Page 33 of The Bonus

I would give anything…

I get out and slam the door and as I walk up the steps, I hear his sports car roar up the road, he didn’t even wait until I got inside.

I sob my way through the foyer and into the elevator. After the best night of my life came the worst day in history.

He’s gone.

The mover loads the last box onto the truck and pulls the door down. “That’s the last of it.”

“Thanks.” I smile.

“I’ll see you in Greenville tomorrow?” he says.

“Uh-huh.” I step back from the truck. “Drive safe.”

“I will.”

I watch on as the truck pulls out into the traffic and I look up the road.

He’s not coming.

It’s been seven days since Gabriel dropped me home, and for some reason, I thought he’d come back. In the back of my mind I hoped that it was going to be a fairy-tale romance, where the hero comes back at the last second to declare his love.

But he’s not.

He’s in Italy, he flew out the night after we were together.

I know this because I checked his email that confirmed the flight. The next day he changed the passwords to everything, pushing the finality of our situation home.

I get a vision of him in Italy with all of those beautiful Italian women and my heart twists, he’s probably looking for his future wife right now…that’s if he doesn’t already know who it is.

Of course he knows, she’s not me.

I drag myself back up to my apartment to start the final cleanup. I’m staying in a hotel tonight and fly out first thing in the morning.

I can’t cry anymore, there are no tears left.

My heart is an empty vessel, broken beyond repair. And the worst part is that I miss him.

I miss him so bad that I can hardly breathe.

And I want to hate him, but I can’t even do that right.

I look around my apartment and there are a few odds and ends on the floor, my red clutch purse is sitting on the counter, the mover found it under the cushion on my lounge when they were moving it.

I walk over and throw it into my suitcase. I’ve packed a bag of clothes to get me through the next few days. It clunks as it hits the side, what’s in there that’s hard? I pick it up and look inside to see the black box with silk ribbon. “Gabriel’s pen.” With all the heartbreaking, I completely forgot all about this. I quickly undo the ribbon. “Maybe he had it engraved.” I open the box and frown, there’s another felt box. I open that and gasp, I take it out and my eyes widen, it’s a diamond tennis bracelet. He bought me a diamond.

Not one diamond, but an entire bracelet.

His words come back to me: I’ll only ever buy a diamond for someone I love.

“What?” I whisper. “The hell?”

There’s a small card underneath and I take it out of the envelope.

To my Gracie,

Forever yours,

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