Page 70

“Don’t. I don’t want to hear it. I can’t.”

She looks like she wants to argue, but she concedes, dropping the note on the table.

“Fine. What do you want to do, Vee?”

I want to carve him out of my brain, that’s what I want to do. I want to rewind time so that I never met him and didn’t put myself in this situation.

There is only one way I’ll get out of this. One way in which I can survive and still work at Delute Designs.

I have to cut him off completely.

“Throw them out.”

“What?”

“The flowers, throw them out. I don’t want to see them.”

“That’s a little—”

“I don’t want to see them, Hannah. I don’t want to think about him. Get them out.”

“Okay, okay.” She quickly gathers the monstrosity back in her arms. Her eyes rake over me, worry swimming through them. “I’m here for you, and I love you.”

She leaves my room, and I disappear back under my sheets, squeezing into a ball again.

Today, I’ll mourn. I’ll sulk and recover from the loss.

But tomorrow? Tomorrow, I’ll erase him from my brain. I’ll act like I’ve never heard the name Cullen before in my life, and I will find a way to survive.

CHAPTER TWENTY

VERITY

“Hey, Verity, have you—”

I jerk at the voice, spilling the boiling water from the kettle onto the counter and narrowly missing my own hand.

“Whoa, sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you.” Imani tears off some paper towels and quickly soaks up the mess. “Just wanted to know if you’d seen the samples we got in from that new printer. You know, the one that can do that bubble effect with the raised spot UV?”

I calm my breath and try to fill my mug once again with the water, although I have a feeling this peppermint tea isn’t going to help with my anxiety at all. I’ve been on edge all morning, worried that somehow someone knows about Cullen and me.

“Yeah, I think they’re on Sally’s desk. She was looking at it earlier.”

“Thanks. I was thinking it would look cool on the sheet mask packaging, don’t you agree?”

“Mhm.”

I dunk my tea bag a few times, watching the water ripple.

“Are you good?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” A fake smile ghosts my lips.

The skin around Imani’s eyes creases slightly. “You seem a little less energetic today.”

“Just tired from the Kelton project still.”

“That looked like it went great, by the way. It was even featured in that big magazine profile that went live this morning.” She nudges me with her elbow. “Maybe Celine will give your team a reward.”