Read Tryst for Free Online

mysteriously a little too short… it was all the same.
    So why did it feel so different?
    I stood in the center of the room, clutching the envelope of papers, taking it all in and trying not to feel torn and devastated. The words ripped from my throat before I could even think.
    “How could you?”
    I turned, my blurry eyes focusing on the man I honestly thought I would spend forever with. He swallowed, the thick Adam’s apple in his throat bobbed, and I stared at the open V the collar of his white dress shirt made against his skin.
    “I’m sorry you had to see that.”
    But he wasn’t sorry for doing it? a voice demanded in the back of my mind.
    “Would you be sorry if you hadn’t got caught?” I asked, wandering farther into the apartment. “Would you still be sleeping with her while I wondered why our sex life dropped off the face of this earth?”
    He blanched. “You know I’ve been under a lot of stress at work.” He began. “Dad has been really putting the pressure on me to step up to the helm.”
    I held up my hand. “Yes , I know your work schedule is very demanding. Yet you still found time to fit in some quality time with your secretary. Why? Why not me?”
    “It’s over,” he said.
    “You fired her?” I asked, shock rippling through me. Maybe he really was sorry.
    “You know I can’t do that!” he said. “She’d sue the company for sexual harassment. Do you know what something like that could do to the company’s reputation?”
    How convenient. He was forced to keep her on. Forced to continue working with her. “It must be horrible to worry about what people will say when they learn what a cheating scumbag you are.”
    A muscle ticked in the side of his jaw. “Natalie,” he warned.
    “I had Jack draw up separation papers.” I pulled the stack of documents out of the envelope and then fished a pen out of my purse. “It’s marked where we need to sign.”
    “You can’t be serious.” He actually sounded surprised.
    I raised an eyebrow. “What did you think would happen?”
    “This is just extreme!” he said, flinging his hands up in the air. “I didn’t say anything when you packed your bags and left. I didn’t say anything when you moved into Claire’s apartment. I didn’t even give you a hard time when you refused to answer any of my phone calls.”
    “What the hell do you want? A medal?” My insides began to boil. He acted like I was the one being unreasonable. Did I know him at all?
    “But I’m drawing the line at separation papers, Talie ,” he said, like he was the lord of all.
    “You can draw as many lines as you want .” I sniffed. “After you sign these papers. I’ll even loan you my pen.”
    He made an angry growl in the back of his throat. “I am not signing those papers.”
    “Do you really want to make this harder than it needs to be?”
    “Do you?” He crossed his arms over his chest.
    “Me?” I choked. “ You are the one who cheated. You are the one with no regard for my feelings. You are responsible for this, not me.”
    “So I had a little fling. A tryst. It meant nothing to me.”
    “It’s not nothing to me!” I shouted.
    “The neighbors …” He reminded me.
    I rolled my eyes. “That’s all you care about, isn’t it? Appearances. You care more about how a divorce will look than actually losing me.”
    “That’s not true.”
    “It isn’t?”
    He sighed like I was being a petulant child.
    “T hen why haven’t you apologized for what you did. Why haven’t you told me that you love me and only me? Why haven’t you begged me for forgiveness?”
    “I tried calling you.”
    “You knew where I was. Did you come by? Did you make an attempt to seek me out?” I pressed, emotion and anger welling up inside me until I felt overfull and about to burst. “You didn’t because you don’t care enough.”
    “I was giving you time to cool off. To see reason.”
    “And what ‘reason’ is that?”
    “We are not getting a