“Wow.”
“Yeah.” He gave me a tiny affectionate kiss on the nose before relaxing his grip on me, helping my feet settle on the floor. “Guess we better get dressed before Greg comes looking for us.”
I nodded, pulling my bra strap up over my shoulder. It seemed surreal the way we dressed in that quiet cavern and made our way to the lobby together a few minutes later. Greg was still chatting with someone in his office, but he saw us and excused himself for a moment.
“Great shoot, guys,” he said, pulling a wad of cash out of his pants pocket and counting off several hundred dollar bills to first me and then Shane. A tiny part of me felt satisfaction that we were both paid equally, in spite of the fact that Shane was now a “star” in our tiny modeling community. I wouldn’t have balked had it been otherwise, but it was gratifying nonetheless.
As we walked toward the front door so Greg could return to his meeting, part of me wanted to grab Shane’s hand. But it felt too soon. It still didn’t seem real.
In retrospect, I was relieved that I hadn’t. He held the door for me and I walked through, still experiencing that floaty feeling inside, and I melted when he draped an arm over my shoulders. I leaned into his body, mirroring him by wrapping an arm around his waist, and he asked, “Where’s your car?”
“Around the corner.”
We paused once we got there and he gave me a soul-crushing kiss, his hands cupping my cheeks. But suddenly something didn’t feel quite right.
“Ivy, this was nice…”
The thud of my heart hitting the sidewalk told me to wake up, to pay attention and stop acting dreamy. “But?”
The relief I saw flood his eyes confirmed what I was feeling in the pit of my gut. “I don’t think I told you I had an agent.” I wanted to ask what the hell that had to do with anything, but I focused on breathing…just breathing. “She wants me to move to New York.”
I managed to repeat his words. “New York?”
“Yeah—that’s where the work is. If I’m gonna make this a career, I need to be where the big jobs are. She suggested a couple of other places but, really, New York is the place.” He must have seen how badly I wanted to object, because he added, “I can’t do the business thing, Ivy. It’s not in my blood. This, though? This I can do.”
I wanted to ask him how many other models he’d fucked…because he was fucking me right now. But instead I just let the world fall away from me as I realized I had to let this man go, just as I’d realized he was probably the only man for me.
Maybe I was destined to be alone. I just couldn’t believe he was dumping me before we’d even officially gotten together. Unbelievable.