The billionaire's undying love for me.

oft, steady hum, like a refrigerator in a qui

y afternoon, at 3:47 p.m

ved. It was our three-year anniversary, and I had left work early just to surprise him. My f

him through

dress and laughed with her head thrown back. Then he leaned across the table and kissed her. It wasn't

from my hand. I didn't h

in the little park across the street, my knees pulled up, my shoulders shaking,

ispered to no one.

r my shoe. An old man read a newspaper two benches away,

eyes, and the memories came

r, over the last copy of a textbook I desperately needed. We reach

e said. "But you

vening he walked me home under his jacket and kissed my forehead at

vering a shift at the bookstore. He sulked for two days, and then showed up at my door with a h

day. We said we would adopt a dog and name him Biscuit. We said w

eve. Apparently, I was the onl

rly, since this was the day my

cheeks that aunties love to pinch, big brown eyes that give away every emotion, and a small mole under my left eyebrow that I spent my teenage years

s the part I held onto

the energy to braid my hair and help with homework. My younger sister, Lily, is sixteen and dramatic enough for a soap opera. My littl

n there

for pulling my braid and then shared her sandwich with me as an apology to th

gainst my knee. S

'd call after your big surprise. Di

hovered. Then a fresh wave of te

kissing s

ediately. Then disappea

ng before I

e was a growl. "Tell me where

hoked. "Please. I

e are

ross from Ca

use, and then her voice softened in a way it only ever d

even though she coul

an and tried to think. What was I supposed to do now? Storm into the café? Throw a drink at h

scene. But I wasn't going t

tice. The late-night "work meetings." The phone always face-down. The way

im. I had called it stre

afraid of losing him that I had stop

from his birthday: Daniel with his arm around me, both of us grinning

time, I thought. I just

over the delete

l. They were slow and unhurried, the walk of someon

ly wiped my cheeks. P

s stopped right

f cedarwood and something expensive, something I definitely couldn't afford. A black car idled

voice spoke a

a man who isn't ev

terday, in the glass-walled conference room at work, when it

ned s

rk eyes unreadable, was Adrian Blackwood, the arro

s if he had no idea how to be gentl

said. "And tel