Page 54 of Mostly My Girlfriend

I nodded. “Okay.”

“Now about last night…”

I raised my hand to stop his words. He’d said everything with his actions, with his decisions. At least from my point of view. Ethan wasn’t going to Japan to shore up the Tokyo deal. He was going to Japan to get away from me.

Just like he’d gone to Europe after Daniel’s wedding.

Which meant, to him, last night wasn’t any different than that other night had been. A one-time fling, done and forgotten. A need quickly satisfied then space put between us to help clear up any messy confusion about what we were to each other.

So I didn’t need to hear his excuses about why it had happened last night. I could fill in those blanks on my own.

“When I said we needed to talk, I only meant about our next steps. Which you’ve made pretty clear. I’ll head to Seattle on the next available flight. And you’ll let me know how things are going in Japan.” I pushed myself off the desk and started to walk around him.

“Jules…” he said, reaching for my wrist.

“Let go of me, Ethan,” I said quietly. “Right now.”

He dropped his hand. “I…I don’t know what to say to you.”

I lifted my chin. “You’ve made your appreciation of myeffortsclear. That’s all that needs to be said. I won’t be here when your mother wakes up from her nap. You’ll figure out dinner for her. It’s important that she eats, even if it’s just a few bites, and let her know I had to get back to work because of an emergency.”

He nodded and closed his eyes.

Stepping around him, shutting the door behind me and went to my room to pack. I ended up spending the night at an airport hotel, as the next available flight wasn’t until seven the next morning. But I couldn’t, wouldn’t go back to the apartment.

And when I stepped onto the plane, I knew a sense of finality I hadn’t felt since walking away from my father’s grave.

This is done now, my gut told me. We were done.