Click - A Novella Read Online Free PDF

told him that Collier had asked her to get any of her things out of his apartment – while Collier was in the Hamptons, but it was adding insult to injury for Collier to let her know he’d be having a good time while she made herself disappear from his life.
    It would only have made it worse.
    He didn’t like the idea of her moping around her apartment alone.
    Robert had a place in the Hamptons himself, although he rarely used it these days, he was just too busy.
    *****
     
    The weatherman had promised that the day would be sunny and warm, that the rain of the last two days had been banished and they would return to summer weather.
    Emily had spent the previous day at Dan’s apartment, gathering her things. Now she put them away. And with them, all the hopes she’d had for the relationship, despite the problems, despite Dan’s sometimes erratic behavior.
    The tears had come then as she’d gathered up the thin tee shirt and loose drawstring pants she’d worn around his apartment on days like this. She’d searched for, and found, the earrings she’d lost, along with a book she’d tried to read while Dan played with his computer.
    More than once she’d fought anger, the desire to wreak havoc, to knock over the precious speakers to his stereo system of which he’d been so enamored. He’d spent a mint on them, far more than he’d ever spent on her. They were enormous, dominating the living room space.
    Or emptying all his hair products into the tub. The man had spent more time on his hair than she did.
    She’d done nothing. The temptation was there, but it was childish, she was better than that, and it would only make more trouble than it was worth. Especially at the office.
    The thought of going there the next day with everyone knowing what had happened  made her want to cringe, to crawl in a hole, but she knew she’d have to face it. In time it would get easier.
    It had been strange, though, to look around Dan’s apartment as she dropped her key into the dish on the stand by the door. Only then had she realized how little of herself had been left there. An ache had settled around her heart as his door had shut behind her.
    Curled in the window seat with Gizmo in her lap, she tried to focus on the book she’d been trying to read. At least now she’d have more time for things like that. The kind of things she’d done before Dan.
    A glimmer of sunlight turned the street below into a ribbon of silver. Maybe it would be a nice day after all.
    The knock at the door startled her. Maybe Dan had had second thoughts? Romantic fantasies ran through her mind, but she knew they were just that. He had someone else. He was gone.
    Dislodging Gizmo to the little cat’s protests, Emily got up to open the door.
    “Robert,” she said, and where a moment before she had been half-anticipating, half-dreading who she’d find there, to see Robert made her heart lift a little. She couldn’t help but smile. “What are you doing here?”
    “Can I come in?” Robert asked.
    He hadn’t been sure of his reception, but the welcome in her expression relieved that.
    “Of course,” she said, swinging the door wide without a thought, and then glanced down at herself in obvious dismay.
    To his surprise, she blushed. He hadn’t thought anyone still blushed in this day and age.
    Color flooded Emily’s face as she realized that she was just wearing another of her tee shirts and drawstring pants. No bra. Bare feet. No makeup. She’d only just run a brush through her hair.
    “Make yourself comfortable,” she said with a wave, spinning away to hurry into the bedroom. “There’s fresh ground coffee brewing in the pot, cups in the cupboard above it.”
    Amused, Robert watched her disappear into another room.
    He hadn’t missed what she’d been wearing, and had found a few fantasies dancing through his head. The little tee shirt hadn’t hidden but had hinted at much, clinging in all the right places.
    Deliberately, he took a breath