Page 44 of Take Me Under

“Ten months,” I corrected.

“Close enough. You need to get out there and start dating again and now seems as good of a time as any. I mean, Anton seems like a decent guy. He didn't have to nurse you back to health. He could have easily sent you home with a driver and a ‘get well soon’ card. The fact that he didn't speaks volumes. Do you like him?”

I chewed on my lip for a moment before responding. “Yeah, I like him. He’s charming, smart, and there’s definitely an attraction there.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“I’m just too busy to date. I’ve been doing just fine with my rechargeable friend.”

“That’s not the same and you know it. If I were offered this thirty-day deal, I would want to find out if we were compatible in bed first—a hot alleyway make-out session isn’t enough. What if he’s into some weird shit? At the very least, have yourself a one-night stand and find out. They are completely underrated in my opinion.”

I laughed. “I will admit, the idea of no emotional attachment is appealing.”

“Exactly.”

“I’m just not sure if I want to jump back into this arena anytime soon.”

“Why not?”

“You know why.” I paused, frowning before asking, “Have you seen them around by any chance?”

I didn’t have to elaborate on whothemwas. Caterina knew.The moment the words left my lips, a sharp silence filled the line, heavy with our shared history.

Cade. Briana.

The two people who had shattered my trust in a way I hadn’t even thought possible.

“Fuck Cade Rosenberg,” Caterina spat, her voice laced with venom. “He and Briana can take a flying leap for all I care.”

I let out a dry laugh, though there was no humor in it. “I take it you’ve seen them.”

“This past weekend,” she admitted. “At La Terrazza.”

My stomach twisted, a sharp, unpleasant pang striking through my ribs. Of course it had to be there. Our place. The rooftop bar that had once been my safe haven, where I had spent countless nights sipping cocktails under the Florence skyline with my three friends, laughing and making memories. The first weekend of every month had been ours—mine, Caterina’s, and Briana’s.

Until Briana had blown my world apart by having an affair with Cade.

Now it appeared as if she wanted to take La Terrazza, too.

Was there anything she wouldn’t steal from me?

“What the hell,” I muttered, rubbing a hand over my forehead.

Finding out she had been sleeping with Cade behind my back had been a devastating kind of heartbreak, but what had come after had been worse. The way they had twisted everything, rewriting the narrative until I was the unreasonable one, had hurt even more.

Cade had insisted it had just happened, that he never meant to hurt me, that I was the one who had driven him away with my “emotional distance” while I helped my mother care for my father.

His words echoed in my mind.

“You never let me in, Serena. You know how hard that was for me. I tried, but you kept shutting me out.”

As if his betrayal had somehow been my fault. As if I had been the one to push him into her arms. It was nothing but manufactured regret.

And Briana—her gaslighting had been even worse. She had looked me straight in the eye, with that pitying expression she always wore so well, and had the audacity to say I was overreacting. She claimed that Cade never loved me, and if he had, he wouldn’t have run into her waiting arms.

Even now, their words burned like fresh wounds that refused to heal. It wasn’t the affair that bothered me the most—it was the way they had made me doubt myself.

And now, they were at La Terrazza, parading their relationship around a place that had once been ours.

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