Chapter 21 Is That His Ex-Wife?
AGNES
I tried not to think too much about it.
I could understand if Adams felt a bit unsure about confessing how he felt about me. It was much harder for him because he was older, way older than he felt comfortable with.
There was like a twelve year age gap between us, but I was no minor.
I was twenty two and I already knew what I wanted from life. I knew that I liked working in restaurants and serving people, I knew that at some point, I wanted to go back to college and get a degree.
And I knew that I wanted him.
But I also knew that things were very different from Adams. If we started dating, he would be dating a girl much younger than him and he would have to navigate his work life and friendships with me in mind, so it was natural for him to be resistant to me right now.
But he was mine, I could feel it in the way he held on to me at night, the way he kissed me that he wanted me to belong to him too, so it was only a matter of time.
We decided to go to a diner close by for breakfast that morning, because we were both still too tired from last night to cook anything.
We sat together, holding hands and laughing happily and for a moment everything was perfect. It felt like he didn’t care about what anyone else thought of us, like he just wanted to be with me and I loved it.
I loved sharing food with him out in public, I loved the way he kissed me like he didn’t care who saw us.
Yesterday was private, but today we were public and I loved every second of it.
Adams paid and we walked out of the diner hand in hand.
I felt on top of the world.
Until…
“Adams!” A man’s voice called out and Adams stopped suddenly, freezing as a man and woman approached us.
“Mike?” he smiled at the man, his hand dropping from mine quickly. I stared at him feeling a bit stunned.
“Adams, this is why you have been so happy these days, is she why you didn’t come in yesterday?” Mike asked, his eyes teasing as they fluttered down to me.
“Yeah Adams,” the woman near Mike spoke. “I didn’t know you already moved on from Selena.”
The familiar name made me pause.
Selena. Was that the name of his ex wife?
Why did her name sound so familiar to me?
“No,” Adams said, sounding a bit too defensive. “We are just good friends.”
My heart dropped immediately.
Good friends?
Was he actually serious?
“I see,” the woman gave me a cold look over. “Nice to meet you.”
I forced a smile, stretching out my hand. “You too.”
“Let’s catch up later, Adams,” she replied to him, ignoring my hand.
“Yeah sure,” Adams smiled as they walked away.
I expected him to turn over and immediately apologize but he stayed silent, walking in front of me.
We got to the car and he opened the car door, expecting me to go in.
But I stayed frozen, unable to bring myself to step in.
“Agnes can you—”
“I think I am going to walk to the restaurant today,” I said suddenly, feeling the words choke my chest even as they came out.
Then I turned away from his stunned face and walked away, trying not to look back at him and at the same time hoping he would come after me and apologize.
Adams didn’t come after me.
Instead, he got in the car and drove away, leaving the ache in my chest to spread.
I drifted through work on auto pilot, unable to stop thinking about how easy it had been for Adams to drop my hand in front of his friends.
How he had smiled in embarrassment when they implied he was dating me, the way he walked ahead.
And then to top it all off, he had driven off.
It shouldn’t have hurt as much as it did, but it did.
I hated how attached I felt to him, when it wasn’t even his fault. He had never defined things so it should have been clear to me from the start that I was just an easy hookup.
I was the one who wanted him, I wanted him so badly that I hadn’t seen how unrealistic it was for him to want me back.
To him, I was just some broken damsel that he had saved, there was no way he wanted anything serious with me.
“What are you thinking of?” Mark’s voice suddenly cut into my thoughts. I turned only to find him standing barely an inch from me, a bright and polite smile on his lips.
“Sorry Mark, I have just had an overstimulating morning,” I replied calmly, trying not to look uncomfortable. If he felt like he was making me nervous, I had a feeling he would only act weirder with me.
“I see,” he smiled considerably. “Well, try not to let it get to you. A pretty girl like you shouldn’t look this sad, it makes the room feel colder.”
His words made me cringe, but I forced a laugh. “Of course, I will smile more then.”
“Good,” he said, his gaze lingering too long on my chest before he finally walked away.
I sighed in relief, leaning against the wall as soon as he was gone.
I wasn’t sure how much of Mark’s weirdness I could take, but at this point, working here was my only option.
Suddenly, I heard a text notification on my phone.
It was from Adams.
“I know things were weird this morning, but I can explain. Let’s have dinner together tonight.”
His words sent a wave of warmth into my chest and I hated how easy I felt.
I wanted to text back or even call him but I decided against it.
If he was truly sorry for how he acted this morning, I was going to find out tonight.