shoulder at Roxy and as she takes in the pain on my face, understanding reaches her eyes. “Oh, I get it. You think you and Sam have a thing going, is that it?” Her friendly tone has turned cold.
“I thought—”
“He’s mine, understand? Stay away from him.”
Had she punched me in the stomach, I’d feel no different. The air has left my body and I can’t breathe. The door slams behind me, and I place a hand against my chest as I walk back to my car, forcing myself to breathe. How could I have been so wrong? How could I have let this happen, again? Everything about my past experiences with men and relationships told me not to trust in him, but I went and did it anyway. I believed him.
I drop into the driver’s seat and pull the door closed. My phone lets out a high-pitched beep, alerting me of a new text message. I pull the phone from my purse and Tim’s name flashes onto the screen.
Thinking about those itty-bitty shorts. Want you back, Babe. Call me.
I’ve had this whole thing wrong from the get-go. Happily ever after? It’s nothing but a farce, a fiction made up to put little girls to bed at night, not a code for grown women to live by. I thought Sam was Mr. Right; I thought he was going to love me and be honest with me and now I know I’ve just been a fool to have ever believed him. At least I know who Tim is. I ram my key into the ignition and peel away from the curb, leaving Sam’s house, Roxy, and my crushed dream of finding real love behind me. It’s time for me to grow up and stop living my life like it’s a freaking romance novel. I turn right onto the highway and floor it.
Chapter 16
He loves me, he loves me not. Well, in all fairness, he did only say he thought he was in love with me. The doorman is nowhere to be found and I’m left waiting on the sidewalk in front of my former home. I’ve been resisting the urge to call Luanne for advice. If she knew where I was right now, what I was about to do, she’d probably attempt a bathroom lobotomy. I watch through the glass as old Mrs. Jennings from 15F exits the elevator with her two snotty pugs, Lawrence and Julian, named after her second and third husbands. Tim used to joke the men had been reincarnated as the ugly little dogs, allowing Mrs. Jennings to castrate them both in this life and the next.
As she exits the lobby doors I reach out to hold the heavy glass for her and sneak inside the marble-floored room while she leads Lawrence and Julian on their morning walk. I punch the Up button and slide inside the compartment as the doors open. There’s something about being in this elevator that has my alarm bells stirring, throwing off the muteness they’ve adopted since I left Roxy at Sam’s house. I suppose it was a former trip in this elevator that has them agitated. Barely less than a month ago, I was leaving this building in a similar circumstance to which I am now entering it. I shake off the bells, commanding them to fall silent as the elevator rises.
I arrive on the eleventh floor and boldly step from the elevator, determined to start making some smart decisions about my relationships with men. Love is no longer even a factor in the equation. Reaching the apartment door, I knock succinctly, determinedly. When it opens to reveal Suzy, wrapped in the blue silk robe I forgot to remove from the apartment, I realize I’m not surprised. Her fake breasts push aggressively at the supple fabric.
“What the hell do you want?” she asks, crossing her arms beneath her ample bosom, exposing a deep crevasse of cleavage.
That’s it, I give up. Why are you such an asshole, Universe?
Exasperated and angry, I say, “You know what, Suzy? I’m not here to talk to you. Why don’t you get your fake, liposuctioned ass out of my way?” I push through the doorway, knocking her aside, and scan the room for signs of my maniacal ex-boyfriend.
“Hey, Babe,” his voice calls out from another room, “you wanna go again before I’ve got to get back to the office?”
Tim, shirtless and shoeless but donning his perfectly altered suit pants, comes sauntering into the room, ignorant of my presence