Gorgeous: Book One (Gorgeous #1) - Lisa Shelby Page 0,88

loved less than forty-eight hours later, I was truly exhausted.

Exhausted and confused.

Day in and day out I hear the words he whispered in my ear as he held me while I fell apart in his arms. “I love you, Olivia Adams, and I would give anything to take away your pain. Please don't ever feel sorry for leaning on me in your time of need. Your well-being is my number one concern. You are my life, gorgeous, and you will always come first. Whatever you need from me, is yours to take." How could he have said those words and then leave me the next day?

Was my truth and my past too much for him to take once he spent time with his family? Was he reminded of the life he should be living?

The pictures plastered all over the Internet of Ronan and London St. James should be enough to answer my question, but it still doesn't make sense. He can't stand London. At least that's what he told me when he confessed his past and their history together. Seeing his arm around her waist on the red carpet the day after he made his personal assistant kick me to the curb, gutted me.

The first two weeks we were apart, the pictures were everywhere I went. Even though I rarely left the house, I couldn't turn the TV on or go anywhere near the Internet without a barrage of proof hitting me square in the face.

It turns out less isn't always more...at least not for Ronan McKinley.

The pain I felt alone in my apartment, where I used to feel the most content, this was the pain I tried to avoid my entire life. The pain that only comes with trusting another person with your heart and soul. It's only when you love someone that much, that they have the ability to rip your heart to shreds and leave you broken and ruined.

"Okay, here we go. One for you, and one for me." Bryce slides the Guinness over to me, and I am reminded once again why we are just friends and nothing more. I hate dark beer and would prefer a light Mexican beer any day of the week. But, it's a good thing he didn’t get me a light Mexican beer, because it would remind me of the last one I had during my long weekend on Catalina Island with him.

The weekend I started to fall head over heels in love.

"Thanks, Bryce. For the beer and the company."

"I'm just glad I had a reason to come to San Fran and could pay you a visit."

He's in town for a conference but came in a day early so we could see each other. He really is a nice guy, but that's it. I know what it feels like now, when there is more. I didn't know what I was missing the three years I was with Bryce. Now that I do, I could never go back.

This is what I needed, though. A distraction and a reason to clean my apartment and get out into the fresh air. To live my life.

Bryce may not be the one for me, but his visit is what I need to get up and moving again. When he called to say he would be coming to town, my first instinct was to say no, but then I looked around my apartment and realized I really had let that man demolish me.

My apartment was a mess, I mean disgusting. I hadn’t cleaned since he left me, and there were no clean clothes to be found. Pulling myself back together was hard but exactly what I needed to start functioning again. I had break downs here and there and sleep was hard to find, but I’m moving again. Eating. Showering every day. Bryce has no idea how much I need this visit.

He lifts his pint of frothy grossness in the air. "To your new life in San Francisco."

I clink my glass with his and take a small sip so I don't leave him hanging.

"I know you've been here a few months already but it still feels new to me."

"Me too."

Even though it feels like a lifetime.

The loud roar of a motorcycle buzzing by distracts me, and just like before, the rider on the bike looks at me through the bar window, and I swear if he didn't have the helmet on he would be looking me straight in the eye. Like he knows me or something. I