Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 93699 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 468(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93699 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 468(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
He grabbed my hand, but I yanked it away.
“Don’t touch me.” Tears fell down my cheeks. “I told you this would happen. I told you she wouldn’t understand.”
“She’ll get over it.”
“It’s not that simple, Travis.”
“Well, it’s definitely not as complicated as you’ve always tried to make it seem.” He rolled his eyes. “You’re with me and she finally found out. I don’t see the problem now. It honestly wouldn’t have been a problem then, and the quicker you realize that you broke us up for no reason, the better.”
I shook my head, stunned that after all this time, he still couldn’t see things from my point of view. That he honestly believed I had “no reason.”
“You haven’t changed,” I said. “You’re not a better person now at all are you?”
“I’ve been very clear about becoming worse since you left me.”
“I had to.”
“Because you want to be so goddamn dramatic about everything.” He narrowed his eyes. “You were making fucking excuses then, and you’re making them now.”
“You know what? This arrangement isn’t working for me anymore.”
He glared at me, but I didn’t care.
I slammed the door shut and tried to hold back tears for as long as possible.
I lasted for five seconds.
Mid cry, I packed my suitcase and made a final escape plan he’d never catch onto.
ACT TWELVE
BACK THEN
TATIANA
Las Vegas, Nevada
“And the new welterweight champion of the worldddddd!” The announcer holds up Travis’s hand at the center of the octagon. “Travis ‘The Punisher’ Carter!”
The arena erupts in applause as the commissioner places a shiny golden belt around Travis’s waist.
I’m not sure what the hell I was thinking this morning, why I bought the cheapest ticket and jumped on a plane to see him, but I couldn’t help it.
He’s kept me up so many nights with talks of his dreams that it didn’t feel right to witness this moment through a screen.
Swelling with pride, I listen to him berate everyone who bet against him and smile as he thanks “the few people who believed in me, but seriously, fuck the rest of you.”
“God, he’s so hot!” “I bet he’s fucking tons of girls after this.” “I want to be one of them.” The women in the row ahead of me swoon, and for a moment, it feels like I’m back in The Underg5sround all over again.
I hold back a laugh and move toward the aisle.
Pushing my way through the crowd, I spot Penelope hugging Travis outside the cage.
Travis kisses her forehead and grabs a cell from his manager. Holding it up to his ear, he turns away from the watching cameras and walks to the other side of the octagon.
My phone buzzes in my pocket.
“Hello?” I answer.
“Hey.” He’s smiling. “I just beat the defending champion. Did you see me?”
“Of course, I did,” I say. “You did amazing.”
“What bar are you watching me in?”
“I didn’t go to a bar. I’m here in the arena.”
“What?” He turns around. “Where?”
“Section B.”
I watch him scan the arena until he spots me and waves.
"You look good," he says. "We should go out to dinner tonight."
"I'd love that."
Before I can ask him what food he has a taste for, a suit approaches him, whispering in his ear.
"Okay, wait." Travis shakes his head and sighs. “I have to do my post-fight presser, meet with my agent about a contract change, and I promised Penelope a dinner first, but I can come see you after.”
“Oh...Okay."
“I hope that's alright with you."
“Yeah, sure.”
I’m tempted to book a hotel room in hopes that he’ll drop by later, but I don’t.
I return to the airport.
He doesn't call that night.
Two days later, I wake up to an inbox full of apologies from Travis and four new "I am so sorry, please let me fix this" voicemails.
In every message, he begs me for a raincheck.
Although I accept, I have a nagging feeling that he’ll never have the time to redeem it.
THIRTY-NINE
PRESENT DAY
TATIANA
A Couple of Days Later
Manhattan, New York
New York welcomed me home with warm thunderstorms and hugs of heated rain.
After making it to my condo, I turned off my phone and rushed into the shower.
Holding back tears, I stood under the scalding hot streams and washed every bit of Las Vegas and Travis off my skin.
Foolish, foolish girl…
As steam fogged the glass, a memory of Travis fucking me against his shower bench weeks ago played in my mind.
I wished it would swirl down the drain as quickly as the suds.
“You were making fucking excuses then, and you’re making them now.”
No matter how hard I scrubbed, the stains of our relationship remained.
I considered returning to the airport, flying back to Nevada, and breaking up with him in person, but I couldn’t.
This needed to be our final chapter, and no matter how hard it hurt to read, I needed to accept “the end.”
ACT THIRTEEN
BACK THEN
TATIANA
Denver, Colorado
“Sometimes, you’ll get everything you want in this life. But most times, you’ll have to learn to let some things go, because you can’t keep them all at once…”