Aftermath (5 page)

I got home and found Brad sitting on the bed, flipping through his
smartphone
.

"What're you looking at?" I asked.

He showed me silently. Photos of us,
taken just a few days ago in
Paris
.

I was in a good mood, and decided to be nice for our last
few days
together. "That was a good time, wasn't it?"

He stared at me blankly.

"I mean, it was a nice way to end our time together, right? We only have two more weeks…" I faltered, seeing his blank look.

His eyes looked at me without any expression, and f
inally, he said slowly, "I should have seen it.
I can't believe I was so blind, no
w I understand why you're
so
happy to move on.
"

I raised an eyebrow.
"
You're only figuring out now that I know about Naomi? Yeah, whatever."
I wouldn't lose my cool.

He looked puzzled, "Naomi?" He shook his head. "No, I read
your thing. About
Clive."

And then I noticed the paper lying beside him.

I picked it up - it was a stupid
poem
I'd written for a creative writing assignment
. It was all about my
affair with a boy in my class named Clive
and
how the passionate lovemaking
released
me
from the drudgery of my married life… It was so stupid that once I saw it in print, I
knew
I could never submit it. I hadn't realized it had been lying around all this time.

"It's dumb, huh?" I didn't realize why he was so upset over my bad writing. And then it struck me. "Oh no. Wait. You don't think
…
?" I
smiled sardonically
and looked at him.

I would've laughed
if I hadn't seen actual pain in his eyes.
He'd been so nice to me, he'd helped me get into college and pick up the pieces of my life again. So what if he wanted to sleep with Naomi? I couldn't hurt his feelings
like that
.

I wanted to shake him like a leaf, shake some sense into him. But instead, I grabbed his arm
and said, "Brad, don't be stupid, it's a dumb poem for a stupid English class. It's so dumb I couldn't even submit it."

He looked at me coolly and said, "It seems real enough."

"Are you kidding me?" I felt exasperated. "
T
here's no Clive,
it
's a stupid made-up name
! Anyway, why do you care, you've got Naomi…" I covered my mouth as soon as the words slipped out. I didn't want to know the truth, I wanted to keep living in my fantasy.

"Yes, I have Naomi," he said, "But
that
's not the same as Clive, clearly."

My anger flared up.
"Oh right, because she's real and you two are all passionate and fucking your brains out?"

"That's a disgusting thing to say."

"Oh is it? Like you haven't been going up to her room wh
en
I'm asleep. You bang me and then go to her for seconds?
"
I started crying. "
Do you meet her during the day?
How could you do this to me? Why did you have to bring her here?" I couldn't control my sobs and I felt his arms around me. "I know it's all fake," I sobbed, "but maybe…"

My sobs took over,
I couldn't continue and explain that even if it was fake, maybe he could
pretend
to be monogamous too?

He was stroking my hair now, and even though I hated him, the smooth gentle touch calmed me down
a bit
and brought me back to my senses
. I need to preserve some dignity, I thought, and I wiped back the tears.

Brad held my face in his hands, forcing me to look into his eyes. They were serious and intent, and he said softly, "I'm sorry. I wanted to see if you cared or not."

I snapped my head back and looked at him in horror. "That's a
terrible
thing to do."

He was smiling and my eyes flashed with hatred as I said, "And I don't care. I think you're a jerk and you two deserve each other."

Brad laughed
happily
and somehow I felt his arms around me, hugging me tight as he kissed the side of my neck, sending shivers down my spine.
"Well, I care," he murmured, "And I didn't know how else to find out if you cared or not."

I started crying again, a stupid mess of hormones, and Brad tried to cheer me up. "I thought if you cared, you'd say something earlier," he
smiled
but I merely collapsed on the bed,
in tears and
unable to think straight.

"Naomi's my cousin," Brad explained when I'd calmed down a bit. "We’re quite close, and she had a bad breakup. I told her she could live here while she looked for a new place. I trust her instincts, and I thought she might be able to tell me if you were ok for me,
that
I wasn't nuts to want to be with you."

"Does she even work in accounting?"

"Yes, she's an accountant."

Of course, I thought, she was far too smart to be an assistant. And those blue eyes
, the same as Brad's
- I must've been stupid not to see the resemblance between
them
.

"Maybe we should go to
Paris
again," Brad suggested, "Maybe we should do it properly?"

I shook my head no. "Let's go somewhere new.
Milan
?
Rome
?"

"We’ll see. But maybe we should have a proper wedding party first? Renew our vows and invite all our family?"

I laughed happily,
imagining a proper ceremony and a white dress,
thinking of how much fun we'd have together.

The Billionaire's Contract: Proposals

The Billionaire's Contract 2: Considerations

The Billionaire's Contract 3: Aftermath

Punished By The Principal

Punished By The History Teacher

Seducing Her Professor

She is available on twitter; her username is @AliciaRRoberts

She blogs at http://aliciarroberts.wordpress.com