Page 34 of Irresistible

"You can believe whatever you want. But while we're on the topic of deception, why are you going through my phone?" Richard asked calmly.

"This isn't about me! This is about you! You're the one getting nudes from a model, or an actress or something while you're fresh off sleeping with me!"

"Stop deflecting. And by the way, Carly is an actress," Richard cautioned, still maintaining his calm demeanor.

The name clicked quickly as Scarlet quickly thought about all the movies she had seen in the past year.

"Wait. Is that Carly Pomodoro? THE Carly Pomodoro is sending you nudes first thing in the morning on a Saturday? That's insane. There's no way you're over her. She's one of the highest-grossing actresses in the world. Was this just a way for you to get your rocks off while you're on the road?"

"Yes, it is her, but that's not what's happening. You still haven't addressed my question. Why were you looking through my phone?" Richard's tone was becoming much more serious.

"How dare you accuse me of doing anything when you're trying to juggle multiple women? I didn't touch your phone, let along 'go through it'. I saw your phone screen flashing with a bunch of different notifications, so I came over to see what was going on."

"Fair enough. You didn't go through my phone. But you did come over and look at what was notifications I was getting because, subconsciously, you don't trust me and you don't think it's going to work out between us."

"Well, it's certainly not going to work out between us now."

"Keep in mind, I didn't do anything wrong here. You're just choosing to believe that I'm seeing other women. I'm really not. Do you think that Carly and I could date without it being covered by every news outlet? It would be all over social media, just like it was when we initially started going out."

Scarlet stopped for a moment. He made a good point. When she searched him earlier, she only saw their relationship from a few years ago. Nothing else popped up. She still didn't believe him.

"This is insane. Whatever, we should just call it now and act like nothing happened. We're both adults here, and we can just move on with our lives. I just wish you hadn't turned out to be a scumbag."

"I didn't." Richard said, getting up from the bed to get dressed. "I still care about you, but obviously this won't work out if you can't even believe me on this one simple thing. I've already told you what happened. If you can't trust me, then you can't trust me. That's not something I can change and, quite frankly, I wouldn't try to change it if I could. You have to do what's best for you. If I'm not in that equation, then I'd rather you just go off and be happy, even if it's with someone else."

Scarlet cringed. He still somehow managed to be charming, even in this moment.

"I just can't anymore. I've been hurt too many times before. I've been cheated on too many times before before, and I know what it feels like. Like you said, I just can't trust you."

She didn't give him an opportunity to respond before rushing out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her. Tears flowed down her face as she fled to her sedan in the parking lot. Customers in the lobby tried to stop her to see what the problem was, but she shrugged all of them off and ran through the open lobby door and into the parking lot. Not only could she not string thoughts together, she knew she couldn't tell anyone what was going on. It meant too much risk for her and for Richard. It would undoubtedly somehow be on the news in minutes if she told anyone what was going on.

Scarlet rushed into the driver's seat of the sedan, started the car, and began blasting the radio as she raced out of the hotel parking lot. She had no idea where to go. It seemed like a bad idea to go straight back to her house. It was Saturday morning, so she would have to sit and stew in her anger and sadness for almost two full days before going back to work on Monday. She wanted to talk to someone, anyone about this.

"CALL MOM!" Scarlet screamed into her phone's speaker, after pressing the button for voice command.

She pressed the end button to terminate the call before it started ringing. Even though her mother would be sympathetic, she would almost certainly criticize her poor judgment. Scarlet knew she couldn't exactly blame her mother for that feeling. Her daughter had just hooked up with her boss, who happened to be the CEO of a massive bank, before berating him after noticing that he was receiving nudes from a famous actress. It was kind of a mess.

A more nefarious executive would use lawyers to keep her silent, likely threatening to sue her or just paying her off to keep her from telling anyone the truth. Scarlet was confident that Richard would not sic a team of attorneys on her, but the story still made her look bad no matter which way you spun it. The only thing she wanted less than her mother's judgment was to make her mom cry, which she almost certainly would have. To make matters worse, her mother would almost certainly tell her dad, and that wouldn't work out well for anyone.

There was no choice. She had to talk to someone. Her insides felt as though they were going to explode. If she was going to survive this weekend, she had to talk to somebody about what just happened. Since her mom was out of the question, there was only one other choice. Her tires screeched as she whipped her wheel around and made a beeline for Charlie's.