Page 22 of Shine For Me
“We’re engaged, June.”
I don’t bother to suppress my snort. “We’re really not.”
His eyebrows go up. “That’s news to me.”
“Adam—”
“Wait. I didn’t come here to fight.”
I throw up my hands. “I still have no ideawhyyou’re here.”
“I want another chance.”
I stare at him for a full twenty seconds, completely speechless. “You want another what?” I finally manage to squeak out. I must have heard that wrong. There’s no way after all this time he’s actually—
“Another chance, Junie. I know I screwed up. I know I hurt you. But I can do better. I can make you happy, the way I used to.”
I was never happy. But that sounds too maudlin to say out loud, so I just stare at him incredulously some more.
“I still have feelings for you,” he continues. “I still—what are you doing?”
“Googling you,” I tell him, my phone already in my hand.
The first trace of obvious annoyance breaks through. “Why in the hell are you googling me?”
“To find out what you’re running for,” I explain, fingers taping away. “I mean, that has to be it, right? Why else would you be here spouting this nonsense if you didn’t need something from me?”
“I’m not running for anything,” he says through gritted teeth.
“Is your dad running for something? Wait—there’s a scandal about to drop, right? Did you do something?”
“Of course not!” he snaps. “What’s your problem?”
“My problem is that you’re not being open with me. The only time that you’ve ever been interested in me is when I can do something for you. And we both know the public seems to like you a whole lot more when you go out with Hollywood’s Sweetheart on your arm.” I hold up my left hand, my bare ring finger obvious. “That’s the only reason we’re still participating in this sham, right? So what is this about? Why are you trying to gin up public support right now?”
“I miss you,” he barks. “Jesus, Junie.”
“You miss me?” I have the sudden urge to burst into laughter. “You don’t miss me.”
“Yes. I do.” He crosses his arms over his chest. “I don’t want our relationship to be a sham anymore.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t have slept with your secretary in our bed a month before we were supposed to get married!”
His expression turns grave. “I know. I know that, baby. You think I don’t know that? It’s the biggest mistake of my life.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re a shit actor, Adam.”
“I’m not acting. I regret hurting you every single day. If I could go back and change it all, I would.”
It makes me sick to realize that there was probably a time in my life when I would have fallen for it. When I was so desperate for this man to love me the way I thought he did in the beginning that I would have jumped at even the smallest hint of remorse. But that part of me died the day I walked in on him. It had been dying for months before that, if I’m honest with myself.
And if there was any shred of it remaining, it was destroyed the day Adam and his father sat in my grandfather’s office at his Beverly Hills mansion and the three of them hashed out this arrangement. A way to save face for all of us. A way they could keep getting what they wanted from each other, from me, even though I refused to go through with the wedding.
A postponement, they had called it. A chance for things to cool off. To avoid a scandal. We’d remain engaged in name only. We’d continue to attend events together. We’d let the press get their pictures of us. And someday, maybe if I was a very good girl, they might eventually agree to letting us call off the farce in full.
I’d been horrified by the entire thing. By the way the three of them had taken something that was supposed to be about love and commitment and turned it into a cold business deal instead. The way they expected me to just continue to publicly tie myself to a man who had broken my heart.
But the most horrifying part? I went along with it. So I can’t even tell myself I’m any better than the three of them. I could have refused. I could have stood up to my grandfather for once in my life. But I didn’t. I remained the spineless, scared little coward I’ve always been.
