Page 50 of My Heart's Doctor

I sighed. The drunkenness had completely worn off.

“Cavaller, I don’t want to talk to you. I’m tired and I want to get into bed.”

“That makes two of us,” he said, and I noticed the corner of his lips rising in a... smile?

What was he finding amusing?

“What?”

“Open the door; the doorman is watching us.”

“You’re not going to leave, are you?” I stated, resigned.

“Not until we talk.”

“Very well. But I’m making it clear that after this conversation, I don’t want anything more to do with you,” I said, and opened the door as we entered the building.

We greeted the doorman who was watching us without pretense and headed toward the elevators. We made the elevator journey in silence, though he kept observing me.

“We’re here now, tell me what you have to say,” I requested, placing my clutch on the sofa and sitting in one of the individual armchairs.

“May I sit down?”

“Go ahead.”

He sat on the long sofa and looked at me seriously.

“I want to know why you didn’t call me. We had agreed on that. Didn’t you want to see me?”

“As I told you, I was busy.”

“Stop addressing me formally,” he ordered, but I decided to ignore his authoritarianism to focus on what he was asking. “And don’t give me the excuse of lack of time because you went out with your friends, which leads me to conclude that you preferred to meet with them rather than with me.”

“From what I saw, you also had plans for today, so I don’t understand the reproach,” I pointed out, finally starting to use the informal ‘you’ with him. “Besides, if you were interested in seeing me, you could have called me too.”

“That’s true, but we had agreed that you would do it.”

I thought about what he had said, not understanding his reproach because it was evident that he was seeing other women. If what he wanted was to have a harem of women at his disposal, all willing to feel honored to satisfy him, he would have to wait sitting down with me, and even sitting he would get tired because I wasn’t crazy enough to get into that kind of relationship.

“Very well, then I’ll make something clear. I’ve been thinking it over and I’m afraid I’ll have to decline your proposal,” I stated, as delicately as possible so as not to hurt his male pride, though it was unlikely he wouldn’t feel offended because a man like him probably wasn’t used to being told no.

For a moment I could glimpse his disappointed expression, but he immediately changed it to his characteristic look of arrogance.

“Are you telling me you don’t want us to be lovers?”

“I’m saying that what you’re proposing doesn’t work for me.”

“And may I know why you changed your mind?” he asked, somewhat ironically.

I sighed. There was no point in lying to him or making up a stupid excuse, we were both adults. Better to be clear.

“I understand that ours was going to be an affair, but I had thought it would be just you and me in that affair. Today I realized I was wrong and that you would also be seeing other women,” I confessed, making a face that showed my displeasure. “I was naive, I know, and I’m sorry for that because I said yes to something I’m now unwilling to do, I’m sorry. I don’t accept you leaving my bed and getting into others, nor do I accept seeing you with other women, that’s not for me. Having said that and cleared up the misunderstanding, I have nothing more to say,” I indicated, standing up, as I no longer wanted him in my apartment because it tormented me to see him and know I wouldn’t be with him again.

William looked at me seriously, I don’t think he even blinked.

“Sit down because I haven’t yet said what I think,” he ordered, and at this point in the night I was already tired of his commanding tone.

“Stop giving me orders, you have the bad habit of ordering instead of asking for things and it’s very annoying.”