Chapter 147

Jasmine arched an eyebrow, then giggled as Theo handed each of us a beautiful cotton candy flower.

“You ladies are getting together again in a week?” he asked.

“I hope that doesn’t bother you,” I said. “I always try to make sure that I have something to serve for dinner. What would you like?”

She tapped her nails together thoughtfully. “I know this might sound really weird, but do you like tacos?”

“I love tacos,” I said.

“Good. I’d like tacos,” she requested.

“Done. I bet I can even make homemade pico de gallo.”

Jasmine licked her lips. “Sounds amazing. Thank you.” She pointed down the path. “I should probably be heading out. I’ve got stuff to do this afternoon, and it sounds like you do, too. But I’ll see you again in a week. Thanks for inviting me out. This was fun.”

“Thanks for coming out with me. I’m glad I’m making new friends.”

She grinned and waved and walked away, nibbling at her cotton candy.

I fell into step beside Theo on the way back to our car. “I don’t know if you want to schedule a night with Violet so that you’ve got something else to do while we hang out. You’re welcome to take over the bedroom and watch movies.”

I tried not to think about what else they would be doing in the bedroom, things that I wanted to do with Charles, but couldn’t.

Theo twitched oddly, then sighed. “That’s not going to happen. Violet and I broke up.”

“What? Why?” I yelped.

He made a face. “Turns out she couldn’t handle dating a bodyguard.”

“Is it my fault?” I gasped. “Is it because you had to leave and live with me?”

“No. No.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I mean, that didn’t help. But it was inevitable. She said she felt like a goldfish, always on display. Meaning whoever I was guarding would have made her feel the same.”

He let out another big sigh, deflating even further. “I’m still young enough that I wasn’t marrying her, or at least I hadn’t made any plans like that yet. But it still hurts.”

I put a hand on his shoulder and patted him. “I know it does. I’ll tell you what. Why don’t we watch breakup movies when we get home.”

“Breakup movies?” he asked.

“Yeah, you know, the ones where the significant other is a complete bitch or douchebag, and you get to root for the protagonist and hope some bird from hell drops shit on the ex’s head.”

He laughed. “That’s hilarious. Yeah, I guess I could go for that.”

“I really am sorry about Violet,” I said. “I feel responsible. You should have said do, but thank you for being a friend about the whole thing. Worse,

“Then again, you just had your breakup, so I guess it makes sense you understand. Not that Violet and I were as serious as you and Charles, but still, you get it.”

I bit my tongue so hard that it bled. “When did Charles and I break up? I don’t remember having done that.”

“You did. Or at least that’s certainly the way it sounded to me,” Theo said. “I wondered how you were faring so well. I’d have thought you’d have been a whole lot more devastated, but it makes sense now if you didn’t internalize your split as an actual breakup.”

“Do you think Charles thought it was a breakup, too?” I gasped.

“I’d say probably so. When you left that restaurant, you made it pretty clear that things were over if he didn’t do things the way you wanted.”

A sick feeling settled in my stomach. “This is horrible,” I said. “Breaking up isn’t what I meant at all. And now everything is wrong. I have to go catch Charles. I have to go back to the office. I have to help him understand that I don’t want to break up.”

“You don’t?”

“Well, no. I just… I need him to understand where I’m coming from and not just tell me that I need to understand the alpha way of life. There has to be some sort of compromise. Surely every woman who has married an alpha throughout history hasn’t had to give up everything about herself to become the exact same woman.”

I snapped my fingers together. “What was that movie with the robot wives? It makes being an alpha’s wife sound like that.”

Theo nodded. “Okay, I can kind of see where you’re coming from, But you have to see what I saw, which is that you told Charles that you weren’t the woman for him and left. You gave him the chance to come after you, but he didn’t take it. Which kind of indicates to me that it’s over.”

“Okay, I really, really do need to go find him. We’re going back to the office building, and I need you to give me as much space as possible. I don’t know where we’re going to have this conversation at work, but it’s got to happen.”

Theo and I stayed quiet all the way back to the government building. He followed me to Charles’ floor, staying politely back. Charles’ floor was fairly open, with cubicles for people to work in rather than having offices.

I headed away from the bank of elevators and started to turn the corner to head toward the side of the main room where Charles had his cubicle. I’d barely rounded the corner when I froze.

Charles was down at the end of the line of cubicles. Bile hit the back of my throat. Another woman was wrapped in his arms. She was hugging him exuberantly. And he returned the hug with a smile on his face.

I spun and dashed away, struggling to hold back the tears that wanted to come out—at least until we made it outside. I nearly made it, getting across the main lobby and out the entrance. But just out of sight of the front door, I lost control. Tears streamed down my face.

Theo drew me into an alcove where we couldn’t be seen. This was polite of him because I really didn’t want to rehash what I had just seen with anybody that I didn’t know well. And I was sobbing where anyone from work could have come across me.

When we were as private as we were going to get, Theo asked me, “What was wrong>”

“You were right,” I gasped. “Charles did think it was a break-up. He was with another woman.”

“Wow, that was fast for somebody who was planning on marrying you and having kids,” Theo said. His nose wrinkled. “Are you sure of what you saw?”

I growled at him. “It’s really hard to mistake it when your ex has his arms around another woman, and they both look thrilled.”

“They were actually hugging, not something else?”

“What else would look like a hug?” I snapped. “They were really hugging and tightly. I didn’t stick around long enough to see the kiss that I knew was coming next. But with a mood like that, kissing was inevitable.”

“I don’t know. I just can’t see Charles doing something like that at work.”

I scowled at him. “Well, even if they didn’t start kissing, the hug was obvious.”

“Then, I guess we really do need that movie night, after all. Because it sounds like you need a breakup movie to laugh over, too.” He used the edge of his shirt to dry my tears. “I’ll tell you what. We’re going to make one stop on the way back to your apartment.”

I shook my head. “I don’t want to stop anywhere looking like this.”

Theo grinned and said, “I know, a good liquor store near our place.”

This managed to draw up a weak chuckle. “All right,” I agreed. “There might be one place I’m willing to stop at.”

We went back to the apartment that night and drowned our sorrows together.