4. We shouldn't be together

Brielle’s POV

I couldn’t sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Dante Moretti, lounging in that hotel bed like he owned the place. Like he owned me. That smirk of his kept replaying in my head on a loop, taunting me, mocking me, reminding me of exactly how insane the night had been.

And Marcus…oh my God. My chest tightened with fear, every time I thought about him. The day was already beginning to dawn. I had checked my phone at least a hundred times. Still I got no response from him. No returned calls or even texts. Not even a late-night “Hey babe, where are you?” Nothing to show that he even cared where I’d disappeared to after he ghosted his own birthday.

At eight, I tried calling him again. It still kept going to voicemail. At nine, same thing.

By ten, I was pacing my living room like a madwoman. My stomach rumbled terribly. My heart felt wrong in my chest. Every instinct inside me screamed that something was off.

When my phone finally buzzed at eleven, I practically tripped rushing to grab it. The text was from Marcus.

“Fuck!” I squealed in joy as I hurriedly opened the message. But my joy immediately wanted as I did.

“Can’t talk. Busy.” That was it. That was his freaking response to all my voice messages. And all he could reply to that was four emotionless, dismissive, empty words. My heart sank.

I stared at the message like I was waiting for extra words to magically appear. Maybe an apology, maybe context, maybe literally anything that showed care. A part of me was glad that he was alright. But still, I deserved more than those four empty words

I called him. Again it went to voice mail.

After the beep, my voice shook with anger and worry.

“Marcus, what the hell is going on? Where were you last night? It was your birthday. I need you to call me. Now.”

I hung up and waited. Then my waiting tarried for minutes. Until minutes turned to an hour. The last few weeks, he had been distant. But I wasn’t expecting him to still give me that attitude on his birthday. My stomach twisted. I needed to talk to someone. So I scrolled through my contacts and tapped a name I hadn’t talked to in months. George, one of Marcus’s work friends.

He was really cool when we met but we weren’t close. And I just realized I actually wasn’t close to any of Marcus’s friends. We were just casual acquaintances. Regardless, I tapped his contact and called.

He picked up on the fourth ring.

“Hello?” He sounded like he’d swallowed gravel.

“George? It’s Brielle.”

“Oh. Hey, Brielle.” A pause. “Uh… you’re calling early.”

“It’s almost noon.”

“Still early,” he muttered.

“Have you seen Marcus? I can’t reach him.” He kept quiet initially and I almost wanted to scream at him.

“Uh… not today,” he said.

“What about yesterday? It was his birthday. Did you see him?” Another hesitation. Fuck! Now I was convinced something was wrong.

“Yesterday… right.”

“George.” I snapped “Please.”

“Yeah, I… I saw him. For a bit.”

“Where?”

He cleared his throat. “At…at Kate’s Halloween party.” I felt a punch in my chest that instant.

Kate? Wasn’t that the ex he swore he was “over”? The ex he said was “barely relevant.” The ex he insisted he “never talked to anymore except in passing at work.” My breath hitched.

“Kate’s party,” I repeated. “He was there?”

“Uh… yeah. Most of the office was there. It was a whole thing. Plus it was his birthday so we all used that medium to celebrate him.” I swallowed hard, as my heart began to race again.

“And Marcus spent—what? An hour there? Two?”

“More like… most of the night.” I swallowed again. My nightmare was only getting worse.

“Most of the night.” My voice came out tiny.

“Brielle, I’m sure it wasn’t—”

“Did he tell you we had plans?” I asked.

“He, uh… mentioned something about it, yeah. But he said he cancelled.”

I sat down on my couch because my legs stopped working.

“He cancelled.” I whispered with tears whelming up in my eyes.

“Look, Brielle, I shouldn’t be saying any of this. I’m super hungover. I really don’t want to be involved—”

“George.” My voice came out cracked. “Please. I need the truth.” I pleaded. He exhaled loudly and was quiet for a few minutes.

“He was with Kate. For a long time. Hours. They were talking in the corner like old times. And later into the night, no one saw them around anymore or knew where they went to. I’m not putting thoughts in your head but since you asked for the truth, I will do that for you. I honestly thought… you two were done.”

Just WOW! He had made his choice on his birthday. And it wasn’t me.

I swallowed hard again for he upteenth time. “Thank you, George.”

“Brielle, I’m sor—”

I hung up.

For a minute, maybe two, I din’t do nothing. My mind felt like a blank room. Then I rushed to the bathroom to wash my face, got hastily dressed, picked up my car keys and got out of my apartment, heading for his house. I wanted him to look me in the eyes and confirm what I just found out. I needed to know what the fate of our relationship was.

Twenty minutes later, I was knocking on his apartment door so hard my knuckles hurt. Marcus opened it wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt, looking like someone who had slept too comfortably for someone who abandoned me last night.

He sighed. “I told you I’m busy.”

“Were you at Kate’s party?”

The shift in his face was immediate. And I didn’t need to be told. The guilt on his face was enough.

“Who told you that?”

“So you were there.”

He ran a hand through his hair. “It wasn’t a big deal.”

“It was your birthday, Marcus! We had plans!”

“Plans you made without talking to me,” he snapped.

“I was trying to surprise you!”

“I didn’t ask for a surprise!” He yelled right back and I paused to look at him. Something inside me broke at that. Yet, he didn’t even seem to be remorseful.

“You cancelled on me to go to your ex’s party.”

“It wasn’t—”

“You spent the whole night with her.”

“Who said that?”

“Answer the question.”

He looked away. That was my answer. I nodded in acknowledgement. Just WOW!

“Are you talking to her again?” I asked.

“We work together.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

Again, he fell silent and looked away. This time, I was already getting infuriated.

“Marcus… are you talking to Kate again? Like… talking?”

He finally exhaled, obviously realizing there was no point hiding anything.

“We’ve been catching up.”

My chest tightened painfully. “For how long?”

“A few weeks.” I released a sardonic laugh.

“You mean a few months? Because for the past three months, you’ve be unexplainably cold towards me.” He fell silent again and looked away. This time, I looked away too, trying to fight the tears that were trying to whelm up in my eyes.

My voice came out shaky. “You’ve been emotionally cheating on me.”

“It’s not like that.”

“Then what is it? Explain it to me so I can understand how spending your entire birthday with your ex is ‘not like that.’” I yelled into his face this time.

He started pacing, frustrated. “Brielle, you’re too much! This is exactly what I mean—everything with you is big. Dramatic. Chaotic. I can’t breathe half the time!” he confessed and suddenly I felt myself tilting. I stepped back like he’d slapped me.

“Too much,” I repeated quietly.

“Bri—”

“No. No. That’s how you feel. You think I’m too much. Too wild. Too unpredictable.” He tried to reach for me but I moved away immediately.

“You know what, Marcus?” I whispered. “You’re not enough.” I confessed too and he froze.

“You’re boring. Predictable. Safe. So safe you can’t handle someone who actually feels something.”

“That’s not fair.” He said and I looked at him in actual surprise at that audacity and laughed.

“Fair? You know what’s not fair? You letting me break my back trying to make you happy while you sneak off to your ex. And while I planned to fuck you two ways to Sunday, you were probably deriving that pleasure from Kate!”

His lips parted in shock but he closed them back and looked away. That confirmed it. He did cheat on me.

“We shouldn’t be together,” he said finally. I laughed really hard this time, fighting the tears from dropping.

“Maybe we shouldn’t.” I said, shaking my head. His eyes widened. He obviously expected me to fight for him. Such a joker. After I had spent three months fighting for us, and finding out all these, he was still expecting a fight? I’ve been such a fool!

“We’re done!” I announced to his face, with a faint smile on my lips.

“Brielle—”

“Be with Kate,” I said, walking out. “I hope she’s quiet enough for you.” I hissed and walked out of his apartment, without waiting for another word. I didn’t need it.

I made it to my car before the tears came. And they came hot and violent, rolling down my cheeks as I struggled to breathe. I gripped the steering wheel and just sobbed. Every memory we had kept running through my mind. We were supposed to go to Miami in December. We fucking had plans. And just like that, everything collapsed around me.

My hands were shaking when I grabbed my phone. I called Cassandra. She picked up immediately.

“Bri? Babe? What’s wrong?”

“I—I—Marcus—” I couldn’t even get the words out. I broke into sobbing immediately. It was just too much.

“Okay, breathe. Just breathe. What happened?”

“He cheated,” I choked out. “He’s been talking to Kate. For months. He spent his whole birthday night with her.”

“Oh my God. Brielle—”

“And he said I’m too much,” I sobbed. “I tried so hard, Cass. I tried. And he still chose her.”

“No. No, babe, listen to me. This is not on you.” But I wasn’t listening. I was crying too hard.

“I wasn’t enough,” I whispered. “He didn’t want me.”

“Add Finn,” Cassandra said softly. “Please.” I fumbled with the screen and added him.

“Hello?” Finn sounded half-asleep.

“Finn,” Cass said, “it’s Brielle. She just broke up with Marcus.”

I didn’t even hear his response because the second I heard his voice, I fell apart all over again, and burst into tears.

They both remained quiet, allowing me to wail. They didn’t tell me to calm down. They just gave me space. When my tears finally slowed to hiccups, I stared out the windshield through the blurry wetness.

The relationship I had been desperately trying to save had died a long time ago. I just wasn’t willing to admit it.