Hired Love
Chapter 41

Roman only stared at her.

Her tears kept flowing. More than anything, she was scared of being rejected. It would be so much worse if the rejection came from Roman.

No one made a sound. Even Olivia was glued to a spot. Her future, her present all depended on this moment. She finally found the person she wanted to be with more than anything. If he said yes, they wouldn't have to pretend anymore. They could be together without lies or deception.

"Stacy, I-" He paused, letting his hands drop from her face. "I don't know what to say."

"Do you love me, Roman?" She asked him with an encouraging smile, aware that she sounded desperate. She was desperate.

He stepped away from her, folding his hands tightly into fists. Groaning, he looked to the afternoon sky for a few seconds before dragging his gaze back to hers. "I care about you, Stacy but I don't do love." He shook his head with a great effort like it was too heavy. "I just can't."

And finally, she dropped the fake smile as a tear ran down her face and she whispered, "I can't do this anymore." Staring back at the faces of her family members, she shook her head once, twice. "I'm so sorry, everyone."

Stacy broke into a run. He'd rejected her, had thrown her love back in her face. She had to leave, had to get out of here. Everything came down to this moment; before now and after now. Nothing would ever be the same. Of all the men she'd been with, none of them had hurt as much as Roman did and she hadn't even dated him.

She considered herself the biggest fool of the century. It was her fault anyway. He'd made it clear how much he disliked strings attached and yet she'd gone and fallen in love with him.

Her hands shook as she hurriedly packed her bags. She was done. No more. Her mother probably hated her already and her sister thought she was her biggest enemy. She'd invited a stranger she was tired of deceiving herself. She might've thought she knew him but now she wasn't so sure-into her parent's house and had even slept with him.

What a complete fool.

The worst thing that could've happened had happened; she told him she loved him, and he'd said absolutely nothing.

She wanted somewhere dark and quiet. Somewhere she could pretend she hadn't just confessed her love for Roman in front of her entire family, as well as him, and had it thrown back in her face.

She made sure to take her phone from her mother's drawer before leaving.

Her aunt caught up with her just as she closed the door. "Stacy, wait."

She stopped, brushing her hair away from her face. "Aunt Phoebe, tell me one thing. How did you know Claire slept with my boyfriend?"

She sighed, breaking eye contact. "I overheard them arguing yesterday morning. Matt was saying he regretted everything that happened." "Matt can go fuck himself."

"I'm sorry, Stacy. I wish things didn't have to be like this."

"Yeah well, we don't always get what we want."

She was going to go back to her life before all the drama began but who was she kidding? There was no coming back from this. There was no forgetting Roman.

She was doomed to fall for people who didn't think she was enough.

A few hours later, she was safely in her apartment back in New York, tucked into her bed. She'd had several hours to go over the events of the day, reliving her hell as many times as she could.

The look of his face when Claire had said she was in love him was imprinted on her mind. He's looked so lost, so broken. She turned on her side, just as a tear fell down her nose and hit the bed.

Her phone wouldn't stop buzzing and she was so tired. Grace hadn't stopped calling. Had he said something to her? She didn't have the slightest inclination to speak to anyone. She just wanted to be left alone. Why did something so beautiful have to hurt so much? The tears wouldn't stop. She held her chest hardly, crying into her pillow.

Claire had hurt her by revealing her secret to everyone, but it was nothing close to the heartbreak she was experiencing at Roman's rejection.

Things had been going well, hadn't they? Even though it had only been for a short while, they'd been happy together. Perhaps she'd deluded herself into thinking he'd want more, that maybe she could've changed his mind somehow. She'd probably never see Roman again for the rest of her life. Stacy knew with all of her might that she'd run back to him in a heartbeat if he asked. She loved him that much.

Nevertheless, she refused to be brought down by this. She realized she needed to love herself before anyone else. It was all so clear now. She didn't know how she'd managed to delude herself that Roman was the one for her. It was simple. He was never going to love her the way she loved him.

She'd thought it a couple of hundred times in the past week but until now, she'd never truly believed it.

Sure Roman might want to kiss her and fuck her, he might even care about her like he'd said but he was never going to love her like she wanted, and nothing had ever hurt her like the truth of those words. She was tired of begging people to love her, to stay.

So she was going to cry tonight, for everything she's lost, everything she never got. And then tomorrow, she was going to get up from bed, get pretty, go back to work, and try to get her life back on track. Because despite everything, life went on.