I had no idea that he was cheating on me and make it seem like I had no hard feelings toward him at all.
But shocking him with my sudden secret relationship with Cole at the party would be worth it.
Ending our relationship on my terms would be more satisfying than letting him know he had the ability to hurt me.
“Thanks again for picking me up," Chad said when we pulled into a parking spot at his condo after I’d picked him up from the airport on Wednesday night. “And thanks for not being late this time, too.”
It took everything in me not to grimace at his arrogant tone, but instead of letting him see any cracks in my façade, I forced my smile to remain and said, “Yeah, no problem. I’m glad it worked out for me to pick you up because I actually have something I needed to talk to you about."
“Can it wait until tomorrow?" Chad sighed, like he was too tired to spend another five minutes with me. “It's been a long day."
I bet it has been. I'm sure doing whatever you were doing with Amber last night really exhausted you.
Being around Amber had always drained me, anyway.
"It will only take a few minutes,” I said in as sweet of a tone as I could muster. “I’d really like to get it over with now instead of later."
His ears seemed to perk up with my words and a small crease formed between his eyebrows. “Is something wrong?"
The sudden change in his demeanor thrilled me. Because he was on guard, like he was worried that I knew.
So, turning in my seat to face him, I said, “I’m sure that you’ve noticed things haven't exactly been the best between us lately.”
"I guess.” He shifted uncomfortably. “Why are you bringing this up?"
I lifted a shoulder, hoping that I was coming off just right. “I've just been thinking about where I want to go with my future, and I realized that it's probably time for me to move on.”
He narrowed his ice-cold blue eyes like he wasn't quite sure he'd heard me right.
So I continued, “And while we have had a great three years together, I just don't think you’re the kind of guy I see myself ending up with. We aren’t as good of a match as I’d hoped and I…” I let my voice taper off like I was trying to find just the right words. Then I said, “I guess I just think it's time for me to finally graduate.”
He coughed, like I had just shocked him. "It's time for you to graduate?" His voice was full of disbelief. “Are you trying to say that I'm not good enough for you?"
“Oh, I didn't mean it like that." I reached over and touched his arm, even though the simple act of touching him after knowing Amber had probably just been resting her head on his shoulder during the plane ride made my skin crawl. “What I meant was that dating you gave me some entry-level experience in what it would be like to be in a serious relationship. But I think I'm ready for an even more meaningful relationship with someone who is at the same level that I want to be at." I gave him what I hoped resembled an innocent smile. "It's kind of like we were taking Romantic Relationships 101 together at a community college and now I'm ready for the upper division classes at Yale.”
I only added the Yale part because I knew how much he hated the rival school to his alma mater.
“You're comparing dating me to taking a general education class?" He clenched his jaw. “I graduated from Harvard with honors.” He spit out the words as if his education had anything to do with his ability to be a good boyfriend. “There is no way that anything to do with me is on the same level as an entry level course from a lame community college. And you had to bring Yale into it?“ He rolled his eyes. “Is this some kind of boyfriend prank for social media, Arianna? Are you recording this? Because, honestly, it’s not funny.”
“No, not a prank.”
At least not in the way he was thinking.
“Sorry," I said, patting his shoulder again before setting my hands back in my lap. “I think I'm nervous so I'm just saying things all wrong.”
“Yeah, there's definitely something going on here.” The bitterness in his tone made me really happy for some possibly