You aren’t walking around in my shoes.”
“Because you have horrible taste in shoes,” he replies. “But this time around, you didn’t have horrible taste in women. You don’t know for sure what you saw yesterday because I bet you didn’t stick around to ask many questions.”
I bloody hate it that he knows me so well.
“It doesn’t matter,” I reply and hang my head in my hands. “I’m not going down this road again. Even if it wasn’t what I think, it just goes to show that I can’t trust, her or me. And without trust, we have nothing anyway.”
“That’s a sad way to live, Simon.”
“I’m not discussing this anymore. We have work to do.” I open my agenda and look at Todd expectantly. “What do we have this week?”
***
“I’ve wanted to attend one of your workshops for ever,” a blonde in her mid-thirties raves as I sign her book and pose for a photo. “Thank you so much.”
“My pleasure, darling,” I reply and smile as she walks away. That was the last one in line and I’m bloody exhausted. I just spent six hours coaching a room of six hundred women on dating techniques. The last hour was open to questions, followed by another hour of signing books and meeting the attendees, and my energy is now gone.
Todd walks back to the makeshift greenroom that the hotel provided.
“This was a great workshop,” he says. “The attendees were riveted. Of course, they always are when it comes to you.”
“It went well,” I agree. Since I returned from New Orleans three weeks ago, everything has been in a fog. I’m not numb, but nothing excites me. Today went well simply because I know my material inside and out and I know how to charm a room from years of experience.
But my heart isn’t in it anymore.
Because despite my better judgement, I left my heart in New Orleans. With it being several weeks since I last saw Charly, I can admit that I miss her, but it doesn’t change what happened. It doesn’t change that I can’t trust her, and I can’t control the jealousy I feel when another man even looks in her direction.
“Do you want me to stick around?” Todd asks as he stows away my mic and readies the equipment to be picked up by the crew later.
“No, I’m fine. I’ll be leaving right behind you.”
I turn around as he walks away.
“This is going to be interesting,” I hear Todd say from the doorway and I spin around to find Amy standing there next to him. “I’ll be outside,” Todd says.
I nod and watch wordlessly as Amy steps inside, closing the door behind her. She’s changed her hair since the last time I saw her in the restaurant several months ago, but otherwise, she’s the same.
She’ll never change. It took me too long to figure that out.
“Amy.”
“Hello, Simon,” she says and sends me a soft smile. “I sat in on your little class today. It was wonderful.”
My teeth clench. Little class.
I simply cross my arms over my chest and wait for her to continue.
“Violet was right, you’ve really done very well for yourself over the past year or so, and I wanted to stop by to say congratulations.”
“Thanks. There’s the door.”
“Simon, I know I was horrible.” She rushes forward and lays a hand on my arm, which I flick off. “I’m so sorry for what happened with Alex. I was just lonely, and you were working all the time and—”
“Are you telling me that it’s my fault that you had an affair with my business partner?” I ask, interrupting her.
“No, of course not,” she says. Her eyes are shrewd. She knows this tactic isn’t going to win me over. “It was all my fault, and I’m so sorry. I’ve been in therapy again, and I really think it’s working this time.”
“Good for you.”
“It is good, isn’t it?” She smiles hopefully. “I feel so much better already. And I am really so happy for you. I hear you have a beautiful new flat.”
And here it is.
“I’d love to see it sometime. How can I make all of this up to you, Simon?”
“By walking out that door and never coming back,” I reply, my resolve not slipping a bit as tears fill her eyes as if on cue.
“I deserve for you to be cruel,” she says and wipes a single tear from the corner of her eye. She really is a very good actress. She could be a professional. “I never should