Open At Your Own Risk Chapter 07
Sean meant it.
Roses. Lilies. Tulips. A new arrangement at the studio every single day.
The cards got more nauseating by the day.
Jenna, I keep thinking about those nights we pulled all-nighters in the old space.
Jenna, remember when you said once the studio was stable, we’d go rent a place out in the Hamptons?
At first I had Chloe refuse delivery. Then, exhausted, I told her to just leave them by the door. First come first served.
Riley grabbed an armful of roses one afternoon and grinned. “Please pass along my thanks to Mr. Archer for the employee perks.”
Then he started waiting outside my building.
I got home after eleven one night. I stepped out of the Uber and there he was, standing on the sidewalk. He wore the gray coat I picked out for him years ago. He was holding a takeout bag from the deli around the corner.
He saw me and his eyes lit up. “Jen.”
I kept walking.
He caught up. “I got you soup. You used to have that stomach thing. You can’t work late on an empty stomach.”
I stopped.
“Sean. You remember I had stomach problems?”
Hope flickered across his face. “Of course I remember.”
“Well. It’s better now. Leo was the one who took me to the doctor.”
His hand tightened around the bag. “Jenna. Do you have to keep throwing him in my face?”
“See? Here we go again.”
“Every fact I state, in your head, is designed to hurt you. Me leaving you is a mind game. Me going public with Leo is revenge. Me not wanting you back is a tantrum.”
I said it slowly, one word at a time.
“Sean. I don’t want you. That’s all.”
His eyes were wet. “But I regret it. Jenna. I really do.”
His voice dropped. “I got caught up. Zoe’s young. She flirted. She looked at me like I was some kind of hero. I was vain. I know I was wrong. But nothing actually happened between us—”
“Wasn’t the open relationship your idea?”
He stalled.
“You walked her into our anniversary dinner and announced her as your girlfriend in front of everyone. Go find your girlfriend. We’re done.”
His lips went white.
I stepped around him toward the building.
He grabbed my wrist from behind. “Jenna. Give me one chance.”
I looked down at his hand. “Let go.”
He didn’t. “I can start over. I don’t want Zoe. I don’t want an open anything. Let’s go back to how we were.”
“How we were.”
I laughed. Softly.
“Back to me pulling all-nighters in the back while you played Co-Founder in the front?”
“Back to you flirting with other women while I pretended not to notice?”
“Back to you saying ‘seven years is too much to throw away’ every time I tried to leave, so I’d stay and keep everything looking pretty for you?”
His fingers slid off my wrist.
I rubbed the red mark he’d left.
“Sean. It wasn’t good back then either. I just loved you, so I put up with it. I don’t love you anymore. So I’m not putting up with it anymore.”