“Yeah, you did,” I say, slipping my shoe on. “I also told you that I want a relationship.” I stand, slipping on my jacket. “I don’t do casual. I don’t have just anyone in my life. I don’t have anyone ever come into my home like that. They call me Private Mark because I’m private. I want someone who is going to grow with me, someone I can turn to when I have a bad day. I want someone to share my future with.” I look down. “I thought that was where we were going.” She shakes her head, looking at me. “But I guess I was the only one in this,” I tell her. I walk to her, and I want to kiss her one last time. I want to hold her one last time. I want to beg her on my knees to give us a chance. I want to tell her all the ways I pictured us together. I want to tell her there is no other person I want to be with but her. But I don’t. Instead, I walk past her, and whisper, “Goodbye Vivienne.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Vivienne

“Goodbye, Vivienne,” he says, and my heart stops beating; it flatlines. The sound of the door slamming and the click of the lock make it final.

He doesn’t do casual. I hear his words over and over again in my head, and I run to the bathroom, making it just in time before the pizza rises and fills the toilet. I flush and sit down on the floor, the cold tile shooting through me, but I don’t feel anything. I feel nothing, just as I always do. “It’ll be okay,” I tell myself. “It’s better now and not later.”

I get up on shaky legs and walk to my office, grabbing my cell phone and sitting down on my chair at my desk. My finger dials the only person who I want right now.

“Hello,” she answers. I hear the commotion in the background, and I almost hang up. “Vi.” Her voice goes soft, and then I don’t hear the commotion anymore. “Hey, you there?”

“Yeah,” I say out loud, but it comes out low and high at the same time. “Just checking in,” I say, clearing my throat.

“The guys just got back.” She points out something I already know. “Wait,” she says. “Where are you?”