Intoxicated
Page 32
And in order to be found, someone had to be looking.
I swallowed down the bile in my throat that came with the realization that he had done just what I had asked. He had left me alone. That’s what I had screamed at him when I’d jerked away from his touch and stormed out his door. Except for a final text message which I’d handily ignored, that had been our final contact.
Sort of like Blake and Chris and their whole “rot in hell” moment. Whatever good memories that I could take away from our brief friendship/massive crush would be clouded forever by the explosive ending. An ending that I had put into motion all on my own.
As much as I wanted to blame him for the mess I had made, I knew I alone had created it. I had practically ambushed him last night. I’d conducted my own fishing expedition of sorts trying to gauge his interest in me. I couldn’t be upset that he had given me an answer I didn’t want to hear.
We couldn’t be anything. The thought of us being together was stupid. It just wouldn’t work.
Traffic picked up slightly as the Indianapolis skyline came into view. I sighed or breathed a sigh of relief; I wasn’t sure which. Whatever the case, I was soon cruising through downtown, traveling the streets I knew like the back of my hand. There was a sense of familiarity here that I hadn’t achieved yet in Fort Wayne. A sense of home that would be hard to recreate in a place where you had cut yourself off from the only two people there you really knew.
A momentary panic struck me as I swung my car into the entrance of Eric’s parking garage. What if he wasn’t here? He wasn’t expecting me until tomorrow; maybe he had gone out with the guys to celebrate his last night of assumed bachelorhood. The butterflies in my stomach subsided when I spied the BMW in its usual spot only to return again as I parked in mine.
I exited the car, taking only my purse and the black velvet box that had sat shotgun the entire way down. My legs felt wobbly as I strode to the elevator. The engagement ring weighed heavily in my hands as I ascended the nine floors to his condo. Even though the box itself was tiny, there was no mistaking the meaning inside it. In just the few short hours it had been in my possession it had turned my world upside down.
The elevator came to a stop. As the doors opened to reveal the hallway I told myself the nausea I felt had everything to do with the enclosed space and nothing to do with my plan.
It was time to confront the boyfriend.