Page 102 of The Affair
If there was one thing I knew about Sawyer, it was that, above all else, he was kind. Helping out a brother who loathed him sounded exactly like something he’d do.
“But I can’t forget that you had a part in it. If you had never brought him there… I used to think this was some divine plan—that we were meant to be—but I can’t help but feel like it’s all—”
“Wrong?”
“Yeah.”
He chewed over my words for some time, carefully choosing his own. “Look, Elle, I don’t know if we were some sort of fated plan or if we just happened to stumble into one another at the right moment in time, but what I do know is how I feel about you. And yes, Reed was right. Those feelings didn’t just start when I walked into your store that day, but I had given up on them a long time ago. My intentions were honorable,” he said before adding with a sly smile, “Well, mostly.”
“Why did you walk into my store that day?”
“I wanted to check on you,” he confessed. “I knew your father had just died, and after what Reed put you through, I had to know if you were okay.”
“So, you didn’t need a job?”
He could see the humor behind my eyes. “Oh, I definitely did, but I had planned on getting one that actually paid. I couldn’t work for my dad anymore.”
Biting my bottom lip, I felt a twinge of guilt. “Are you struggling because of me?”
He shook his head. “No, I’m thriving because of you. For the first time in my life, I’m choosing to do what I want rather than what will inconvenience my family the least. I’m sick of being invisible.”
“Is that what the phone call was over? Your new rebellious nature?”
“Basically,” he answered. “My mom called, trying to talk some sense into me. She’d heard through the grapevine about you and me and hoped I wouldn’t continue my embarrassing behavior—for the sake of the family.”
“She said that?”
“In so many words, yes.”
Something clicked together in my mind. The missing puzzle pieces that I’d so desperately wanted to find were suddenly fitting together. “She’s why you lost that job for the family friend, isn’t she?”
He nodded. “She gave me an ultimatum. Give up my ridiculous infatuation with my brother’s ex-wife, or she’d make sure I didn’t have a chance in hell of making it in the furniture business.”
“But it’s your dream.”
“No,” he answered, rising from his chair to kneel before me. “You are. When are you going to see that?”
It was everything I’d wanted to hear—to be someone’s everything.
Their endgame.
Their forever.
I wanted to tell him exactly the same—that I chose him, that he was my everything—but words failed me. So, I answered him with my body, with my touch. Every caress was a yes to us. To our future.
Every kiss told him I loved him—unconditionally.
He was my perfect match.
We made love slowly that night, as if we had forever—because both of us believed exactly that.
But when I woke up the next morning, the chill of air bringing me back to reality, I realized I wasn’t ready.
So, I ran.
From him. From our future.
From the possibility of failure.
