lot to say, actually,” he said, and she ripped her arm away from him and kept walking.
“I can’t imagine any way that you could rationalize having bet on me,” Michelle said through gritted teeth as she finally reached the exit. As long as she could keep the tears at bay until she got into her car, she’d consider this emotional outburst a relative success. But with the way Blake kept pace with her, she doubted she’d be able to escape like she wanted.
She pushed through the double doors, focusing on her car parked in the lot off to the side. That was her goal. She was so close.
“Will you let me explain?” Blake asked, his voice scraping through the evening air.
“Unless you can explain how I misheard something that I very clearly heard, I don’t think there’s anything you can say that will make this situation better.” Michelle stomped up to the car, Blake staying right on her heels.
“Don’t be dense, Michelle,” Blake said in a low voice. “You can’t assume you know the whole story after overhearing one thing.”
“I don’t assume to know the whole story. I just assume to know enough. And what I’ve learned tells me you’re not the person I thought you were. And that’s enough for me.”
She tried to open the door, but Blake pressed his palm against the window. “Don’t do this.”
“Do what?”
“You’re being irrational.”
She let out a disbelieving laugh. “Irrational? No, I’d say I’m being quite rational. Now everything makes sense. Why you were so interested to take me out so frequently from the moment you met me, but then after date five…well, basically nothing. I’m sure ‘focusing on opening your nightclub’ was a convenient excuse not to see me when you were never really into me in the first place.”
Something hard slid over Blake’s face, like a mask, and when he spoke, it came out a growl. “That is not fucking true. It started as a bet, but I didn’t know you then. None of us did. It was a dumb bet, but it didn’t take long before it was just an excuse to spend time with you. And then it stopped mattering at all, and all I cared about was us being together. That’s the fucking difference.”
She shook her head, emotion tightening her throat. Hearing him admit the fact that it had been a bet right from the start was somehow the worst of all. Truly, she’d been hoping—like a delusion perhaps—that she had misheard him or misunderstood.
“Glad that taking me out on the requisite five dates won you a prize,” she spat, tugging at the door handle again. This time, Blake let her open the door.
“Michelle. Please.” He sounded tired. Like all the life had drained out of him. “Hear me out. I don’t want to lose you.”
“Did you ever have me to begin with?” she asked, and then slammed the door shut on him. She tried not to look at him as she turned the engine, afraid that seeing the emotion in his eyes or the pain slashed across his face might make her reconsider.
She hurried to pull out of her parking spot, not allowing her breath to escape until she’d pulled onto the road. Once they were about a mile away, she allowed herself to pull over in the empty parking lot of a strip mall. Parking the car, Michelle squeezed the steering wheel until her knuckles went white, tears streaming down her cheeks.
She needed to let it all out before she got home. She couldn’t let Mollie see her like this. So she cried for herself. For Mollie. For all those stupid, hopeful dreams that she’d had no business dreaming in the first place. She should have known better—had her experiences with her ex taught her nothing?
You chose wrong again. You chose Blake. This is your fault, Michelle.
Her shoulders shook with loud, painful sobs she didn’t bother trying to hold back. Maybe if she let them all out now, she wouldn’t find herself crying again later, in her room tonight, where Mollie might be able to overhear. Her little girl was already going to be crushed when she learned that they wouldn’t be seeing Mr. Blake again. Michelle didn’t want to make it worse by letting Mollie see how hurt and angry her mommy was, as well.
She’d never been this hurt before. Not even by her ex. At least there she’d known all along that he was manipulative, that something was wrong about them.
But with Blake? He’d