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“Come on, Giselle. You don’t have to do this, baby.”
“No, I do. My bags are already packed in my car. I just wanted to give you the respect of telling you in person rather than you coming home to find the place empty.”
“You stay. I can leave.”
“No. It’s how we tried to work it out the first time, but you couldn’t stay away. As long as I’m here, you’ll be too tempted to return, Cas.”
“Giselle, baby, we’re better than this,” he argued and placed his hands on either side of my face.
“Maybe we are, maybe we aren’t. Maybe we were only designed to be a hot spark that quickly fizzled out in the first place.”
“You don’t believe that,” he growled as he looked into my eyes.
“I do,” I lied.
Casimir crushed my lips with his and took my breath away. He was making this harder than it had to be with every argument, kiss, and touch. I wanted just to walk away earlier and leave him a note, but I knew that wasn’t fair.
But now it seemed like that would have been the perfect thing to do. It would have been the easier thing to do rather thanfighting the feelings we both felt. Yet, it was also the coward’s way out, and I wasn’t a coward.
When he stepped back and stared into my eyes again, it was like he was hoping to see an instant change there. Whatever he saw caused him to drop his hands from my face and his shoulders to slump.
“Are you really going to do this?” he asked in a resigned tone.
“I have no choice, Casimir. We both know that we never should have been.”
“Yes, you do!” He banged his fist on the counter and made the knife fall to the floor with a clatter. I jumped, and he threw his hands on top of his head. He spun around, swiped the vegetables onto the floor, and shouted, “Fuck!”
I turned and walked out of the kitchen. Grabbing my keys and purse from the bedroom I’d been staying in, I rushed to the door. Not because I was scared of Casimir but because I knew that we wouldn’t get anywhere this way.
The tears that pricked my eyes were threatening to fall. I never wanted to hurt Casimir, but I also couldn’t make us work when it wasn’t meant to be. If he saw me crying, then he would know that I was hurting, too, and he might try to change my mind. If he did that, I was certain that my resolve would waver, especially when I knew I had hurt him.
I walked back to the front of the house and didn’t see him in the kitchen. When I grabbed the doorknob, I heard him behind me. I guess he had been either in the living room or the den.
“You’re just gonna walk out without saying goodbye? You ain’t gotta run from me, Giselle. I won’t ever hurt you.”
“I know,” I replied in a shaky voice.
“Then why you gotta be hurting me, baby?”
I inhaled deeply and whispered a prayer for God to give me the strength to walk out that door.
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled.
“Yeah, so am I. So am I,” Casimir repeated just as I stepped out of the door.
The elevator couldn’t arrive fast enough as I punched the button. I prayed that he wouldn’t come out of the apartment after me. The doors opened, and I called down to the front desk.
“Hello, this is Dr. Champagne from apartment 20 B. Would you please have my car brought back around front?” I asked.
“Yes, Dr. Champagne. It will be brought back in a few minutes.”
“Thank you.”
I ended the call, and all too soon, I had reached the lobby. I rushed past the reception desk, ignoring the greeting that was called out. When I stepped outside, one of the valet attendants greeted me. “Hey, Dr. Champagne.”
I waved but didn’t trust myself to speak.
“DeMarco should be back any second with your car,” the young man stated.