Ally said.
“I guess I have a type,” I said bitterly.
She pinned me with her gaze, daring me to say the words that were setting my tongue on fire.
“Users,” I said.
The hand on my shoulder fisted and then released me entirely. “Uh-huh. So you accuse me of cheating on you, and when that doesn’t stick, you go right on down the list to I’m a user? Guess what? You win. I’m more pissed at you.”
“It’s not really your fault,” I assured her. She hadn’t forced me to give her anything. She’d just made it easy, fun even.
“Dominic, I’m giving you a chance to shut the hell up. I know you’re hurt. I know you’re reeling. But I don’t know if I can forgive you for what you’ve already said.”
I didn’t need forgiveness. I didn’t want it. I was the one who’d been wronged.
“Is that what you were doing? All those gifts were tests to see if I’d accept them?” she asked.
“You took them. You don’t even put up a fight over staying here anymore. You’ve stayed here every night for weeks.”
“Because you asked me to!”
“Or is it because it works better for you? You get a nice warm place to stay that doesn’t require you to get up at the ass-crack of dawn for a commute. Is that why you were finally willing to introduce me to your father? Were you hoping I’d walk in there and magnanimously decide to pay off his debt?” The words were spilling from my mouth like I had no fucking control. I used to have control. Before her.
She sank back as if I’d actually struck her.
“I’m such a fucking idiot,” I murmured to myself.
“Yeah. No argument there,” Ally said. Her teeth were chattering, and she was hugging herself. “You can’t take these things back, you know.”
“The gifts are yours to keep.”
“No, you ass. What you’re saying. You can’t take any of this back. You can’t erase any of this. You’re accusing me of using you. You don’t get to have a bad day and try to hurt me because of it. That’s not what a relationship is. I don’t deserve this.”
I was starting to waver. Starting to doubt my righteous anger. That only made me recommit myself to it. I’d been blinded by sex. It was just sex. Maybe we’d been using each other. Me for her body and her for everything else I could offer her.
What kind of a fucked-up foundation was that?
We were doomed from the beginning.
“You should go,” I told her. “You can get your things tomorrow after I leave for work.”
67
Dominic
It was not a good day. I spent the entire night haunted by Ally’s tearstained face, the hurt in those soft brown eyes, the shake in her hands.
“I don’t know if I can forgive you for this.”
In the light of ugly gray morning, I wasn’t feeling as self-righteous or confident in my decision to protect myself.
My desk phone rang.
“What?”
“What did you do to Ally?” my mother demanded in my ear.
I’d arrived at work only to find my assistant had called in sick and someone had waved a magic wand taking me from Dominic back to Mr. Russo.
“Good morning, Mother. I’m fine. How are you?”
“I’m not happy.”
“Everything is fine. Consider it business as usual.”
“Ally sent me her resignation this morning, effective immediately.”
“Maybe she was just tired of working here,” I said wearily. She didn’t really need this job anymore. Not with the house ready to be put on the market.
“What did you do, Dominic Michael?”
“What makes you think it was me?”
“Because I know you. I know your baggage.”
“Where do you think that baggage came from?” I asked uncharitably.
“Darling, you’re forty-five years old. That excuse stopped working sometime in your early twenties when you became an adult responsible for your own choices.”
The woman had a point. An annoying, infinitesimal one.
“It was a private matter. I didn’t ask her to quit. I would have been willing to continue working together.”
“Dominic, I say this with love. You’re being an unconscionable fool.” She disconnected with a sharp click.
It was official. Every woman in the building, including my own mother, hated my guts.
Nina from advertising had to be physically restrained in the elevator this morning. I got off on the thirty-third floor and took the stairs only to walk straight into Missie the copywriter who took one look at me and burst into tears.
I took my lunch in the cafeteria, and hoards of people turned their backs on me as I walked past their tables. Linus returned