Page 112 of Your Fault

Sophia shook her head. “You’ll have to ask him, Noah. I shouldn’t have said anything. I just thought…I thought he’d told you, especially since they’re putting so much pressure on him to decide.”

“Nicholas hasn’t told me anything, but since you’ve started, you might as well finish. What the hell is going on?”

I knew I was on the verge of exploding, and I preferred not to do it in front of her. I needed to leave, but I couldn’t do it without finding out what she was talking about.

“A major law firm in New York has offered him a position for two years. Winning the Rogers case brought a lot of attention to us from important people. I’d like to say it was all me, but we couldn’t have done it without Nick.”

I didn’t even know they’d won the case or that Nicholas was interested in working in New York. I sure as hell didn’t know anything about him going away for two years…

I needed to go. I needed to go before Nicholas came back.

“Tell Nicholas…tell him I had to go, that I wasn’t feeling well…”

Before I could walk out, Sophia grabbed my arm and lookedat me through those chestnut-brown eyes surrounded by long lashes. Her heels made her taller than me, and I didn’t like that. I didn’t like it at all.

“I know you don’t want him to go…but you need to support him now, Noah.”

In a rage, I jerked away from her, saying, “Don’t you dare tell me what I should or shouldn’t do with my boyfriend.”

In two minutes, I had ridden the elevator downstairs and walked out.

Two years? He was thinking of going away and leaving me here for two years? Why did she know this and I didn’t?

You need to support him now, Noah.

Why didn’t Nick trust me? Why couldn’t we tell each other everything without being scared of what the other thought?

I sped out of the parking lot, blinking to try and keep my tears from blurring my view of the road.

46

Nick

I needed ten or so minutes to get Jenkins off my back. The asshole couldn’t shut up about how stupid it would be for me to reject the offer from New York. I had to take it, he said. It would take my career to the next level, blah, blah, blah. Obviously it would be a dream come true for him because he’d have me off the scene and wouldn’t have any more obstacles blocking his rise in Dad’s company. That would be like killing two birds with one stone. He kept me busy with his scheming long enough that when I returned to the office, only Sophie was there.

“How long ago did she leave?” I asked, stopping in the doorway.

“Five minutes ago. But Nick…” Something in her tone made me freeze and look at her. “I told her about New York, and I don’t think she took it very well.”

“You did what?”

I could tell she was nervous.

“I thought that’s why you guys had been fighting. I’m sorry, I know I screwed up, but I didn’t mean to…”

Fuck!

I stormed out of my office, headed for the parking lot, and when I got in my car, I took off for the university.

I couldn’t believe she’d spilled the beans, especially when that issue was over and done with. I didn’t know how to get people to understand that I wasn’t interested, that I was going nowhere. Sophia had been a huge pain when I told her there was no way I’d go. I wasn’t crazy, I knew it was a huge opportunity I was rejecting, but I wasn’t about to leave Noah, not even if they’d offered me a job at the White House. Jenkins had been on my ass ever since he’d heard about it, and I’d wasted ten minutes listening to him call me an idiot while I repeated that I wasn’t going anywhere. And now I had to confront Noah at a moment when our relationship was a straight-up catastrophe. The whole thing was getting out of hand.

I called to tell her I was going to her dorm. I wanted to explain what was going on to her, but as usual, she ignored every one of my calls. Fifteen minutes later, I was parking in front of her dorm, and as I got out, I started asking myself how I could explain things without ending up with her chewing me out about the same things she’d already thrown in my face before. The last thing I wanted was to make her ask me for even more time apart and for that time apart to turn into an eternity.

Damn Sophia and her damned mouth.

I knocked three times and waited for the door to open. When it did, it wasn’t Noah.

Shit.