doesn’t matter,” I said.

“Why?” he pressed.

“Because I can’t trust you anymore, Damien. You broke that.”

“I understand that. I know I fucked up. Let me build it back, please, Liv. I wanted everything with you. I still do. You, me, Noah. I want you, Liv, and not the things you’d do for me. I can only apologize so many times before it becomes meaningless, but I’m so?—”

“It wouldn’t be just you, me, and Noah,” I breathed.

I almost regretted it. Almost. I knew it shouldn’t come out like this, knew that in my fantasies I’d told him over romantic dinners or on his yacht or as we laid in bed one evening. But I couldn’t do that. I didn’t have the strength to do that, not when I couldn’t see a future where any of those things happened again.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

---