Platinum (All That Glitters #3)(8)

“We’ve been dating for a year and a half,” she sputtered. “How are we suddenly not compatible?”

“It’s not sudden. I’ve just been ignoring it for a long time. Last night was the end for me.”

“What happened last night?” she asked shakily.

How could this be happening? He couldn’t just leave. After all they had been through together, she didn’t want this to be over. She wanted to fight for this. She needed to fight for this. She had done everything right in this relationship. He couldn’t call it quits.

“Nothing in particular. I just didn’t miss you, and I didn’t miss you when I was home in San Francisco either.”

It was a knife to the heart.

Trihn stumbled back a step, her hand going to her mouth. He hadn’t missed her. She had missed him every day that she was stuck in New York without him. She had spent a lot of her time in her room or with her friends from home—Renée and Ian—but mostly she avoided her sister, Lydia.

She just didn’t understand. She felt like her body was being crushed. Everything ached and hurt.

“Is there someone else?” she managed to get out. She was surprised her voice was even functioning.

Neal looked down at the floor and then off into the distance, as if this were the last place he wanted to be right now.

He must have cheated on her. It was the only logical explanation.

Preston had cheated on her and left her to pick up the pieces of her heart off the floor and try to sew them back together. After that, she had been extremely careful about giving her heart out again. Neal had seemed like the perfect guy at the time. She had made sure he was for real about their relationship before introducing him to any of her friends. Things had been perfect from then on. They’d had their ups and downs, like any other relationship, but as a whole, she’d thought they had a good thing.

Now, her heart was shattering all over again, as if the last year and a half meant nothing at all to him.

“Tell me!” she yelled into his face. “Don’t just stare at the floor. Do you have someone with you right now?”

Trihn tried to force her way into the house, but Neal put his hand out, barring her from entering.

“Just give it up. It’s over.”

She raised her eyebrows and tried not to cry. She held on to the anger that welled up in her.

“I need an explanation. Do you have some whore in your bed right now? Is all that frustration you’ve been taking out on me actually just bullshit guilt for cheating on me?” she asked.

“Just believe whatever the f*ck you want to believe, Trihn,” Neal said, pushing her backward, out of the doorway. “It’s f*cking over, so it doesn’t even matter. I just don’t want to be with you.”

Neal slammed the door in her face, leaving her standing there in shock.

She banged on the door and shrieked, “It matters to me!”

When it was clear that Neal wasn’t going to answer the door or Trihn’s question, she screamed in frustration and turned away from the house. As she walked back to her car, her hands were shaking. She dropped the car keys twice before she got them the door unlocked.

Once she finally got inside, she sank into the driver’s side. Tears washed down her cheeks like rain. Hiccupping deep breaths racked her body.

She hadn’t cried like this in a long time. Sure, she and Neal had argued. Tears had been involved, but they had always worked it out. He wanted her to be just the artsy type, and she wanted to have fun and party with her girlfriends. No harm had come from it.

The only time she had ever thought about hooking up with someone else had been last night, and she had felt so guilty about it that she left the club entirely. Maybe Neal knew about that somehow. Maybe that was what this was about.

Maybe she wasn’t good enough for him.

“Fuck!” She banged her hands against the steering wheel.

How can a guy make me feel this stupid?

She was all for feminist ideals—until this shit happened to her. Then, she’d curl into a ball and let the man win all over again.

She hated thinking that she wasn’t good enough for anyone. She was strong and beautiful and smart. Maybe one day, she would even be a brilliant designer going somewhere—rather than a designer who had turned down NYU because of a guy, rather than a girl who had tucked tail and run instead of facing her issues, rather than a girlfriend who had let her boyfriend walk all over her instead of facing the facts.

The drive back to her apartment was seen through a veil of tears. She wasn’t even entirely sure how she’d made it there. It was a blur.

Did I stop at that stop sign?

She truly couldn’t remember. Autopilot had gotten her home in one piece, up the elevator, and back into her apartment.

She stripped out of her jacket and jeans and trudged down the hallway to Bryna’s room. She opened the door and peeked inside. Half the time, Bryna’s boyfriend, Eric, would stay the night, or she’d crash at his place. But since it had been a girls’ night last night, she was all alone.

Trihn sniffed and then crawled under Bryna’s silky sheets.

Bryna shifted in her sleep and then jumped up. “Fuck, Trihn!” she cried. Her hand flew to her chest. “You scared the shit out of me.”

“Neal broke up with me,” she whispered.

Bryna frowned and sighed. “Oh, Trihn, come here.” She wrapped her arms around Trihn and pulled her close. “What happened?”