And even when she tried to hold it off, her body cracked open for him. She saw black as her orgasm tore through her body. She tightened all around him and screamed her lungs out, until he drove into her for the last time, and emptied himself buried deep within her.

Chapter 21

HE HAD IT COMING

Hayden left the next morning without much more than a good-bye. Liz stayed in bed until well past the time that he walked out. He hadn’t left her. That was as much as she could say about their relationship at this point. He hadn’t left her, but things were far from okay.

Her brain and her body felt numb. What had happened last night? She had thought the worst thing would be for Hayden to leave her. But here she was lying in bed, feeling worse than she had before. Telling Hayden hadn’t gotten rid of her guilt; in fact, maybe she felt worse. He had proven that her guilt was warranted. She had been in the wrong and then lied to him about it for months. It made her stomach turn.

She finally forced herself out of bed, fumbling for a light on the nightstand. She stood and that’s when she saw it. The necklace. It was resting on the nightstand as if Hayden had never hurled it across the room. It mocked her from its position as if he wanted to say Here, take your necklace back, whore.

She felt her chest sliced open again and it took everything in her to reach for the necklace. She checked it to make sure that it wasn’t damaged. Another wave of guilt hit her that she should even care if it was broken. She hastily put it back into her jewelry box and stumbled into the shower. She turned the handle to the hottest setting and stepped into the hot spray.

She was most surprised by the fact that she didn’t cry. She didn’t shed one tear. It was as if she hurt all over and still she couldn’t feel anything.

Victoria had ended up staying at Daniel’s house, so Liz had the place to herself. After her shower she shut all the lights back off, crawled into bed, and slept the afternoon away. She couldn’t think about her neglected responsibilities when her body and mind weren’t functioning. Maybe tomorrow . . .

Valentine’s Day was coming up that next weekend. Liz had a hard time focusing on what she was going to do when she next saw Hayden. Their conversations were almost exclusively one-sided over the next couple days. Liz gave her input when necessary, but she had too much else on her mind to really be into it.

All she was doing was making Hayden more frustrated with her. Liz didn’t know how to stop it. She felt as if she was self-destructing.

Friday rolled around soon enough. It was the day Hayden was supposed to come back to Chapel Hill for Valentine’s Day. Liz had finally forced herself to start acting like a human again. She ate a full breakfast, went to all of her classes, ninety percent of which she had skipped earlier in the week, and made it into the paper. She had never lied to get out of work a day in her life before this week. She had left Massey in charge of editorial work while Savannah took over the Washington division.

The smell and feel of the office kicked her back into high gear. This was where she belonged. This made her blood flow and reminded her what she was doing with her life.

Savannah stopped her before she reached her office. “Hey, are you feeling any better?”

Liz smiled at Savannah and nodded. “A bit.”

She wished Savannah didn’t remind her so much of her brother. Brady was the last person she wanted to think about today. He was part of the reason she was in this whole mess to begin with.

“Good. We were worried about you. Can’t have a functional paper without the editor, and Massey is no editor,” Savannah said with an easy laugh. They started toward Liz’s office.

“I’m sure she held down the fort.”

“That’s one word for it.”

Liz laughed softly. It felt good to laugh. “Well, I’m back. So, no worries.”

They reached her office, and Savannah nodded her farewell. Liz stepped inside and shut the door. She wanted peace and quiet and the feel of being in control of something. She booted up her computer and plopped down in her chair.

As the screen came to life in front of her, her phone started vibrating. Liz fished it out of her pocket and stared down at the screen. The New York Times.

“Hello?” Liz asked. Normally when Nancy called, it was from her personal line. Liz had programmed the main line of the New York Times into her phone along with several other numbers Nancy had given her at the start of last semester, but Nancy had never used them.

It made her jittery with excitement.

“Liz, it’s Nancy. How are you?” she said in her thick northern accent.

“I’m doing well, and yourself?”

“Really well up here. When do I see you again?”

Liz furrowed her brow and tried to recall when she was next scheduled to be in New York. She knew for sure the first weekend of her spring break, and that was only a couple weeks away. She told Nancy as much.

“Perfect. That’s perfect timing.”

“For what?”

“Liz, I’m really very pleased to have worked with you so far this year, and I’d like to extend a job offer to you working as a political journalist here at the New York Times starting post-graduation.”

“Oh my God,” Liz breathed softly.

She had been waiting to hear about her job applications. She had heard back two noes already, but they hadn’t been a surprise. And now she had a job offer on the table. Her head told her that she should take some time to think about it and weigh her options, but her gut told her just to take the damn deal.

It would get her out of Chapel Hill. She could start over, move to New York, get a crappy place for way too much money, and just live out her dream. It sounded too good to be true.

“Yes,” she said without another thought. “Yes, I want to take the job.”

No way was she getting a better offer than that, and even if she did, she couldn’t imagine having as good a boss as Nancy. She was ecstatic.

“Wonderful. I can’t wait for you to start. We’ll be in touch with further details.”

“Thank you so much,” Liz murmured before hanging up her phone.

She sat in her chair in shock. She had just accepted an offer to work as a reporter in New York City. Holy shit! Her hands were shaking. She didn’t even know what to do. It was as if everything was finally falling into place. She couldn’t believe it.

The first thing she did was press the button to dial Hayden’s number. It was automatic. She had to let him know. He would be excited for her. This was what they had always talked about.