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He Chose His Intern over me—Now He's Begging Me to Stay
Novelix
new
已完結
My boyfriend saved the seat beside him for his intern and told me not to make a scene. After seven years together, he assumed I'd complain, forgive him, and follow along. Instead, I canceled my ticket...
章節（3）
第1章
I broke up with Ethan in the departure hall at Penn Station.
“Because she's sitting beside me and you aren't?” he asked, laughing.
“Yes.”
He opened the voice recorder on his phone.
“Say it again. I want this on record when you change your mind.”
We'd known each other since we were seven. We'd been together since eighteen. Ethan had years of evidence that I always came back.
I looked at the phone.
“It's Friday, May twenty-second. Cassie Brooks and Ethan Shaw are done.”
He waited for the rest. Tears, probably. A condition he could promise to meet.
When none came, he played an older recording.
My voice, thick with drink: I miss you. Can we stop doing this?
A woman nearby glanced over.
“Three months ago,” he said. “How long are we breaking up for this time?”
I pushed his phone away.
“As long as I get to decide.”
We'd planned a Memorial Day weekend in Boston with friends. Then his intern, Poppy, wanted to come. He canceled the original booking and reserved new seats for the group.
They were together near the front. I was several cars away.
“I forgot to add you,” he'd said. “By the time I noticed, that was what was left. It's four hours, Cass. You'll survive.”
I'd survive. That had become the entire measure of what he could ask me to accept.
Poppy appeared carrying two coffees. She handed him his usual Americano and kept the iced latte.
“Oh. Sorry. I forgot to ask what you wanted. We always get these at work.”
“Enjoy them,” I said, taking my suitcase.
She caught my sleeve.
“Please don't be upset. I'm just an intern. Graduation's coming, and everything's stressful. Ethan thought a weekend away would help.”
“What about the movie? The dressing-room photos? Were those stress relief too?”
Her eyes filled.
“Cassie,” Ethan snapped. He handed her a tissue. “If you're angry with me, be angry with me.”
“I am.”
Poppy walked toward the doors, crying. He followed her.
I stayed beside my suitcase.
He didn't know I'd canceled the ticket days earlier.
He didn't know the bag held everything I planned to take from our apartment.
And he didn't know my train was going south.
第2章
I bought my own coffee.
At the café beside the departure board, Ethan's friends had assembled around two small tables.
“Where's Cass?” someone asked.
“Breaking up with me.”
A laugh. “Already? We haven't even left.”
Poppy was smiling again. Apparently she'd recovered faster with Ethan comforting her.
He told them about the seat. One friend said he'd trained me to be demanding. Another said girls like Poppy were easier to spend time with.
“What kind of guy do you like, Poppy?” Ben asked. “Someone like me?”
Ethan kicked his chair.
“Stay away from him. He collects girlfriends.”
Everyone laughed.
“You bring her on our trip, but nobody else can flirt?”
Poppy looked down.
“Don't embarrass me. I could like a guy like Ethan. That doesn't mean he'd ever look at me.”
Ethan smiled.
“I didn't say that.”
I set my coffee down on the counter harder than I intended.
Poppy looked up, saw me, and suddenly remembered the hotel.
She counted on her fingers, then checked her phone.
“Oh, no. I only booked three rooms.”
Six people plus me. Another tiny omission.
She came over.
“The hotel is sold out now. There's another one nearby, but it costs a lot more. You could afford it, couldn't you?”
“Why am I the person without a room?”
“It was an accident.”
“I sent you my share.”
“I know. I'll send it back. I just can't pay the difference. I'm still an intern.”
Ethan joined us.
“We'll book another room. Problem solved.”
“Then solve it without charging me for being left out.”
He sighed.
“You're twenty-five. You're capable of adapting.”
“To a trip that keeps losing my reservation?”
“She's not trying to exclude you.”
My phone rang before I could answer.
I picked it up and walked away.
第3章
“What time do you reach Washington?” Nadia asked.
“Just after two.”
“So you're really taking the transfer.”
“Yes.”
“And Ethan?”
“We broke up.”
She was quiet for a moment.
“Are you okay?”
“No. But I'm sure.”
At seven, after a car accident, I'd stopped speaking at school for months. Ethan had been the boy who told the teacher when other children took my books and scribbled over my work.
He hadn't cured me with one heroic act. There'd been counseling, patient teachers, and many days when a single word was difficult. But he'd sat beside me without making the silence something embarrassing.
For years, remembering that boy had made it hard to leave the man.
Last month somebody followed me into the courtyard outside our apartment. I called Ethan thirteen times. He didn't answer.
I tripped on a step trying to get through the locked entrance. My ankle twisted. My phone struck the ground, and the screen cracked beneath my thumb.
I managed to call Caleb North, an old school acquaintance I'd run into again through work.
He lived a few blocks away when he was in New York. He told me to stay near the concierge's lit lobby, keep talking, and call emergency services if the man approached. Then he came down the street nine minutes later.
He helped me inside, stayed while security checked the courtyard, and drove me to have the ankle assessed.
Ethan got home an hour afterward.
“Poppy had a spare movie ticket. My phone was on silent.”
He didn't ask why I'd called thirteen times until he saw the wrap around my ankle.
Nadia's voice brought me back.
“Cass?”
“I'm here.”
A business magazine display beside the café changed to a photograph of Caleb. He'd built a logistics software company whose name I kept seeing on delivery vans. Ethan's friends recognized him and started talking about the acquisition he'd recently turned down.
My phone vibrated.
Caleb: I'll be in Washington. Happy to meet your train if you'd like.
I looked toward Ethan. Poppy was leaning against his shoulder to see his screen. He didn't move away.
I typed back: I'd like that.