Mid Life Love (Mid Life Love #1)(136)

My hands shook as I clasped the bottle. “Thank you, Greg...Um, I know you don’t have any obligation to me but....Could I ask you for a favor?”

“Anything, Miss Gracen.”

“Could you tell Jonathan that I said, ‘I love you’? And that I meant it when I told him that?”

He looked sympathetic. “Of course, Miss Gracen. Have a good night.” He patted my shoulder and walked away.

Chapter 33

Claire

My reflection was lying to me. Again.

She was showing me a happy woman in bright red lipstick and bronze eye shadow, a woman who looked like she was having the time of her life—not a heartbroken woman who’d spent every night this week crying herself to sleep.

You can do this...You can do this...

I screwed the top onto my mascara and placed it into a bag. I stepped back from the mirror and twirled around in my dress—the sparkling nude colored one that Jonathan had picked out months ago, the one I would’ve worn to the IPO ball.

I’d hoped that by wearing it tonight, he would at least acknowledge my existence.

Ever since I’d snuck up to his room a few nights ago, he’d gone out of his way to avoid me: He and Stacy were supposed to sit at our table all week for the daily breakfasts, but he had his seat changed. He was supposed to present Damien with an award at the Value Ball two nights ago, but he claimed he had an emergency, so he created a video for the audience to view instead.

I saw him a few times in the hallways, and each time I would walk towards him and try to get his attention, but the security guards always kept me from getting too close.

“It’s our last night here, sweetheart.” Damien walked into the room and smiled at me. “I see that you’ve saved your best dress for the occasion.”

I hate being called “sweetheart.” Why haven’t I told him that?

“Do we have to stay at the banquet the entire time?” I asked. I knew Jonathan was set to receive an award, and even though I wanted him to acknowledge me, deep down I knew that he wouldn’t. I didn’t want to sit and suffer as everyone else fawned all over him.

“Of course not. We can leave right after the closing statements.”

Great...

He reached for my hand and we walked out of the room and towards the elevator like we had several times before.

“Did you have fun this week?” Damien pressed the down button.

“Yes.”

“Well, if you’re not still—” The loud ping of the elevators cut off his sentence.

“What were you saying?” I walked onto the elevator and noticed Jonathan and Stacy standing together on the other side.

Jonathan’s eyes went straight to my dress, and if I wasn’t mistaken, he swore under his breath.

“I was saying that if you wanted, you and I could go to another resort next weekend. I promise I’ll turn off my cell phone and focus all my attention on you.” Damien put his arm around my hips. “And you won’t be on your—you know...Would you be interested in that?”

“I...” I felt the heat of Jonathan’s glare on my back. “I’ll have to think about it.”

“Well, make sure you do that. It’s a wonderful resort, and there’s plenty of amazing water activities. It’s also extremely private.”

“Private things are definitely her specialty...” Jonathan muttered.

Damien must not have heard him because he continued. “There’s this beautiful mountain clearing that I’d love to take you to. We could spend the entire day there. There’s also a lover’s loft nearby.”

“Stop it, Jonathan...” Stacy whispered, and I wondered what she was talking about.

“It sounds very tempting,” I said as the elevator doors opened.

Damien motioned for me to step off first and looked back at Jonathan. “Congratulations, Jonathan. You actually deserve the ‘Innovator of the Year’ award. Now, freeze that compliment and remember it, because you know as soon as this conference is over, I’ll go back to hating everything about you.”

Jonathan smiled. “Thank you, Damien. That makes two of us.”

I sat at the dinner table and picked at my food, too hurt to eat much of anything. Jonathan was sitting directly across from me and he hadn’t looked over at me once.

Any time he touched something on the table—butter, bread basket, pepper, I asked if he could pass it to me. But, instead of doing that, Stacy answered for him. She would say, “Of course he can,” and send it my way.

I figured that since they were unable to switch their seats for this event, they’d planned a course of action for dealing with me.

I even texted him several messages, desperate to get him to look at me—just once: “Please look at me, Jonathan.” “You can’t avoid me forever...” “I said I was in love with you, doesn’t that mean anything?” “Are you really that upset with me?”

I saw him look through his phone, saw him read every single message, but he managed to keep his gaze elsewhere.

I even tried the more blatant text message approach: “I know you like the way I look in this dress.” “I bet you wish you could take it off of me...”

I watched as he read my last two messages, as he glanced at them without a single emotion crossing over his face.