up with me?” I asked through my shock.
This stubborn, pigheaded boy was not freaking dumping me now, after all we’d been through.
“It’s better this way. Please, Sunny, just go. I don’t want you here,” he said before shutting the door and disappearing without giving me a second glance.
My heart split inside my chest. It pulled at me, ached with each beat, as I replayed his harsh words.
“I. Don’t. Want. You. Here.”
I convinced myself that Mac just needed some space, and I respected him enough to let him work through the fact that he hadn’t gotten the one thing he’d always wanted more than anything. Baseball had been his dream, his goal, and now, it was gone.
It had to hurt like hell. But having him walk away from me, from us, hurt like hell too. I felt like we’d taken a thousand steps backward and we were back in the place we had been last year all over again.
I pulled at my necklace; it usually calmed me, but now, it represented a lie. If Mac didn’t want to be with me, then I couldn’t wear it anymore. I started taking it off when my phone pinged. I reached for it, hoping it was Mac telling me he was an idiot and was sorry, but I noticed Chance’s name instead.
CHANCE: How’s he doing?
ME: Little jerk broke up with me.
My phone rang instantly.
“Hey,” I said as I tried to hold myself together.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” Chance said, and that wasn’t very freaking reassuring.
“Gee, thanks.”
“No, Sunny. I just meant that he is probably going out of his mind right now. He just lost everything he’s ever wanted,” Chance explained, but I had known that already. I knew how badly he wanted to play professional baseball.
“I know that.”
“But you don’t. I mean, you understand, but you don’t know how that feels. He’s not himself. He probably won’t be for a while. This is something that takes time to work through and accept. It won’t be easy.”
I sniffed into the phone. I didn’t mean to start crying, but I couldn’t help it. “I never thought he’d break up with me because of it. Stupid, right?”
“Not stupid,” Chance breathed out. “It won’t last. You know that. I know that. But right now, he can’t see straight. Hell, he can’t see at all. Cut him some slack, Sun. I’ll talk to him.”
“You might make it worse,” I said because Chance had everything that Mac wanted. There was a good possibility that Chance talking to Mac might exacerbate his feelings on the situation.
“You’re right. I’ll give him some space too.” Chance started mumbling to someone in the background, and then he was back. “Hold on. Danika wants to talk to you.”
Danika got on the phone and started yapping a mile a minute. At first, she apologized about Mac, but reassured me that this split was only temporary. She told me not to worry about it before launching into some diatribe about her clients needing more than only she could provide.
She explained that she needed help with the division she’d started at her dad’s company, which she’d told me a hundred times before, only she was truly serious now. She offered me an official job. One with a salary and benefits and everything.
I practically screamed, “YES,” into the phone.
Even though my personal life was falling apart before my eyes, I had no reason to turn down Danika’s offer. I had fallen in love with New York, and while her high-end real estate clientele seemed super intimidating, it also sounded exciting. And nothing job-wise had even remotely excited me, so I took it as a sign and accepted.
What the hell else was I going to do with my life?
*
Three days had passed, and there was still no word from Mac. I texted him. He never responded. I called him. He refused to answer. It was like I’d never existed. How he could go about his days without talking to me when all I did was think about him twenty-four/seven boggled my mind and twisted me up inside. I was coming apart without him, and he was what … fine?
Three days turned into a week, and my sadness turned to anger. Screw him for letting me go. Why did I always have to do all the fighting in our relationship? Why was it up to me to keep us together and make us okay all the time? Mac Davies was going to feel one hell of a shock to his system when