Page 79 of Dead Set on You
He chuckles. “Threeyears. You can add that to your list of All Things Rafael, por favor.”
I’m almost speechless. “No.”
“Yes!”
“With a human woman?”
Rafael scowls, but his lips twitch with the effort. Whatever he’s about to say is going to be ridiculous. “Yes, ahumanwoman. Phantom women weren’t yet in the picture.”
I roll my eyes, biting back a smile. “So, what happened?”
“There was an accident, and here you are.”
A growl crawls up my throat. “With the girlfriend!”
“Last I heard, she was married with twins and a doting husband.”
“Rafael.”
“Okay, okay!” He holds up his hands in mock surrender. “She broke up with me.”
“Let me guess—commitment issues?”
He scowls playfully, then sobers. “No—because I was distracted.”
“By work?”
There’s another shift in the muscles of his face, and I try to figure out what it means. His features smooth out too quickly for me to piece it together. “It was work related.”
I watch him for a second longer, trying to draw out the entire truth, but he doesn’t give me much more. “Intriguing.”
“Which part?” He reaches for another chicken wing.
“Three years is a long time.” I try to think back to when that would have been. I don’t remember Rafael being in a long-term relationship while at Media Lab. In fact—before the betrayal—he didn’t mention a girlfriend, and afterward, any morsel tied tohis love life was a result of hearing it from others or having Gemma stalk his social media. For intel, of course.
“I was young and so was she. We grew apart.” He shrugs as if he hasn’t just offered me a glimpse into an entire chunk of his life during which he was involved with a woman—in a committed relationship. I have several hundred questions I want to ask and answers I want to tuck away for the futu—
A stab of panic pierces my interrogation bubble when I think about the future.
“What about you? What happened?” Rafael’s question draws my attention back to him.
I try to form a response. Late nights and work-laden weekends. Promotions to chase. A rival to keep at bay. I consider lying to keep him from seeing how pathetic I am, but he’s shown me his. I have no choice but to say, “Work.”
“They must not have been worth it, then,” he says casually.
I frown. “Explain.”
He rests an arm over the back of the chair. “Believe it or not, I know a thing or two about you, and you would have found a way to pencil in someone worth your time.”
My instinct when it comes to Rafael is to argue with everything he says. This time, I think about it first. Would I have made time for someone worth it? I think of Theo and his passion for cooking. Trevor and his dream to be in the NBA Hall of Fame. Chip and his ambition to one day be a published writer. And then it hits me: I chose men who were just as distracted as I was. Who wanted something more than we wanted each other.
I think Rafael is right.
He smiles knowingly.
I scowl. He knows too much, more than I give him credit for.
“So, are you going to tell me your unfinished business now?” he asks. The change is abrupt … and I know I can’t put this off forever, not if we want time to test my theory.
