Jenna Valentino thought she had found her forever after.
Life was good. A husband she loved, a daughter she adored, a dream job and a beautiful home. But nothing could prepare her for the bittersweet taste of betrayal, shattering the illusion.
Dev...
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~ ~ Gabriele ~ ~
It was coming up to two in the afternoon as I sat on my sofa with a beer propped on my leg.
I'd rang Ashley and asked if she could cover me tonight at the bar—last thing I wanted was to be surrounded by cheerful people and drunk assholes.
Raising my bottle, the prickle of liquid barely touched my tongue before I lowered it.
Alcohol wouldn't fix this.
Should have headed to the gym and asked one of the guys to spar with me. Punching something right about now would probably help.
But then again, if I drank enough, it would block everything out. Which also was a damn good plan.
Jesus! This hurt more than when I walked in on Al giving some random guy a blowjob in my office of all places.
I needed to get out of this funk. Pathetic and feeling sorry for myself weren't my style... normally. But I remembered reading somewhere once, that heartache was a real thing, shows up on scans, those ECG things. And when the heart is broken, the body and brain needed time to recover.
Guess there weren't any magical salves for the heart, but why was it always my heart and dreams that got crushed?
Perhaps Jake was right? Stick to casual, no ties relationships
—No!
I wanted something real. And honestly, I still wanted Jenna, knowing without a doubt I could have made her happy, if she'd had given me the chance.
Letting my head fall back, I played back the conversation for the hundredth time.
Why couldn't she look at me? There had to be more to it. It couldn't be all that bullshit about dreams and rebound crap.
Goddammit! She doesn't want your dumbass—move on.
But I'd honestly thought she'd felt the connection, too. How had it changed in a short hours? Perhaps I should visit Frank? He might shine some light on it.
No, I couldn't do that.
Grumbling to myself, I dragged my ass from the sofa; the decision made to head to the gym.
Placing my bottle down, I thought I heard something. Was that someone at the door?
There it was again...a knock.
Who would be here—now? Couldn't be Jake, no doubt in bed with whoever he took home last night.
Could it be Jenna—had she changed her mind?
I flew to the door with a crazy mix of hope and desperation.
Opening, I double blinked. To say it surprised me was an understatement, and then my stomach dropped. Had something happened? "Is everything okay... Is Jenna okay?"
