Free STEP BY STEP by Clarissa Black

“Bryan”
had sent her a picture message of a man holding a little girl who was the
spitting image of her.

 
    “Nothing,” Sapphire said, her cheeks
slightly red and her words quick and distracting. She shut her phone off and
threw it in her purse. “What are we ordering tonight?”

 
    “That little girl looked just like you,”
I said. “And who was that man holding her?”

 
    Sapphire flashed her fakest smile. “I
said nothing.”

 
    “I don’t believe you,” I told her, my
voice raised.

 
    “Keep your voice down,” Sapphire said in
a hushed tone. People in the restaurant around us were beginning to stare.
“This is not the time nor the place.”

 
    A sickened, nauseous feeling flooded my body
in that moment and a bitter taste filled my mouth. The feeling that my entire
world, everything I thought I knew, was crumbling down. And I never even saw it
coming.

 
    I stood up, tossed my napkin on the
table, and left the restaurant.

 
    “Preston!” Sapphire called after me as
she chased me down outside. It was December and paper thin, white snowflakes
were falling gently from the starry sky. It was supposed to be our Christmas
dinner. I was going to propose. A five-carat diamond sparkler had been burning
a hole in my pocket for months as I waited for just the right moment to ask
her.

 
    I stopped and turned around to face her.
I wanted her to see my face, to see the pain she’d inflicted on me. I didn’t
want her to ever forget it.

 
    “Look,” she said with a sigh. “I’m
married. I live in Jersey. I have a three year old daughter.”

 
    Her words weighed heavy as they hit me
with one blow to the chest, and I couldn’t breathe. A year of
fucking her brains out every night over my desk. Vacations. Late nights lying in hotel beds spouting out plans for the future
and how we were going to take over the world together. How did it never
occur to me that she was married?

 
    “So you were just fucking your way to the
top this whole time?” I asked her, my eye honing in on her bare ring finger.
“Where’s your ring? Does your husband know what kind of woman you are?”

 
    Sapphire looked torn. “When you and I
started…hooking up…I was separated. We sort of got back together in the
interim, I guess. I owe it to my daughter to try to make it work with her
father.”

 
    “And when were you going to tell me
this?” I asked, fighting the strain in my voice. “Huh? When ?! ”

 
    She held her eyes on the ground, unable
to meet my angry glare.

 
    “Did this mean anything to you? Us?” I
asked, spitting mad. “Or was it all one, big lie?”

 
    Her big, chocolate eyes slowly raised to meet mine and her lips curled into a half smile.
“I don’t know what it was exactly. I just know it was fun, and I didn’t want it
to end. I never meant for it to go this far…”

 
    I placed my hands on my hips and hung my
head. “I was going to propose to you tonight.”

 
    I couldn’t look at her. I spun around and
headed back towards my apartment uptown. A million thoughts rushed through my
mind. All I knew was that I never wanted to see her again, and I never wanted
to feel like that again.

 
 
 

 
 
SEVENTEEN

 
 
 
    MIRABELLE

 
 
 
    “Morning,” I said as I rapped on
Preston’s door. “I brought you something.”

 
    I handed him a steaming mug of black
coffee and watched as he took it from my hands and sat it aside, almost out of
arm’s reach.

 
    “You okay today?” I asked, studying his
face. His expression was nearly twisted into some sort of angry smirk.

 
    “Do you need something right now?” he
asked, turning to me and then looking towards the door behind me.

 
    Speechless, I shook my head and walked
out, shutting the door behind me. I headed towards my office, trying to rack my
brain as to what could possibly be his problem. I’d always heard guys could run
hot and cold, but this was ridiculous.

 
    I sat