Silence didn’t bother me. Stretches of time when it was just me was pure bliss in my opinion. Where others felt lost and alone, I found the life of a loner calm and peaceful.

Until Cara.

When I’d left the office on Friday night and found her gone without an explanation and her things vanished from my apartment without a trace, it was the first time the real definition of loneliness had finally sunk in.

Without her, the silent apartment I used to love so much now just felt empty and cold.

Like the man who occupied it.

After a hopeful hour of believing she might indeed return, balancing bags and dragging suitcases behind her, apologizing profusely for leaving me in the dark about her plans, I had given up and dived into a fresh bottle of scotch.

Let’s face it, who’d want to move in with this cluster fuck? After all, I had sabotaged her relationship to get her here in the first place.

What kind of sane person did that?

Jo had briefly questioned my sanity over the phone after I’d explained to her what I wanted, asking if maybe all I needed was a little time-out, which she’d be happy to give. When I’d blatantly turned her down, she had known I meant business, especially when I’d offered the substantial cash to back it up.

Having Jo seduce Tyler hadn’t been as hard as I’d thought it would be. Jo had said he was like every other stressed out young suit who walked in there—eager, hungry, and teetering on the edge. No doubt, he’d been tempted to jump more times than he could count, but a faithful girlfriend half a country away had always stopped him.

But now that she was here…

Now that she was real and things weren’t as he’d expected, it was the ideal time for him to stumble.

And he’d done so perfectly.

I’d thought I’d be the one to pick up the pieces of her broken heart and show her that he hadn’t been worth it in the first place. But she hadn’t even given me twenty-four hours, and I’d run like a coward—hiding in my bedroom rather than seeking her out like I should have.

Friday had bled into Saturday, and now, the first rays of light were just starting to break over the horizon on what was one of the longest weekends of my life. While I usually had no problem with occupying myself—either bringing work home, finding an old movie on TV, or making a late-night call to Jo—the hours that dragged on before a new workweek seemed endless.