Page 91 of On the Rocks

It was clear that serious relationships and I didn’t mix. If I was only ever going to become this horrible, angry, uncontrollable person, then why drag things out with Cora? It would only hurt more the longer I let it go on.

“Paul and Chloe had to head off,” Dominic said, appearing suddenly. He squeezed between Dad and me at the bar. “Chloe works in the morning. Meanwhile, Trent’s chatting up a woman from Golden Oak Distillers. If he dates the competition, I’m never gonna let him hear the end of it.”

“We wish him well,” Dad said moodily, raising his glass and slurring his words.

“What’s going on here?” Dominic asked.

“Fought with Maggie,” Dad said, pointing at himself. He turned his finger on me. “Broke up with Cora.”

Dominic’s eyes widened. “Well shit, man,” he said. I could smell the alcohol on his breath. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Nothing to say. What’s done is done.” I lifted my glass. Dominic lifted his. We clinked our drinks together. If anyone could understand what it was to watch a relationship crash and burn, it was Dominic. Here we were, the three of us some kind of fucked-up broken hearts club, while the party carried on around us.

In the end, love was nothing more than a game in futility. A game that had bested me.

And it was time to take my licks and retire from the game for good.

27

CORA

Was it still considered a walk of shame when you had to rock up to your ex’s place to collect your belongings?

I walked into the lobby of Aiden’s building, giving the doorman a wave. He’d learned to expect me these past months, waving me through to the elevator with barely a second glance, but I wondered if after today I’d be escorted off the premises like a trespasser. Walking around here now, I felt like I had “ex-girlfriend” tattooed across my forehead.

Like everyone else could see the reality of my relationship status, could tell I’d been dumped hard.

Frankly, I’d never wanted to be anywhere less than in this elevator, heading for the penthouse. Yet, at the same time, a delusional part of me was desperate to see Aiden, wondering if maybe this had all been some big mistake, and we could talk our way through it. I kept hoping I’d wake up and realize my memory of the launch was nothing more than some panic dream, and Aiden hadn’t really broken things off with me.

But as I stood in the hallway outside Aiden’s apartment, hand on the doorknob, I hesitated, lifting my hand to knock instead. I supposed we were past the point of me just walking into his place like I belonged there.

Like he wanted me there.

I rapped on the door a couple times, and my pulse raced beneath my skin while my gut twisted.

“You can do this,” I whispered under my breath. Jennifer had tried to give me a pep talk before I left, but it clearly wasn’t working. When Levi had ended things with me, he’d been the one leaving. He was the one who had to pack up his life and remove his stuff from our apartment. I’d never had to do this before. But my things had accumulated at Aiden’s place—my toiletries in his bathroom, my clothes in his closet, my books in his living room. And I didn’t have so much stuff that I could afford to write it all off as lost.

The lock clicked, and my throat went dry.

The door swung open. Aiden stood there in a pair of loose sweats and a shirt that clung to him in all the right places. He was devastatingly handsome even like this, and my chest ached at the thought of never seeing him like this again.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hi.” I hovered in the entryway, wondering if I was going to throw up. I looked into his eyes.Ask me to stay. Ask me to talk. Ask me anything, I silently pleaded with him.

“Uh…”

Yes?My breath caught on a sliver of hope.

“I gathered up some of your stuff.” He gestured to a box on the couch. “But feel free to take a look and see if I missed anything.”

“Right, thanks,” I said, the words emerging from some hollow place inside me. I walked past him, and he stepped back to ensure no contact between us, standing there with his hands in his pockets as he let the door thump closed.

Feeling like a stranger, I headed down the hall to the bedroom, tohisbedroom, and whipped through it quickly, finding a belt of mine in the closet and a couple of creams in the bathroom. When I was done, I headed back to the living room, giving it a quick once-over. Aiden lounged, scrolling on his phone.

His eyes lifted as I dumped the rest of my things into the box, perching it onto my hip. “Goodbye” was on the tip of my tongue, but anger had started to burn away at the dread that coiled through me. How could he already act so indifferent to me? How had he stopped caring so quickly?

This was probably my last chance to get any kind of real answer about what happened between us. If I wanted that closure, if I wanted to understand, it was now or never. “I think that’s it,” I said.

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