Trying to shake off the lingering feeling of unease, she dialed Neal’s number. Even though it was early, he was usually up long before she was, no matter how late he’d stayed out the previous night. When it went straight to voice mail, she frowned. He was probably just getting in a few extra hours of sleep or something. She figured she might as well help him with that.
She hopped into a quick shower. When she got out, she threw her wet hair up into a perfect ballet bun and then hurried into a pair of destroyed skinny jeans, a black tank, and her leather jacket—her favorite wardrobe staple.
She skipped out of the house hours before Bryna or Stacia would surface and drove her red hybrid to Neal’s house. Even almost two years after leaving New York, it was still strange to have to drive so much. She had gotten her license in the city only to prove that she actually could. Truth be told, it had taken her three times to get it, too. But with all the driving she had done in Vegas, she had gotten exponentially better.
Trihn pulled up in front of the house that Neal rented with a few of his art friends. When no one answered, she knocked on the door and tried the knob, but it was locked. She had a key, but her purse was stuffed with so much shit that she knew it would take forever to find.
She pounded on the door again and then started digging around in her bag for the key. She found an extra pair of workout shorts, two pairs of socks, a mini sketchbook, a to-do-list journal, and half a dozen tubes of lipstick, but no key.
Just when she was about to give up on her quest and try Neal’s cell again, the door opened to reveal a mussed Neal.
“Trihn?” he croaked, as if he had just rolled out of bed. And he looked like it, too. His dark hair was a hot mess, his shorts and T-shirt were rumpled, and he had bags under his eyes.
“Hey. I tried to call you, but you must have been sleeping,” she said, mustering an enthusiastic smile.
“No, I wasn’t,” he said. He crossed his arms over his chest.
“Oh. Okay. Were you ignoring me?”
“I was going to call later but might as well get it over with now. I think we should break up.”
Trihn’s heart plummeted to her stomach. She gasped in disbelief. Her mouth hung open. There was ringing in her ears, and she could feel her pulse all the way through her fingers and toes.
“What?” she asked.
“This has been coming for a long time, Trihn. We’re not compatible. You’re a different person than who I thought I was dating. I’m over it.”
“We’ve been dating for a year and a half,” she sputtered. “How are we suddenly not compatible?”
“It’s not sudden. I’ve just been ignoring it for a long time. Last night was the end for me.”
“What happened last night?” she asked shakily.
How could this be happening? He couldn’t just leave. After all they had been through together, she didn’t want this to be over. She wanted to fight for this. She needed to fight for this. She had done everything right in this relationship. He couldn’t call it quits.
“Nothing in particular. I just didn’t miss you, and I didn’t miss you when I was home in San Francisco either.”
It was a knife to the heart.
Trihn stumbled back a step, her hand going to her mouth. He hadn’t missed her. She had missed him every day that she was stuck in New York without him. She had spent a lot of her time in her room or with her friends from home—Renée and Ian—but mostly she avoided her sister, Lydia.
She just didn’t understand. She felt like her body was being crushed. Everything ached and hurt.
“Is there someone else?” she managed to get out. She was surprised her voice was even functioning.
Neal looked down at the floor and then off into the distance, as if this were the last place he wanted to be right now.
He must have cheated on her. It was the only logical explanation.
Preston had cheated on her and left her to pick up the pieces of her heart off the floor and try to sew them back together. After that, she had been extremely careful about giving her heart out again. Neal had seemed like the perfect guy at the time. She had made sure he was for real about their relationship before introducing him to any of her friends. Things had been perfect from then on. They’d had their ups and downs, like any other relationship, but as a whole, she’d thought they had a good thing.
Now, her heart was shattering all over again, as if the last year and a half meant nothing at all to him.
“Tell me!” she yelled into his face. “Don’t just stare at the floor. Do you have someone with you right now?”
Trihn tried to force her way into the house, but Neal put his hand out, barring her from entering.
“Just give it up. It’s over.”
She raised her eyebrows and tried not to cry. She held on to the anger that welled up in her.
“I need an explanation. Do you have some whore in your bed right now? Is all that frustration you’ve been taking out on me actually just bullshit guilt for cheating on me?” she asked.
“Just believe whatever the fuck you want to believe, Trihn,” Neal said, pushing her backward, out of the doorway. “It’s fucking over, so it doesn’t even matter. I just don’t want to be with you.”
Neal slammed the door in her face, leaving her standing there in shock.