Page 61 of Roman & Olivia
Her eyes grew wide. “What?”
Closing the distance, he took her hands in his. “Break up with him so I know you’re not going to get your heart broken. He’s not right for you, Liv. I know you can’t see it because it’s new, but I can. Trust me. He’s not?—”
She yanked her hands out of his grasp. “I can’t.” Her eyes searched his, full of pain and betrayal. “You need to leave.”
A strange sort of cold numbness spread through his body, filling every crevice it could find. He’d told her what he’d seen of Mason’s character, and it hadn’t done a thing to help. He’d begged her to break up as a favor to him, and that had only hurt her further.
He was shattering whatever pieces they had left of their friendship, and for what?
Nothing.
“I think you should go. And I don’t think we should talk to each other for a while.”
“Liv, you can’t—” He moved toward her again, but she flinched and jumped out of his reach.
“I mean it, Roman. This isn’t healthy. The friendship we have… it’s notnormal.”
And like a dagger to his heart, her words sliced right through him. He flexed his hands, his fingers twitching at his sides as hewatched her, waiting for her to tell him she was sorry and didn’t mean what she said.
But the apology never came.
His breathing grew ragged, and his heart stuttered. She was slipping from his fingers.
No.
She had slipped from his fingers.
He’d lost her.
24
Olivia
Why does it feel like my heart has been ripped right out of my chest?
“Liv?”
Why can’t I be happy? I’m the one who made this decision.
“Liv, darling, are you listening?”
Olivia’s eyes lifted from the blurred words on the menu before her. Mason smiled at her, albeit warily, from across the table. “I’m sorry, what were you saying?”
“The event for this weekend. You’re still planning on it, right? It’s going to be the first one where we’re officially a couple.”
She nodded and turned her eyes back to the menu even though she wasn’t really reading it. Three weeks had passed and Roman had kept his distance—for the most part.
After their little fight, he’d sent her a few messages asking her to reconsider her decision.
She’d ignored them.
Now, she wasn’t sure she’d made the right decision. But it was too late.
A cool hand took hers and she looked up to find Mason frowning at her, worry lines marring his face. “You made the right decision.”
“What… how did you…” The question tumbled from her lips before she could help it.
“Liv,” he said, the name still sounding strange coming from him when Roman had been the one to give it to her. “I know you better than you think. It’s been hard these last couple of weeks. He meant a lot to you. I get it. But you made the right choice. Anyone who feels they have to stand in the way of your happiness doesn’t deserve to be in your life. He was manipulating you. Everything he did was for his own selfish desires.”
