Page 62

MILLIE

Moving my body is hard work. My limbs ache, my eyelids are heavy, my throat is dry.

Even watching repeats of Criminal Minds can’t distract me from the gnawing in my chest. It’s been over a week since Noah was standing in this room, soaked from yet another summer storm after what was meant to be a wonderful, celebratory night.

It went from hope and excitement to utter devastation.

The photography exhibit itself was great.

I worked the room and spoke to people I knew and many I didn’t.

I exchanged my own business cards for the first time and discussed photography with other enthusiasts.

It was better than I could’ve imagined, displaying work I was proud of in front of my friends and strangers.

A couple of days ago, someone made an insane offer for some of the digital pieces, and wants to contract me for their new website.

It almost pulled me out of my slump. All I wanted to do was call Noah with the great news, and it hit me all over again.

I disabled comments on my social media straight after I posted the break-up post. I wanted the whole mess to disappear.

Heaps of people messaged me privately, but I haven’t opened a single one of them.

I can’t handle any of this right now. Especially saying goodbye to Noah.

Even if he hadn’t made some mistakes, I know I had to let him go.

He needs to focus on his career, and I don’t want to get my heart broken .

. . although it might be too late for that.

When there’s a knock at the front door, I groan and instruct Winston to sit still.

He’ll go away eventually if we ignore him.

Ellis has let Winston stay home with me every day this past week while she manages everything at Beans .

We had so many people coming by to get a glimpse of me that Ellis ordered me to stay home for a week.

It’s worked out pretty well. Winston and I have a good system of snacks and nap sharing going.

The knocking picks up its pace and the continuous banging grates against my nerves. “Go away!”

“I still have a spare key!” Dan’s voice booms back. “I’m knocking out of politeness.”

I lift the blanket over my head and groan. Dan has showed up every day without fail since Noah left the country. Ellis gave him a key to our place so he could check on me when she wasn’t around, much to my chagrin. I don’t need anyone checking on me. I need to be left alone.

“I’m coming in!” I hear the rattle of the door unlocking, followed by the swing of it opening.

I peek over my blanket and watch Dan lumber into my living room, his gaze sweeping over me tucked under the fluffy sheet of burnt orange fabric. “You look like shit. Again.”

I scowl at him as he makes his way over to pat Winston, looking way too big to even fit in my home.

“Shouldn’t you be flirting with Hawaiian goddesses in bikinis right about now?”

“I fly out this afternoon.” He takes a seat on the pouffe near the window, and I almost laugh at how ridiculously oversized he looks.

“I’m touched you came to say goodbye.”

He frowns, offended. “Of course I would say goodbye. How are you today?”

Still angry.

Still humiliated.

So mortified I want to crawl into a hole with my re-runs and never be seen again.

I wave at my presumably splotchy face. “Never better.”

Dan smacks his lips together, clasping his hands. “If it helps to hear, he’s a mess, too.”

I want to act like I don’t care. That this information is irrelevant and uninteresting to me. But the truth is, my hardened heart splits open a little at the thought of him being upset.

“It does help,” I admit reluctantly.

Dan snickers. “He didn’t go about it the right way.”

Those words set off the anger I’ve been trying to tamp down every day this week, and I sit up to face him directly.

“Go about what the right way? When he missed the one thing I was terrified to do and swore he would be at? The part where he convinced me it wasn’t for show?

Or the part where he kissed his ex-girlfriend in front of everyone?

I was so . . .” I can’t finish the words, instead choosing to bite my lip violently to stem tears and distract my brain from reliving what were some of the most wonderful moments of my life to date.

“We had a contract. We fulfilled our obligations. It’s over. ”

I glance down at my red-raw fingernails, furious at myself for tearing them down to the quick again. That’s what Noah Fucking King did. He also ruined my nails.

“I can’t speak for him, but I can speak as his best friend,” Dan says. “I’ve never seen him as happy as when he was with you. That wasn’t pretend, Millie.”

I shake my head. “I don’t need to hear this again. I told you, it doesn’t matter anymore.”

Dan sighs loudly. “Yes, it does. All of it matters. You both deserve to give this another go, without that stupid contract in the way.”

“It wouldn’t work,” I argue. “We don’t even live in the same country and my trust is shattered with him. I doubt we can work through that while he’s in the middle of the most important thing in his life.”

“But you want to.” Dan waits for me to argue his point, but I can’t.

“It doesn’t matter,” I repeat. “I was humiliated, and Noah was under so much pressure. And the kiss, Dan. I know he said it was only two seconds, but think about it from my point of view.”

Dan lets out a long, loud sigh. “You’re going to kill me for this.” He ducks his head to avoid my hanging light on his way to the front door and heads straight out.

Perplexed, I lean forward, waiting to see if he’s going to return or leave me hanging with a cryptic last message. I hear him shuffle as he reapproaches the door and steps inside, followed by a slender, almost-floating woman with vibrant, red hair.

Sofia Carlson is standing in my foyer.