Folding my arms across my chest, I level him with a death glare. “Read her texts again.”
“Oh, my God, she was kidding. Gwen is just a friend. She had a family function, and she couldn’t bear to go alone because her family is full of meddling busybodies, one of whom wants to set her up with a chiropractor.” He says chiropractor like it’s a dirty word. That’s so Ben.
I roll my eyes in disbelief. “So, you thought you’d be her knight in shining banana pants and save her from the awful fate of possibly meeting a medical professional?” I slap the back of my hand on my forehead dramatically. “Oh, the horror!”
“Medical professional,” Ben scoffs. “Would you let some guy named Dr. Kwak crack your neck?”
I pause for a second trying to formulate the right response, but he doesn’t let me answer. He mistakes my hesitancy as agreeing with him, and yells, “Exactly!”
“You don’t believe in chiropractors either?”
“Believe it. Don’t believe it. It’s irrelevant to me at this point,” he says. “You proved who you are when you walked out the door while I was tending to my gravely ill cat.”
“Gravely ill?!” I roll my eyes again. “He had the runs, Ben. Big deal.”
Ben narrows his eyes at me. “Are Libras known for having no empathy or is that just sociopaths?”
“Speaking of sociopaths, you’re the one who was going on a big date with a ‘friend’ you neglected to mention.”
Hal and Lacey are turning back and forth between us so quickly they look like their in jeopardy of giving themselves whiplash.
Ben’s nostrils flare. “I was going to tell you, but you took off before I got a chance, and then you refused to answer any of my phone calls or texts. I was also going to invite you to meet Gwen because I thought — however erroneously — that you two would hit it off since I believed you to be something you are not.”
“And what exactly is that?” I ask, even though my brain is screaming at me not to go there.
“Sane.”
That’s it. I don’t care if I die in prison. I’m going to take off my heel and stab him clean through the temple with it. “I don’t believe for one minute you were going to tell me about Gwen. Your manipulation won’t work on me.”
“I am not manipulating you!”
“Kind of sounds like you are,” Lacey says. When I glance at her, she gives me a nod that says I’m on your side, sister.
Emboldened by her support, I lean toward Ben and hiss, “You’re the two-timing liar. How dare you question my sanity just because I won’t put up with your nonsense.”
“I am neither a liar nor a two-timer. Your sanity however?” Ben shrugs. “Not so sure about that, cat poisoner.”
Hal lets out a nervous chuckle. “Okay, things are getting a little awkward here on Wake Up America!”
“I was trying to be nice to Mr. Spock, you idiot. How could I know he can’t handle dairy?” Turning to Lacey, I say, “What kind of cat can’t have dairy?”
She shrugs. “I’ve never heard of it myself.”
Hal cuts in with, “I think we should move on from this, don’t you, Lacey?”
Lacey turns on Hal. “Do you believe this Gwen person is some old friend who he was just helping out?”
Hal clearly doesn’t want to get into it, so he just lets his mouth open and close like a middle-aged goldfish in a toupée.
Ben clears his throat. “We’re actually new friends.”
“That’s even worse,” Lacey says.
“Definitely worse. Where’d you meet her?” I demand, knowing how jealous I sound but not caring.
“For your information, we met through your dating app.” If looks could kill, I’d need last rights.
“What are you doing on my dating app? You don’t even believe in astrology.”
Ben shrugs his shoulders. “To be honest, I joined your trial to prove to America that dating for your star sign is a load of crap. I was hoping to debunk your nonsense.”
I can’t help it; I feel like my heart has been ripped out. “You were trying to hurt me?”
“No, I was trying to keep a lot of other people from being hurt by you. Astrology doesn’t have magic answers for people to find the perfect partner.”
I’m so mad I can’t even think straight. The worst part is that Ben might be right because I have had zero luck finding a compatible match for myself. “And you met Gwen on my app?”
He nods his head, so I continue, “And you like her?”
“We decided we weren’t a love connection, but we were definitely a good friend connection.”
Nodding my head, I turn to Lacey and say, “That sounds like success to me. How about you?”
“It sure does,” she enthuses.
I turn to Ben, who’s looking at me with what appears to be true regret. I simply shake my head and ask, “How could you do that to me? All the things you said and all the things you did, and the whole time you were purposefully setting out to harm my business? It’s bad enough that you don’t believe in it, but you want to ruin me too?” My voice breaks with emotion.
Lacey cuts in with, “That’s pretty awful, Ben.”
My eyes fill with tears and I realize I can’t sit here anymore and pretend not to be wounded to my core. I thought I knew who Ben Williams was. In fact, I thought I loved him, but the truth is, I could never be with someone who would do something so awful to another human being.
I stand up and tell Hal and Lacey, “I would love to come back another time and talk to you and your audience about the zodiac, but I can no longer be here with Dr. Williams. He is not a good person.” Then I walk off the set, not caring one whit what this will do to my career. My heart is too broken to care.
Thirty-Eight
Ben
My team is deadly silent when I walk into work. No one looks up from their computers and no one says a word, for which I’m glad. I storm past them straight into my office, then close the door and let out a long sigh. I can’t even begin to process what happened today. That was the most embarrassingly asinine argument I’ve ever allowed myself to engage in — on live television, no less. I close my eyes and lean back against the door as every crappy thing Serafina and I said to each other swirls around in my mind like a cyclone of rage. It’s one thing to have a fight and break up with someone, but a whole other level of humiliation to have everyone you’ve ever met watch the entire ugly scene unfold before their eyes.
All over some stupid misunderstanding that could have been resolved in a two-minute conversation, until she had to go and do that. Sociopath? I’m not the sociopath in this relationship.
When I finally open my eyes again, I stare at the office Serafina created for me. Dammit. I came here to work and forget all about her, but every inch of this place is her doing. I head straight for the storage closet and get out two empty boxes, then hurry back to my office and immediately start dismantling my cool Gemini decor. Lamps go. Inspirational posters — you’re out of here. I climb onto my desk and peel the black hole sticker off the ceiling, then roll it up and toss it into the box. Next are the Star Trek figurines. Who takes them out of the box? A crazy person, that’s who. The resale value is almost nothing on these things now. My heart squeezes in my chest as I force myself to rid the room of every sign of Serafina Lopez.