Page 158 of Stay With Me

“Well, I mean, you know I love Nick. He’s been great.But seriously, what kind of guy gets all standoffish during the week of your first anniversary?” Jenna pointed out. “I mean, he should be planning a vacation to somewhere tropical, not working extra hours and pretty much ignoring you.Come on.”

Samantha groaned as she dropped her head onto the desk. “Ohhhhhhh nooo. I think I’m going to be sick.”

“Don’t be sick,” Jenna crooned. “It will be fine. You had a great time with him so if this is where he happens to end things, take a week or two to mope around and then get back out there.”

“Jenna!” Samantha squeaked through the massive lump in her throat.

“What?”

Samantha shook her head frantically. “I don’t want to get back out there. I want to be withNick.I wanted to be planning a wedding at this point, not looking to start over with someoneelse.”

“But Samantha, he doesn’t believe in marriage, and he’s never even eluded to it other than that dream he had last year. He’s probably the kind of guy who needs to move on after about a year or so. That’s actually a huge improvement from what he started out as.”

Samantha dropped her face into her hand and sobbed. “He can’t possibly be thinking about breaking things off.”

“Well, you won’t know until you know. Try not to worry about it.”

“How am I supposed to not worry about it!”

“Try to think about something else.”

Samantha made a face at her laptop screen. “You are not helping, Jenna.”

“I’m trying to help you be prepared for the worst. You know, soften the inevitable blow.”

Samantha huffed as she wiped her face on her sleeve. “I need to go. I told him I’d pick him up at the restaurant.”

“Ick.” Jenna sniffed. “He’s making you pick him up from work on youranniversary?Jeeez.”

“Bye Jenna.”

Samantha set the phone down, then covered her face with one hand and clutched her tummy with the other while she cried quietly.

“Oh God,” she whispered through her tears. “What am I going to do? I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to do…”

Eventually, it was several minutes past five, and she knew she had to get going so she stuffed one more cracker into her mouth in an effort to quell her nausea, flipped the lights off, and headed out to her car.

* * *

Samantha arrived at the back door of the restaurant, knocked, and waited. A couple of minutes passed, and Nick approached with a phone to his ear and let her in. He gave her a quick smile, but no hug or kiss, and continued to chat casually.

“Yup,” he replied. “Tomorrow is great. I’ve got a totally open schedule.”

Samantha rolled her eyes. Of course he didn’t think about how Saturday was supposed to be their day together. He was probably going to be a single man at that point, and she’d be left to deal with her little secrethealth conditionon her own.

She gritted her teeth as she glared at the side of his head.

“Sounds great, I’ll see you then. Later.”

He shoved the phone in his pocket. “Hey, babe.”

No “Happy anniversary” or anything.

“Hi,” she said flatly.

“Are you hungry? I had Chase leave me some stuff in the breakroom before he left.”

So this was going to be their final “dinner date.” Whatever Chase deemed unfit for the patrons.

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