Pain And Pleasure 18+✓

Forty-three

Adrian holds my gaze until I pull myself out of shock. Still, not even his so-sure kind of look can erase the hatred I feel toward Richard Cooper.

How dare he suggests that I sit down and have dinner with my ex-boyfriend and him together? What for? This is madness.

"I think I'm gonna head to the bedroom and sleep or something," I manage to say at last. "I'm not going anywhere tonight, Adrian. No, I'm not." I walk past him, questing with everything I have not to show how disturbed I am by this.

"Wait." Adrian grips my wrist, stalling me. "Look, Ara—"

"I SAID NO!" I snap, my voice laced with anger and distress. A sigh leaves me sharply before I declare, "I'm not going there! I don't know what your deal is... but you're not dragging me into it. No, sir. So enjoy your dinner without me." Pulling my hand off, I storm out without staring back.

Camille pumps into me on the way, or the other way around, and all we exchange is hushed sorry as I immediately clatter through the front door, heading outside to where I can be alone and think clearly.

Something wrong, Sir?" It's Miss Cleopatra, talking to her boss.

Why is she still here? She should get ready to catch her flight already.

"Nothing of your concern," Adrian answers her, and whatever he says next isn't anything I can hear.

I rush past the grass-strewn garden and trudge toward the swimming pool and halt for a while. The hot afternoon sex from a few hours ago teases my mind when I look at the place I feel overwhelmed. It was supposed to be a beautiful day, but it's already stained now.

So Richard is back. The last time I saw him was the day we broke up. It was a mess. He said gnarly stuff about me, and I returned a very gruesome comment that no man would want to hear. It was a charity event but we sure as hell became the center of attention for at least five minutes of the gala.

I don't exactly remember how we became a couple, for it felt more natural than typical love stories. His family and Sally's were friends for eons, and since I lived at Sally's, Richard was part of my life somehow. We easily became closer, and it didn't take magic for us to kiss and start dating.

He was good at first—amazing, I might add—until he decided that being sweet was overrated. Maybe I was too stupid to read the signs, or too fazed by the fact that a hot blonde with lethal green eyes was in a love with girl like me. Little did I know that I was just a pawn in his game.

Enmeshed in the past, I walk around aimlessly, arms across my chest. Birds float in the sky, and palm trees sway against the rustling breeze as the sun lowers little by little toward the west. I sigh heavily, watching the little lake resembling an oasis in the desert right next to me.

Last year...

"Look, I didn't even tell her that I'm going to Europe and I don't know if I should," I heard Richard talking to Allen and Caro, one of his friends and work colleagues during the gala last year.

My heart froze. He was leaving without telling me anything.

Classic music aired from the background as I stood still behind a concrete pillar in the ballroom, holding my purse like a talisman.

"Dude, you can't do that to her!" Caro objected.

"Why not? Isn't it much better than breaking up with her? What will I tell her? She's this... So clingy, so invested, as if we're gonna get married or something! I don't wanna keep her hopes up. Besides, she has those siblings, and being with her is like dating a single mom," he said nastily.