Chapter 8: After Midnight

Nolan's POV

She held the phone out to me at six in the morning, and I told her the truth.

"Nine weeks."

Jo dressed without a word and called a cab.

I did not follow her.

I have been a patient man all my life, and it has never once helped.

By midnight I had walked every room of my apartment twice and had not eaten.

I could still hear her say my name.

I could still feel the way she had held on to me.

And I had let her walk out the door believing I'd waited nine weeks to protect myself.

That was true.

The rest was worse.

I took the master key from my desk drawer at ten past twelve.

Colfax Strength had its second gym on the ground floor of my building.

The lease let me enter at any time, with notice.

I didn't give notice.

The lights were off on the main floor.

A single lamp burned in the office at the back.

A man sat there with his boots on the desk and a protein shaker in his hand.

"Mr. Draper," Trevor said, without getting up. "I figured you'd come."

"I didn't come about the rent."

"Everybody comes about the rent." He grinned. "You'll have it Friday."

"Keep it. Forgive it, if you like. I'll put that in writing tonight."

His boots came off the desk.

"That's a lot of money to throw at a woman you're sleeping with," he said.

I did not look at him.

I looked at the room.

It was small and cluttered.

There was a desk, a safe, a rack of protein tubs and a filing cabinet with three drawers.

The bottom drawer had a brass lock, and an envelope stuck out of it by an inch.

Keep reading free with an account. Start A Stranger Told Me My Husband Cheated, So We Cheated Back from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.