“That’s the thing, everything is weird now,” Nas says. “It’s all weird now that we’re not together, and I realize how important you’ve always been to me. I knew it before you left, but now that we’ve ended things, I feel it in my bones. I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. I can’t fucking thinking straight now. I know I fucked up, but what I feel for you is real and I can’t just let it go.”

“Yeah, you did fuck up,” Juliana cuts in, stabbing the air with her finger like a teacher scolding a student. “You had a chance with the best woman in the world and you blew it. She was your biggest fan in every way, and you decided making money was more important, so she’s not going to stand here and listen to you try to talk your way out of it. She’s not going to stand for it, and I wouldn't allow her to if she tried, because that’s what friends are for. You may have driven a little wedge between us before, but that’s over now. So, climb back into your fancy little car that you think makes you God’s gift, and get the hell outta here. I won’t let you break my friend’s heart twice.”

The entire office watches with wide eyes as Nas stares at me, completely ignoring Juliana as she places a hand on my shoulder.

“Alina, please,” he pleads, stunning me with his ability to be humbly humiliated in front of everyone I work with.

“Nas,” I begin, the words getting stuck in my throat. “It has been three days since I found out what you were doing. I’m still pissed off, and I don't think you deserve another chance after that. What you did … what you’ve been doing is terrible and wrong. It taints everything we had, and all the things that made me admire you before I ever met you. Knowing what you did, and how you profited off it four times before me ruins so much for me. Juliana is right. I was your biggest fan, but you’ve messed it all up. I don't want to talk to you, and if you care about me the way you claim you do, you’ll respect that and give me my space. If not, you're just as disrespectful as every other boyfriend I had before you.”

Somehow, Nas sinks even further. His shoulders slump as all the hope he had when he decided to come here is snatched away from him. His final shred of resolve shrinks into nothingness, and I watch him give up, nodding slowly.

“Well, said,” Juliana says to dig the knife in deeper, before throwing her arms around my shoulders and physically guiding me past Nas’s car.