237 Ks Zero Fs Chapter 15
He buried his face in the crook of my neck. Hot, fat tears dropped onto the collar of my trench coat.
My face stayed frozen. I pried his desperately clasped fingers apart one by one. My eyes cut across his face like a cold scalpel.
The revulsion in my gaze made Conor flinch, his body going rigid.
In that moment of stunned hesitation, I shoved him away, hard.
“You disgust me.”
Without a second’s pause, I swiped my access card and walked into the climate-controlled glass office tower.
All day, Conor stood outside in the wind and snow like a statue.
My European colleagues didn’t know who he was. They all crowded curiously at the floor-to-ceiling windows in the break room, peering down at the man standing ramrod-straight in the blizzard.
“What the hell? Who is that guy? Why’s he just standing out there freezing?”
“It’s below zero out there. Hope this lunatic doesn’t freeze to death in front of our building and cause a hassle.”
“Never seen him. Good bone structure, though. Some scumbag who got dumped pulling a cliché rom-com suffering act, trying to beg forgiveness?”
The colleagues clustered with their coffee, chattering away.
I didn’t join in. I was in a project review meeting in a second-floor conference room. I didn’t glance out the window once.
Five in the evening. I packed up and headed downstairs. Conor was still there.
But he couldn’t stand anymore.
He leaned against a lamppost. His face had gone from pale to a bluish-purple. His lips were dark. His entire body shook violently.
He saw me. His mouth struggled open. No sound came out.
Then his eyes rolled back. He collapsed like a felled log, crashing down onto the snow-covered steps.