Page 61 of Meet Cute Reboot
It wasn’t a regular contact. There was no name, and I didn’t recognize the number.
I understand why you had to fire me after we almost kissed. Things would have gotten too complicated. Now that you’re not my boss, I can say this: I’m up for anything. I meananything.
As I read, warmth escaped my body. Ice replaced blood, circulation stopped. I was a statue of denial.
There’s no way to prepare for learning that the man you love is cheating on you. Some women have a flood of thoughts, one question atop another. Who is she? How did they meet? Does he love her?
I’m not that woman.
I’m the woman who goes numb, frozen, empty. My thoughts become cold molasses. Turn the jar upside down and wait, wait, wait for thoughts to run. Eventually they move.
When Luke returned, I hadn’t moved a centimeter, phone still in hand, eyes straight ahead.
“What’s wrong?” Luke asked. Concern laced his words.
I sucked in a breath. It would be my last full breath for a long time, over a year. The deep ache from Luke’s betrayal settled in my lungs and resided there for months. Every breath hurt.
He grabbed the phone from my hand, tapped the screen, and then cursed. “Cassie. Let me explain.” He fell to his knees in front of me and grabbed my hands. Not how it was supposed to go. He was supposed to kneel, present a diamond, and change my world.
He changed my world. He turned it upside down, shook it until every cabinet and every drawer opened and my life rained down into a chaotic pile that I’d have to pick through and reorder in the months to come.
“It’s not as bad as it looks. Actually, it’s bad. But it will make more sense after I explain.”
“Get out,” I whispered.
“We didn’t kiss. She took me off guard, because... Because. I made out with Rose. One time, that’s all, and only because I was drunk.”
“Get out of my house,” I said with more force.
Luke rested his forehead on my knees. His tears polka-dotted my dress. “I want to spend my life with you, Cassie. I want—”
“I said, get out!”
He lifted his head, swallowed, looked at me pleadingly. “We can talk about it after you’ve had more time to process.”
“There’s nothing to process. It’s over. Stay away from me, Luke.”
And that was it.
He left.
I cried.
And then, eventually, I moved on.
“How many views did you say?” Bethany says through the speaker phone on my desk.
“One million and counting,” I answer.
I’m behind my desk in my office nook. Sarah scooted her chair over, and she’s sitting across from me with a notepad and pen in hand. We’re both staring at the phone.
“That many views since last night?” Bethany asks.
“Yes. In less than eighteen hours.”
Bethany hmms.
No, I didn’t delete the livestream. The Luke-Sonja incident is still out there and Instagram is loving it. I have twenty thousandcomments, many from curious singles who want to know when MatchAI is going to roll out in their city.