But that's exactly what’s going to happen.”
“Do you even love him?”
I am surprised by this line of questioning, with him dancing so close to the truth.
“Of course, I love him," I say, keenly aware of precisely how unconvincing I am.
“What do you love about him? Do you love the fact that he sleeps with every single woman who walks through his office? Do you love the fact that he denigrates women? Do you love the fact that there are rumors about him being into underage girls?”
His questioning draws all of the air out of my lungs. I didn't know any of this.
I mean, I’ve heard some of the rumors and I know that he's a womanizer, but underage girls?
No, that can't be true.
Can it?
"You don't know anything about him, Aurora,” Henry insists. “He just fed you a few lines to try to make you fall in love with him. He has done the same thing to thousands of other women. They all fall for it and now you have as well.”
"You don't know the first thing about me,” I say sternly.
“I know that you are much better than Franklin Parks. I know that you deserve someone who will treat you like a goddess.”
“Do you mean like you treated me?” I ask and all the air is sucked out of the room.
15
Aurora
Henry pauses for a moment, realizing that he has stepped into a big hole.
“No, better than I ever treated you. Listen, I know that I was an asshole. I shouldn’t have missed your graduation and I shouldn’t have put my work before you so much. But this is the first job that I was really excited about and I thought that I finally had a chance to write and do something meaningful.”
“Yeah,” I say quietly. “I understand.”
“Of course it's not lost on me the fact that he's my boss. If you were to break things off, I would probably lose my job and I wouldn't expect anything else. But I don't care. I don't care about that, not as much as I care about you.”
“I never wanted you to quit your job, that's why I helped you get it in the first place. I thought it was a great opportunity and I'm glad that you are so well and you have such a great following. You're doing really good work and it shows.”
I pause, trying to think of what else to say and then just close my mouth and say nothing.
“Can I ask you something?” Henry asks.
“Sure,” I say, nodding.
"Do you love him?”
Not this again, I resist the urge to roll my eyes.
“Yes,” I lie.
“No, you don’t," he challenges me.
I shake my head and stare at him, into those piercing eyes that once belonged to me.
“I don't know what you want from me,” I say after a moment. “If you don't want to believe me then don’t, but it's the truth.”
“You're a very good liar, Aurora, but I know that you're lying.”
“Whatever,” I say, waving my hand at him, pushing my anger away.
“Can I ask you something else?”
“You don't have to ask my permission to ask me things, I'm here, talking to you. Just ask me,” I blurt out.
“Did you cheat on me?”
This takes me by surprise.
“No," I say quietly. “I never cheated on you and I would never do that to you. I would never do that to anyone.”
“Why do I get the feeling that you're lying?" He narrows his eyes.
“Because you're full of shit,” I say with anger spilling out of me.
My chest gets hot and my hands form into fists.
“Who do you think you are?” I ask him. “If you think that I cheated on you, then you don't know the first thing about me. And you're an asshole for even thinking that.”
“I'm sorry, okay? I'm really sorry.”
“I don't care,” I say. “I loved you, more than I ever loved anyone. And you didn't give a shit! I'm glad that you got a job, a career out of this, but I thought that we would be together forever, too. I just got tired of fighting and I got tired of the distance. I wanted you to be with me and you didn't want to.”
“I'm sorry that I took you for granted,” Henry says.
“Now, it’s too late.”
“No, it’s not. Don't marry him.”
“You don't get to tell me what to do,” I say.
“Of course not, I'm not trying to. Except that, please don't marry him. He's an asshole. He's smart and attractive, but he doesn't care about you. He