Page 93 of Cinderella Screwed Me Over
I can do this, I thought, taking long strides toward him, ready to spill my heart out and ask him to take me despite my issues.
Then I noticed he wasn’t alone.
The woman seated across from him had strawberry-blond hair, and they seemed to be having an intense conversation.Okay, don’t jump to any conclusions. Maybe it’s his sister. In the movies, it’salwaysthe sister.
Then I remembered his sister had dark hair.
Maybe she dyed her hair. Or it’s a cousin.
Or just someone who comes into the restaurant all the time. It’s okay for him to have female friends.
But then he looked up at me and this guilty expression crossed his face.
He held up a finger to the woman and then stood, placing himself between her and me. “Hey. I thought you had to work late.”
I answered on autopilot, a creeping sense of foreboding rising in me. “I needed to take care of a few other things, so I took off early. So…what’re you doing?” I gave a pointed look to the blonde sitting there, poorly concealing the fact that she was staring at us.
“Darby…it’s not… I meant to tell you—”
I turned, throwing a hand up. This couldn’t be happening.
He caught my arm, and I whipped around. “Who is she?” My breaths were coming too fast, my pulse pounded through my head, and the room started to spin. The past few days had been a roller coaster. I always puke after roller coasters, and I felt like puking now. How could he be one of the bad ones?
“She’s my ex…fiancée.”
The words stabbed me in the chest, every syllable radiating pain. I tried to jerk away, but he kept hold of my arm. “Look, I can explain. Just come to my office so we don’t have to do this in front of everyone in the entire restaurant.”
Tears formed in my eyes, threatening to break free. “It’s my fault. I played with fire and I got burned.” I jabbed a finger in his chest. “I thought you were different, so I let you swoop in and change my mind, just like I swore I’d never do again.”
“I’ll be right back,” Jake said over his shoulder, and then he nudged me toward his office. I wanted to fight him, to head in the other direction, but I was so numb that I just let him blindly lead me inside the room that had caused us to meet. That we’d later made out in.
“Look, I swear I was going to tell you about Shannon, but it never seemed like a good time. I was finally starting to get through to you and I knew you’d freak out. You’d use it to prove your theory about relationships.”
“I love it when liars make it sound like it’s all your fault instead of theirs. I don’t know whether to be more mad about the fact you lied or about how you preached on and on about commitment and making things work.”
“Hey, you were the one with the rules about no talking about the past. No mentioning anything that would freak you out. Those wereyourrules and now you’re getting mad that I didn’t break them?”
“You’re right, okay? My rules make no sense, and it’s allmyfault that you’re still meeting with your ex.” Crying was something I hated doing in front of people. Usually, I could stop the tears, but I felt one roll down my cheek. “Good-bye, Jake. You were always destined to be another case study anyway. I ran out of princes, so I’ll just have to smoosh you into the Cinderella case with the other Prince Charming.”
I sniffed and started for the door.
Jake was faster.
He blocked the exit. “I’m not letting you leave until you allow me to explain a few things.”
“I’m sure your explanation will be charming and full of crap. So no thanks.”
Jake crossed his arms, not moving from his spot in the doorway. “Shannon and I had only been engaged a few months when I decided to leave my dad’s company and open the restaurant. She moved to Denver with me, but she missed New York, her friends, and her family. We started fighting about everything. From how to load the dishwasher, to coasters under glasses, to how loud I was in the morning. I couldn’t do anything right.”
Jake ran a hand through his hair. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it was all her fault. I was putting everything into opening the restaurant, gone all the time, and she and I grew apart. The little bit of time we spent together, we hardly talked. I always had to guess what she was thinking, because she wouldn’t just tell me, and when I couldn’t figure it out, she’d get even angrier.”
He reached out and squeezed my shoulder. “That’s why I like that you tell me how you feel. When we fought about my being on the phone last night, I was frustrated, but you were right. Sometimes I get so focused on work, I neglect everything else in my life. I don’t want to do it again.” He ran his hand down my arm. “Not with you.”
“So you’re telling me that it doesn’t matter that you called off your engagement because it just wasn’t right?”
“Itwasn’tright. It’s lucky we realized that before we committed to spending the rest of our lives together.”
A mirthless laugh escaped my lips. “That’s the thing. People think everything will magically work out with someone else. But it’s the same, no matter who you’re with. Passion fades, problems arise, the world gets in the way, or you meet someone else new and exciting. Then everyone justifies that they tried, making it okay to cheat or to walk away.”
