Max’s hand froze. So did my entire body. Including my heart.

“What’s this all about?” Peter asked, looking in our direction.

Alexander jumped in when Max didn’t say anything right away. “He’s been trying for months to get one last tenant out of her apartment so he can finally go ahead with renovating the entire building into luxury apartments. But she won’t budge, the pain in the…well, you know. It’s been a bit of a setback. There’s always gotta be one holdout, doesn’t there?”

I looked down at my plate, fighting back the tears that threatened to spill over. Max’s hand was still on my thigh, so I picked it up by the wrist and dropped it on his own leg. The entire world was crashing in on me and the rest of the table talked and joked as though nothing was happening. How was that possible? How? I was dying inside. I couldn’t sit there for another moment.

“What are you going to do with this woman?” Gretchen asked curiously.

“I suggested he seduce her,” Alexander said with a laugh.

“Excuse me,” I whispered, pushing my chair back.

“Oh, that was before I knew he was going out with you, obviously,” Alexander blurted out, suddenly realizing what he has said.

I took pains to look casual, I even managed to smile sweetly at everyone on the table. “Don’t worry. It’s nothing you said. I’m just not feeling very well. I think I’ll go upstairs and lie down for a bit. Enjoy your dinner.”

I could see Millicent wanted to ask me what was wrong, but I walked out of the room before her question could be asked.

I heard Max mumbling something about checking on me, so I knew he was following. As soon as I was away from the dining room, I dashed to the stairs and ran all the way up. By the time Max reached the bedroom, I was already packing.

“Hang on. Let me explain,” he whispered urgently.

“Don’t say a word, Max. If you don’t want me to cause a scene and embarrass us both, you’ll go back downstairs to dinner and forget you ever knew me.”

“What are you doing? Are you leaving?” He stood beside the dresser as I grabbed blindly at my things, shoving them into the suitcase. “Please, Mimi. Listen to me. You have to give me a chance.”

“I don’t have to give you shit,” I whispered.

“Just listen to me.”

“Are you the developer?” I asked.

“Yes,” he confessed.

I shook my head. “How could you? How could you!”

He reached out a hand to grab my hand and I recoiled as if he was a striking snake. “I swear, I’m going to scream this house down if you don’t leave me alone, Max. You need to get out of this room. Now.”

“How will you get out of here?” he asked.

“I’ll get an Uber. No big deal.”

“Uber? All the way back to the city?”

“What the hell do you care?” I turned away, pushing my clothes and toiletries down so I could close the zipper. “Don’t start pretending to care about me now, Max. It’s pretty low.”

“I do care. You know I care.” I heard the urgency in his voice, the desperation even. And part of me wanted to give in and give him a chance to explain himself, but what could he say to make things better. He was the developer and he had taken Alexander’s advice and seduced me. The only problem was, I was not going anywhere. He was going to have to build his precious apartments around me. I thought he was one of the good guys. I let myself fall in love with him.

I wished I were dead.

I wished he were dead.

I looked up from my bag to find him pale-faced, worry lines creased his forehead. For once, he didn’t look sophisticated. All it took was a slip of somebody else’s tongue to turn him from a god into a despicable human being.

“I don’t know anything about you,” I spat. “And you kept it that way. Never talking about work, about where your money comes from, or what you do with it. Oh, unless you were trying to impress me with your limo and your concert tickets and your fucking friends in the fucking Hamptons. Now I understand why.”

“Mimi, please…”

“Oh, you don’t want them to hear me?” I sneered. “Don’t worry about it. Nobody needs to know that the great Max Black would stoop low enough to seduce a woman just to get her apartment. Ugh. Sickening”

“Oh, my God. That’s what you think? Mimi, that’s crazy.” He took a step toward me.

“Don’t come any closer,” I warned. “I mean it. Don’t even think about touching me, either. It’s over. Whatever this is, whatever we had, it’s done. And for the record, you’ll never get that apartment from me, so bad luck. I hope I never lay eyes on you again. I thought Josh was bad, but he’s got nothing on you.” I raised one arm, pointing to the door. “Now get out before I start screaming. I mean it. Everybody’s going to know what you did if you don’t leave right now.”

He raised both his hands and backed away, looking stricken. “All right. What do you want me to tell everybody?” he asked.

“Don’t you get it? I don’t give a fuck what you say to them. They’re not my friends. Tell them I’m sick. Tell them I found out I hate you. Whatever. You decide. You’re good at making things up.”

I pulled out my phone with shaking hands and opened the Uber app to request a car. When I looked up again, he was gone.

I collapsed onto the bed, shaking from head to toe, but I couldn’t cry. Not yet. Not until I was far away. I couldn’t run the risk of him seeing me fall apart.

* * *

In a daze, I looked up at the steel-gray sky with its fast-moving clouds. We would get early snow out of those clouds. It smelled like snow, the air holding that certain special scent it only got before a storm.

The first available cab would be in an hour’s time. I was already waiting outside for it. It was a hell of a tab, but it was a small price for getting out of there as quickly as possible.

Max had tried to wait with me. Maybe he wanted to talk or explain and make new excuses, but I turned on him with such venom, he raised both his hands in a gesture of appeasement and went back inside.

When the car pulled up to the house, I went down the steps, pulling my suitcase behind me, my laptop and purse over one shoulder. I felt bruised, beaten, ready to give up. There had been only one place I could imagine going just then. Ever since Grandma died and Mom and I drifted apart, but I had always felt sad about it. Right now. I needed her.

“Wow, nice place?” the driver said.

“Yeah,” I said quietly and stared out of the window. He probably thought I was a snob. He didn’t know my heart was broken. Half-way through the journey, I started sobbing my heart out. The poor driver must have thought I was insane.