Page 10 of Billionaire and the Barista

I shook my head. What was he getting at? “Wait a minute. What are you saying?”

He took a heavy breath. His nostrils flared, and he wouldn’t look at me.

“It’s time to be the man I’m meant to be. I can’t keep playing with motorcycles. If I’m ever going to run the family business I need to step in and start doing the work.”

“You’re already a good man. Why do you have to leave to become a better man?”

“Because the offices I’ll be working in are in Amsterdam.”

I couldn’t hear anything after he said the words. It was like at the end of a really loud concert and, while there wasn't any music playing, my ears kept ringing in relative silence. All I could hear was ringing.

“Amsterdam, that’s in Europe.”

“I know. Come with me.”

“I can’t. I can’t just up and leave all of my responsibilities.” My mind started racing. I didn’t have a passport. I would have to sell the business or find someone willing to lease it. I had no idea how I could leave and not have to sell the building. I couldn’t sell this place. It was all I had left.

“Tell your landlord you’re moving.”

My jaw dropped open, and I tried to form words.

“When… when are you going?” How much time did I have?

“I leave in two days.”

“Two days! And you waited to tell me tonight?”

“My father only recently informed me that I would be taking a position with my uncle.”

I covered my face and leaned back against the counter. My world was spinning, and if I wasn’t careful, I would tilt sideways and fall off.

“How long? Will you come back?” I needed time to figure everything out. My hands fell from my face.

He shook his head and shrugged.

I didn’t know what to do with my arms. Suddenly they were in my way. I couldn’t think. I tried to hold my head together, and then I was cold and running my hands up and down my arms. I put my hands on the counter, but I didn’t settle. I held my hands, palms up, to him.

“What about getting married?” I asked.

Nathan let out an almost growl and turned in a slow circle, shaking his head the entire time.

No? My heart cracked. I felt the fissures of the break race in a jagged pattern.

“It’s not a good time for that Gab. It was a dream. I mean, maybe in a few years, but not now.”

“You want me to leave my entire life behind, and I can’t even get a promise of getting married?”

My arms fell like dead weights to my sides. My heart split in half and fell open.

“I have got to go do this job. We can always get back together when I’m back in the States.” The way he said the words made it sound like the most reasonable plan ever.

But I couldn’t. I wasn’t some kind of local booty call for when he got home from traveling abroad.

My mouth felt all dry and sticky. My tongue didn’t want to work. “If you want to break up, why not just say that? Why make me think there is a chance?”

I looked up and felt tears sting my eyes. I huffed out a long breath. “Just break up with me so you don’t have to feel guilty for sleeping around when you go to Amsterdam.”

“That’s not what I’m saying, Gabriella.” He looked so earnest there for a minute, like he really believed himself.

“It’s what I’m hearing. You’re leaving, and I can’t go with you. You don’t know for how long. That sounds like breaking up to me.” I swiped at the tears running down my face and rubbed my nose on the back of my arm.

“You’re choosing to stay. I get it, you have to do what you have to do, just like I do. I have to take this job.”

He turned and started to walk out. When he stopped at the door, the cracked pieces of my heart wiggled as if maybe they would fly back together and repair the damage.

“I’m going to look you up when I get back. Maybe you won’t hate me so much that we can’t try again.”

The door closed behind him. I slid to the floor and sobbed. He walked out on me. The man who was the father of my child walked out like it was no big deal. My chest hurt so bad. I didn’t think my heart would ever be able to recover.

It was too easy for him. Oh, God, did he have another girlfriend, girlfriends? He certainly would as soon as he got to Europe. I wrapped my arms over my head and wished everything would stop, the pain, the doubt, the fear, the loneliness. He left and I would forever be alone.

---