Page 25 of Risk It All

Instead, I stare at the ceiling as the door closes behind her.The fantasy that I didn’t even know I had of us living in New York together, evaporates in my head and I know without a doubt that I just made the biggest mistake of my life.

Just let her calm down.You can talk to her tomorrow and explain how you feel.You can make things right.

As I close my eyes and pray for sleep to take me, I wonder if that will really be enough.Or if I just lost the best thing that ever happened to me.

CHAPTER11

Emerson

“I got the job,”I tell Layla.

She shrieks and I grin, pulling the phone away from my ear as I wander through Central Park.Layla finally calms down and I hold the phone back to my ear.

“So does that mean that you’re not coming back to Los Angeles?”

“Well, I’ll have to so that I can pack up my stuff and move it over here.I have two weeks to find a place to live, pack up and move here.I already sent in my two weeks notice to the gallery back there.”

“I’m so happy for you!You’re going to be killing it in New York,” she says excitedly.

“Thanks,” I say with a smile that only feels partially forced

Everything would be perfect, if not for the mess with Anthony last night.

“What’s new in Los Angeles?”I ask, wanting a distraction from my thoughts.

“Well, I actually wanted to talk to you about something too.”

“Uh oh,” I joke and I hear her laugh.

“Nothing bad!I promise.I’ve been thinking and well, I need a change of pace too.Plus I miss you.I was thinking that if you moved to New York, maybe I would join you.We could find a place to rent that’s even smaller than our place out here!”she jokes and I laugh but I know that she’s right.

I’ve been looking at apartments already and we’re going to have to live in a shoebox in order to be able to afford the place but I know that Layla will make it fun.

“That would be awesome!But are you sure that you want to move out here?New York is way different from Los Angeles.”

“I know, I know.I’m going to have to get more black clothes and all that.It just feels like I need a change of scenery, new guys to go out with, new clubs to shake my booty at.”

I laugh at that and take a seat on a nearby bench.

“Have you talked to the landlord about us not renewing our lease?”

“I will as soon as we hang up.You want me to start packing up boxes?”

“Yeah.I was thinking about buying a plane ticket and leaving my car here.Eden said that I could leave it parked in one of their parking spots until I got back.That way I could help you drive the moving truck.”

“I can pick you up from the airport,” she offers.

“Perfect.Let me send you some of the apartments that I saw.I wanted to sign a lease before I went back to Los Angeles.”

I send her a few links and stay on the line as she looks through them.

“I like that second one.Plus, it is the biggest.”

“Yeah, and that’s the one that had an open house this morning so I went to check it out.It’s in a good neighborhood, the building seems safe and it’s not the size of a postage stamp.”

She laughs at that and I promise her that I’ll go sign paperwork as soon as we hang up.She tells me about a date that she went on a few nights ago and I fill her in on Anthony.She’s ecstatic that we slept together and says that she knew that we would be perfect together.

Then I tell her about him not answering me when I asked him what this was and she quiets down.I admit that we slept together last night—again—and how I had blurted out that I love him.

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