All Chapters of He Cheats, And I Cheated Right Back : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

POV: AvaI gave myself the once over in the mirror before heading out to my car to meet Dominic. I dressed in a pair of jeans, my favourite red top, and a pair of heels, my hair pulled back nicely in a ponytail. I never wanted to dress up too much, not wanting to give the wrong impression, but not wanting to look too casual either. It never took me long to arrive. We'd agreed I would meet him at the restaurant, even though he'd wanted to pick me up. I told him no, because that would feel more like a date than a friendly dinner, and we couldn't be having that."Hello, ma'am, do you need a table?" the hostess at the front asked with a smile."I'm meeting someone. Mr. Keller?" I said."Oh, yes, he said to expect you. Please, follow me," she said, smiling."Thank you," I replied, smiling back.The hostess led me through the restaurant, toward the back where the booths were, some sort of VIP section. I should have known Dominic would be there. I found him sitting with a glass of scotch, ch

POV: Ava“She moved on before we even separated,” he went on, bitterness rising in his voice. “Why can’t I? Six months, and I’m still a mess. Still feel like some broken excuse of a man.”Watching him come apart like this, all his usual sharpness gone soft at the edges, something in me shifted too. This wasn’t the man who ran boardrooms with a single look, who sent me filthy, self-assured texts in the back of a car. This was someone lonely. Someone who’d built an empire and a legacy and still came home every night to a house full of photographs he couldn’t bring himself to take off the wall.I reached across the table and covered his hand with mine.“Because you loved her. Maybe you still do, a little, and that’s exactly why it still hurts this much. You’ll get better, but it takes time. It doesn’t make you pathetic, Dominic. It makes you human.”He let out a long breath and dragged a hand through his hair. “I hope you’re right.”Silence settled between us for a while. I let him have

POV: Ava"Can I get you anything, Mr. Keller?" Ava asked, sliding smoothly into professional mode the second we crossed the threshold onto the floor, which I genuinely appreciated now that we were technically at work."Painkillers and a bottle of water, please," I said, smiling despite the headache still pounding steadily behind my eyes.She nodded and headed off to sort it. I walked into my office and found Shelley sitting in my chair, feet propped casually on my desk like she still had any right to be there at all.What the hell is she doing here? I'd made it perfectly clear, more than once, that she wasn't allowed anywhere near this office anymore, not since the divorce filing."What are you doing here?" I snapped."Don't act like you haven't missed me, Dominic," she said, smirking, entirely unbothered.I closed my eyes and took a slow breath. Knowing what I now knew about her family, about everything her father's organisation had taken from me, from my mother, from an entire fifte

POV: AvaI was glad to get out of work today. There were too many stares, too much whispering, and too many questions, all because Dominic and I had walked in together that morning. What is wrong with people? Why do they need an opinion about everyone else's life? Dominic tried to keep my mind off it, warning anyone who said something out of line. I just wanted to go home, pour myself a large glass of wine, and do absolutely nothing for the rest of the night. I hoped by tomorrow everyone would have something better to talk about than the two of us.As soon as I got home, I stripped down and got straight into the shower, which helped a little, then pulled on my pyjamas. I decided to order in, not remotely in the mood to cook for myself again. I hate being single some days, but between work and everything else lately, there's rarely time for much of anything.I grabbed a glass and a bottle of wine from the fridge, dropped onto the sofa, and started thinking about dinner. Right as I deci

POV: DominicI swallowed hard, running my tongue over my lower lip as a small moan escaped Ava's lips while she tried the chicken."Damn, that is good," she said, looking up at me."Thanks," I said, giving her a small smile.Her words weren't what I was actually concentrating on. That small sound was still ringing in my ears, and there was something ridiculously appealing about it, even though she'd meant nothing by it at all. I wasn't entirely sure why she kept pulling my mind in that direction lately. We'd known each other for weeks now, worked closely together, and yes, she was sharp and beautiful and unlike anyone I'd let this close in years, but I hadn't expected to find myself this distracted by her, this pulled toward her, the pull creeping up so gradually I couldn't pin down the exact moment it started.Maybe it was the separation. Maybe some part of me was simply noticing things again that I'd stopped letting myself notice back when I was married, back when no other woman cam