of making a scene.
“Your dinner is getting cold,” I said, bringing a small roll to my mouth. “Now that John is unemployed, I doubt he can afford to bring you to places like this. If I were you, I’d try to savor this memory for as long as you can.”
“Fuck you, Sean.” She hissed, leaning forward. “If you think for one second that you’re going to dump me in a public place based off some assumptions―”
“I saw you leave his place six weeks ago.” I interrupted her. “I looked through your phone last month and saw that whenever you claimed you were having a ‘day at the spa,’ you were really sleeping with him.” I took my time buttering another roll. “I know we haven’t known each other that long in the grand scheme of things, but I’ve never been much of a sharer.”
Her face was now as red as the grilled tomatoes on her plate, and her eyes were slits.
“Pardon my interruption.” A waiter stepped in front of the table. “Is there anything else you’d like me to serve with this course?”
“My salad doesn’t have enough eggs in it,” I said. “Then again, from the looks of things, maybe they’ve all jumped on my date’s face.”
He looked between us and slowly backed away. “I trust that our breakup won’t be leaked to the press tonight,” I said. “Next week, I’ll release a nice statement, though. One of those, ‘we’ve decided to remain friends and work on our careers’ type things. No one needs to know that on the same day that you were eating dinner with me, you were sleeping with someone else in the afternoon.”
She glared at me and picked up her wine glass. Then she chugged it down.
“Is that a ‘no’ to the statement?” I asked. “Am I leaving out a line?”
“I really liked you, Sean.”
“I’m glad you’re accepting this, you’re referring to us in the past tense already.”
“You didn’t make it easy.” She looked into my eyes. “You were emotionally unavailable for the first three months.”
“And yet, you stuck around for five more ...”
“I’d never dated a billionaire before.” She looked somewhat genuine. “You were my first.”
“And probably your last.”
“I can only take half the blame for cheating on you, though.” She looked like she was about to cry, giving me that cue I needed to get the hell out of here. “I honestly didn’t mean to.”
I signaled for the check, and a waiter set it on our table in seconds.
“I’ll email you the statement before I send it to the press,” I said, signing the receipt. “I’ll give you an hour to make suggestions that I probably won’t consider.”
She didn’t say a word.
“Well, the past eight months have been nice―” I paused, I couldn’t even lie. “No, they haven’t been.” I stood up and adjusted my jacket. “Tell John I said, ‘Hello’.”
I walked out of the dining room and into the hallway. I pressed the down button for the elevator and heard Evelyn yelling from afar.
“Sean! Sean!”
I hit the down button again.
“Sean!” Her voice was nearer now. “Sean, I know you can hear me calling your name!”
“I don’t answer to the past.”
“Don’t force me to make a scene, Sean.”
“I think it’s too late for that.” Where the hell is this elevator?
“This breakup isn’t really about me, is it?”
“No.” I refused to play a role in her drama. “It’s more about you fucking someone else behind my back.”
“So, this has nothing to do with Kate?”
“What?” I finally turned around, making note of how many people were around us. How many NDAs I was going to insist that my executive assistant rush over and force people to sign. “I’ve never mentioned Kate to you.”
“You’ve never had to.” She stepped closer, letting mascara run down her cheeks. “For the first three months of our relationship―the months when you were the most unavailable, you said her name in your sleep. At least three times a week.”
“That’s quite a story.”
“You’d wake up in the middle of the night and talk about her meeting you at a lake, sitting in the back row of some recital, or taking some long ride to some place called The Salted Shores Fair,” she said. “Took me long enough to realize that you weren’t talking about us, or me. You were talking about her.”
“I think you’re exaggerating.”
“We both know that I’m not.” She stepped closer, lowering her voice. “You want to know something else?”
“I’d rather know why the elevator has yet to come.”
“Whoever this ‘Kate’