Still In Love With Her Read Free

meeting ends,” Vince says.
    I flip him the bird. “Fuck you.”  
    “Sit down,” he says as if he’s the prime minister of Maggieville. “I’m telling you as your boss.”
    I hang my bag on my shoulder and tuck my notepad under my arm just so I can flip him off with both hands. “You’re not my boss. I quit, you jackass. On so many levels, I quit you.”
    I’m feverishly hot as I walk out of the room, because my anger has spiraled out of control. I don’t expect Vince to chase me since he tried so hard to humiliate me, but just in case, I take the stairs, running down twenty-seven flights. My face is damp from tears and sweat when I reach the bottom. I’m surprised to see Vince standing out front speaking to Darren. I turn left and right, searching for another way out. I run down the escalator to the parking garage. People look at me as if I’ve gone insane, and indeed I have. I make it to the green level and rush past the parked cars, searching for an exit sign. Once I see the way, I run out into the heated morning.  
    I lean against the wall to collect my breath. I can’t believe the morning I’m having. Just like that, Vince has replaced me with a debutante. Maybe he was just with me to get his kicks. He always knew that in the end, he would settle down with someone like Emily. I should’ve known he hasn’t changed. That’s why Robert thinks it’s his turn to have me, because Vince is over me. What a jackass.
    I walk without thinking about where I am going. I turn down a street with very little traffic, take out my cell phone, and call Monroe. I can always count on her to pick up on the first ring.
    “What’s up, Mags?” she says.  
    “He… Vince…” I’m blubbering.
    “Where are you?” she asks, sounding panicked.
    “I’m in L.A.”
    “Where in L.A?”
    I look for the street signs. “I’m on Galaxy Way.”
    “Don’t move,” Monroe says and hangs up.
    I lean against an iron gate, bury my face in my hands, and bawl. I feel so used and abused. Deep down, I knew before I arrived that my day would probably end with Vince and I breaking up, but I never thought he would treat me as if he hadn’t an ounce of love for me. He was a real jerk. So Emily was the “girlfriend” Robert was referring to in the note, and not Vince’s old girlfriend but his new one. I’ve been replaced.  
    I want to cry harder, but instead I wipe my tears and get a grip. I feel like the girl in one of those movies where the popular boy seduces her just to get his kicks. But in the end, the unpopular girl realizes that she didn’t need his ass in the first place. I don’t need Vincent Adams. My life will keep going. I have the rest of it to find the real thing one day. I set my stone-cold glare on the street. Monroe should be here soon.

CHAPTER TWO
Caught in the Rat Trap

    “What the hell? Has he been reading novels and shit?” Monroe laughs, making light of my situation.
    I grimace. “Why do you say that?”  
    I’m at Monroe’s house. She and I are sitting against the headboard in the guest room she keeps for me. I’m wearing one of her sexy nightshirts since all of my clothes are in my suitcase, which is in the back of my Range Rover.
    She flings her hands as she talks. “It’s popular in books today. Submissive and dominant shit. I’m surprised you don’t know this. Isn’t it your job to know that shit?”
    “Submissive and dominant what? Jerks? Assholes?”
    “No, it’s sex-slave shit. He tells you what to do, and you do it. And if you disobey him, then he punishes you.”
    “Punish me?” The more details she feeds me, the more off course she sounds. I don’t think Vince would ever try to emulate such nonsense, although I’m not sure if I ever knew him at all. “Who does that kind of shit in real life anyway?”
    “You’d be surprised.”
    I lift my eyebrows. “You’ve done it?”
    “I don’t submit to cock. And usually it’s the people you least expect who do.”
    I’m