Page 74 of The Two of Us

He spears his fork into his salad. “You already ate two. Trust me, I’m doing you a favor.”

Sasha laughs from across the table and my face burns with humiliation.

“I’m bored,” Ambrose drawls. “Let’s go dance.” He hooks his arm around Sasha’s waist, leading her around us. As his body brushes behind my chair, he drops an untouched bread roll onto my plate without anyone noticing. I glance up but he’s already halfway to the dance floor.

Brandon leans in and whispers in my ear, “Meet me in the lobby in five minutes.”

I don’t really want to, but it’s not like I have many options at my disposal here. When I find him waiting by the elevators, he smiles a smile that makes me think that maybe the others he’s given me over the last two years were half-assed. “Look what I have,” he sings, dangling something in my face.

“What is that?”

“It’s our room key. I booked us a room here so we could dip out early and have some alone time.”

Oh.

Bile threatens to claw its way up my throat and it surprises me how quickly my body says no to something my mind said yes to for weeks. “Right now? But there’s so much dance left.”

“Dance?” He laughs. “Forget about the dance, you hate dances.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Don’t what?”

“Hate dances. I don’t like them, but I don’t hate them.”

“Okay,” he says, growing irritated. “You don’t like dances but you don’t hate them. Whatever. Let’s go.” He reaches for my hand but I pull away.

“I don’t… maybe we should rain check.” My eyes naively scan the room for Cat.

Brandon laughs but when he realizes I’m not joking, his voice hardens. “You’re kidding me. Mara, you promised me.”

I jerk my head back. “I didn’t promise anything.”

“You did, you promised!”

“When exactly did I promise to have sex with you, Brandon?”

“This,” he growls, shaking my hand with the ring he gifted me. “This is your promise.”

“What?” I sputter. “You said—you said this ring meant—”

“Forget what I said! Come on, you’re not stupid. No guy spends that much money on a girl and doesn’t expect anything in return.”

My jaw drops and Brandon has the audacity to look like I’m the one who’s blindsided him.

It’s amazing how quickly things can change. One moment I’m a girl named Mara Makinen who loves a boy named Brandon Lang and the next moment I’m not. One moment, I look at him with love and adoration and the next, he’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen.

I don’t feel sad or heartbroken or even mad really. A part of me feels slightly bitter that I’ve given him two years of my life but what I mostly feel is an overwhelming sense of relief.

I think this is what people call an epiphany.

I twist the ring off my finger and slip it into his hand as he gapes at me.

“Thank you, Brandon.” I laugh. “Thank you.”

I’m already looking for Cat when my phone pings with a text from her.

SOS. Meet me by Ambrose’s car.

---