003| New Year's Blow

ALICE

I ran after Benjamin, despair clawing away at my heart.

My head was spinning and my legs were shaky. It genuinely felt like I was going to fall at any moment. He was walking way ahead of me, desperate to get away from me. After the shit he saw upstairs, I didn't blame him.

Oh, what have I done!?

How could such a mistake have happened?

"Benjamin, please," I begged. "Please, listen to me. It was all a misunderstanding. I didn't...I never would've..."

He whirled around suddenly and I nearly crashed into him. He pushed me away immediately, like the thought of me being so close to him disgusted him.

Anger flashed across his eyes and spittle flew from his mouth when he yelled, "Stay the fuck away from me! I come all the way here from Vegas to surprise you on New Fucking Year's, and this is what I find?"

"N-No, no, n-no," I said quickly, wishing I wasn't stammering so badly. "It w-wasn't like that, Benjamin. Please, listen to me. You texted me! It was you I was s-supposed to meet up there!"

"What?" he spat. "What the fuck are you talking about? You never texted me! This whole thing was meant to be a surprise!"

I reached for my phone quickly. "You did! I sent you that selfie! Here, look. Please."

I showed him our texts. He was reluctant to take my phone from me, but he eventually scanned through the texts while I said, "It was dark. I d-didn't see it wasn't you. Emma will confirm it. She knows I went up there to meet you!"

Benjamin shook his hand and practically threw the phone at me. "I don't recognize these texts. You never sent them to me!"

"But this number is registered under your name!" I exclaimed desperately as I pointed at the screen to show him. "See? I'm not making this up, Benjamin!"

His expression hardened. "You know what, Alice? I do think you're making this up. Not only that, but you're trying to make a fool out of me. You're telling me you saved your lover's phone number under my name? Just in case I caught you?"

"What lover!?" I asked hysterically. "There's no lover, Benjamin! I swear to God! What you saw up there was a cruel misunderstanding. I don't have an affair with my boss!"

His eyes lit up, and he stepped even closer to me. I saw hatred in his warm brown eyes. I'd never seen him look at me this way before. "Oh, you mean the same boss you're always shit-talking? That one?"

I didn't know what to reply to that, so I grabbed his arm and said, "Please, baby. I need you to believe me. I—"

He brushed my hand away so quickly that it hurt my feelings. "Don't touch me! You fucking disgust me, Alice! This engagement? It's over. I'm not going to marry a skank like you!"

Every word he said was a stab to my chest. I started crying. I couldn't control myself at all. "Benjamin, please! You have to believe me!"

He started walking away from me again. I ran after him, and didn't stop even when we reached the party. I didn't care that people could be watching. My heart was broken and I needed to fix this. He couldn't leave this way.

Oh, God, what had I done?

What the fuck happened? How could such a mistake happen!?

I was too tipsy to think straight. I bumped into someone and didn't even apologize. I raced toward the exit, hoping to catch him, but he was already standing next to his car.

"Benjamin!"

He didn't even look up at me. He got in, started the car, and sped off before I reached him. I was running so far that I broke my heel and landed hard on the ground, scraping my knee.

"Dammit!" I hissed at the pain.

I watched desperately as his car drove off, and then, silence filled my ears. More tears ran down my face, and I lay on the ground, not knowing what to do. My heart was broken. Crushed. I couldn't even breathe.

I heard footsteps approaching me, and when I whipped my head around, I saw Emma approaching me.

"Alice? What happened?"

I tried to stand up and she helped me. She was looking at me with pure concern in my eyes while I struggled through the tears to explain what happened. "Benjamin...I don't know. He walked in on me and Mr. Linden-Hawthorne."

"Whoa! Back up. What!?"

"It was a misunderstanding!" I yelled, clawing at my hair. "I don't know what he was doing there! It was supposed to be Benjamin!"

"You're having an affair with Mr. Linden-Hawthorne? Oh my God, Alice! Is that who you were texting all night?"

"What? No!" I said almost angrily. "Jesus, Emma. Are you listening to me?"

She folded her arms. "I'm the one who told Benjamin where to find you when he showed up. He didn't know you were in your office. I asked him about the texts and he said he didn't know anything about it."

"I...yeah. He told me he didn't receive the texts. I don't know how." With shaky hands, I reached for my phone again. Yes, the number was registered under Benjamin's name, but for some reason, the number wasn't his.

In fact, all the texts I had with Benjamin were nowhere to be found under this number.

It wasn't his, so why would they be there?

"I don't understand," I muttered. My head started hurting all of a sudden. "How can...I never saved this number...I don't know who this is!"

I looked up at Emma, but saw no sympathy in her eyes.

"Ems, come on, you can't possibly believe that...?"

"I don't know what to believe," she said dryly. "You've been acting weird all night."

"No, I haven't!"

"Yes, you have!" She started stepping away from me, and her expression was the same one Benjamin had on his face. "What's wrong with you?"

"Me? Nothing's wrong with me! I don't know what happened!"

She started heading inside and I followed her, limping because of my broken heel. I called her name but she didn't turn around. Didn't even look at me.

"Emma!"

Before I could reach the main area where the party was being held, someone grabbed my arm and yanked it hard. I crashed into a solid body, and then I was dragged to a more secluded part of the building, where we were hidden by shadows.

My mouth dried up when I saw that it was Mr. Linden-Hawthorne.

"Are you playing with me?" he asked tightly, tilting his head to the side. "Is this a game, Miss Rhodes? Are you pranking me?"

"No!" I said quickly, horrified by the whole situation and how close he was standing. Everything was so wrong. His grip on my arm was unforgiving. His cologne...why didn't I realize that he wasn't Benjamin? Though they were both tall, Benjamin was bulkier. Benjamin's hair was also shorter.

After this thought crossed my mind, a more terrible one replaced it.

I kissed my boss.

His hand was down my...oh God.

"No?" he echoed. He inched closer to me until his lips nearly touched mine and said, "You send me a nude and we proceed to text each other. You agree to meet me in your office and then you...go after your boyfriend? What was that about?"

He was the one I was texting?

Horror washed over me. I must be truly slow because I didn't connect the dots quickly enough. Oh. My. Fuck. There was no way this was happening to me.

Impatiently, he said, "I was hoping to get an answer from you today, Miss Rhodes."

"I...I didn't mean to send you those texts or that photo. I...it was intended for my fiancé. I don't know what happened. I don't even have your number!"

"Well, somehow you did," he claimed in a much lower voice. "And you know what, Miss Rhodes? I don't believe you for a second."

I was stunned. "What?"

"You told your little boyfriend that it was a misunderstanding," he stated, "but I don't think that's true at all. I think you knew exactly who you were texting. Or should I say, sexting?"

It only took me a few moments to realize what was happening here. I gave him a hard shove and said, "You're wrong! Look, I don't know what happened upstairs, and I can't explain what happened with the texts...But I never would've sent them to you! Ever! And he's not my boyfriend—he's my fiancé."

A cold look crossed his eyes. "Not anymore, he's not."

As I stared at his face, the countdown for the new year started. I shook my head and tried to distance myself from him, but he kept me pressed against the wall.

"Why don't you stop pretending?"

"I'm not."

"No?"

"I love my fiancé," I said desperately. "I'm loyal to him. I never would have cheated on him. Ever. I didn't know it was you. I thought you were him!"

Slowly, he brings up his fingers to his nose, and I watch as he sniffs them. "Is that so, Miss Rhodes? Then why can I smell you on my fingers?"

I wasn't sure if it was exhaustion or anger or just an overall feeling of being done with life and not caring what happened next, but I raised my hand and slapped him across the face, as hard as I could, then walked away from him just as the crowd screamed, "HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

I didn't stop walking until I reached my car.

Then, I sat inside and cried.