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& " she paused and gulped before continuing, "that's fine. I just need to hear him say it while he's
looking at me instead of giving me the glacial silent treatment. Promise me you won't approach him.
Please?"
"Okay," her brother acquiesced, draping his arm around her shoulder. "You know I just worry
about you."
"I know," she said to him gratefully and placed an affectionate arm around his waist.
They walked up to the gallery in silence.
When they got to the door, a young girl in a sexy black number greeted them enthusiastically,
gave them brochures and invited them to order some drinks at the makeshift bar in the corner.
There were already a number of people inside. Faye felt a burst of pride for Evan. He'd been
painting for fifteen years, since he was twenty, and only considered it as a hobby until he met Victor,
who encouraged him to show off his work to other people. Now here he was with his first exhibition,
filling up three rooms in the gallery with his work.
She glanced around, looking for her best friends, when her eyes came in contact with a pair of
piercing blue ones that she had missed like crazy.
Ray stared back at her from across the room with an inscrutable expression.
Her heart pounded. It wanted to leap out of her chest and fly to him. She wanted to leap and
fly to him. But something in his stance told her that such actions were unwelcome.
Then she saw her. Rita Flirty-Bitch Maxwell. The woman she had begun to despise curled a
hand on Ray's upper arm and whispered something in his ear. She leaned on him too closely, so that
her breast brushed his torso while she spoke. He nodded and went with her wherever she wanted him
to go.
Fuck.
Suddenly, the room was blurry.
Shit. I'm going to cry again.
"Faye," Kane said softly, putting a comforting hand on her back.
"I need to go to the bathroom. Could you grab me a glass of wine, please?" She put on a brave
face for her brother.
"You okay?"
"Yes, I'll be fine. I'll be back shortly."
She spun around and headed for the opposite direction from where Ray and Rita went. She
came across a side door leading to the back of the gallery and snuck out. She breathed a sigh of relief
as she found herself in an empty, well-manicured garden. She desperately needed to be alone.
She strolled to the farthest side of the garden and spotted a bench underneath a big fig tree.
The darkness of the night meant she wouldn't be seen by anyone unless they specifically walked close
to where she was. She sat down and let the tears flow.
There was no need for a conversation with Ray. What she saw was enough.
He was looking straight in her eyes when Rita came to whisper something to him. He knew
she was watching when Rita almost plastered her body against his. And he didn't give a damn. He
didn't even acknowledge her or nod goodbye when he went with Rita to heaven knew where.
Yes, that was enough. If anything, it yelled to her the answer she needed to acknowledge.
He didn't want her anymore. He didn't care. He had moved on. And she had to accept that.
Her shoulders slumped as she wept softly.
How she was going to get over Ray, she didn't know. The pain of losing him was one hundred
times worse than the pain from breaking up with all her previous boyfriends combined.
This time, she had truly loved - and lost.
*******
"Kane!"
Kane turned to the person calling him. It was Victor. A smile formed on his face. He genuinely
liked all of Faye's best friends.
"Hey, Victor. Haven't seen you for a long time," he said, giving the man a brief hug.
"I know. You just came back from Dubai, I hear."
"Yes, a few days ago."
"Where did Faye go? I saw the two of you arrive and now she's not here."
"She went to the restroom."
"Drats. I can't follow her there," Victor muttered.
Kane sensed something was up.
"What's going on?"
Victor eyed him, appearing to decide whether to divulge a secret to him or not.
"If it's got something to do with your boss, then I know about that."
"You do?" Victor asked, his eyebrows arched.
"Yes. I also know he's here with a girlfriend. Faye saw them together within a minute of us
getting here. That's why she ran away to the restroom. She was teary," he said with a heavy sigh.
"Oh, no! Damn it!" Victor cried out loud, attracting the attention of several people around
them. "This is one big misunderstanding due to lack of communication," he continued in a lower
voice. "Honestly, Ray is a great communicator at work but he sucks at it when it comes to women."
"What do you mean?"
"He's not here with Rita Maxwell - that's the woman you must have seen him with. He came
alone and Rita arrived with her mother. Anyway, did Faye tell you about her boo-boo with Ray?"
"You mean when she told him they were both free agents who could date whomever they
want?"
"Yes. So Ray gets really hurt by that and since then, he hasn't spoken to Faye. He also started
entertaining Rita's flirtations. He wasn't interested in Rita before all this drama with Faye happened.
We - Jessa, Clarise and I - think he's trying to move on and Rita happens to be convenient, ready and
available to help him with it. But we know he's not over Faye."
Victor sighed before continuing. "Ray doesn't know we know about the two of them. This
morning, we carried on a conversation in the office about Faye having her heart broken by John,
making sure he heard. By the way, Faye doesn't know about that. We didn't want to raise her hopes up
and then have them dashed if Ray didn't do something, even after what he'd heard from us. But we're
pretty sure he cares. A lot."
"Hang on a minute--who's John?" Kane asked, perplexed.
"Oh, that's Ray's nickname that Faye gave him. It's a long story. I'll tell you about it later. But
getting to the crux of this whole saga, we made Ray think that tonight was important for Faye because
she meant to tell John she cared about him. We also acted excited at the thought of finally meeting this
John person."
"But," Kane interjected, "I saw that Rita woman slide up really close to Ray and he didn't
seem to mind. Are you sure he's not over Faye?"
"See, I think that was partly your fault, although of course, you weren't aware of it."
"What do you mean?"
"When you got here, you and Faye had your arms around each other. You looked very close
and comfortable together. I've been observing Ray tonight. He kept on looking at the entrance. Rita
was already here flirting with him whenever she could and he just ignored her. He must have been
waiting for Faye to arrive and when she did "
"She was with another guy who had an arm around her," Kane finished for Victor. "I can see
why that would confuse him. And why he'd shy away from her again. He probably had his hopes up
that he could fix things with her tonight then here she was, 'dating' someone else again."
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