Perfect Fit - Brenda Jackson [115]
She whirled on him then, giving him a sharp look. “To get myself together?”
“Yes.”
She exhaled angrily. “Why is it that everyone thinks I didn’t have myself together after I broke up with Erol? I didn’t need any pining time. He betrayed my trust, and that was reason enough to walk away and not moan over it. So you’ve wasted your time with me if it was intended to get the heartbroken Sage through a difficult time.”
“I didn’t say that, and please don’t put words in my mouth, Sage.”
“Well, I don’t want to have this conversation, Gabe. I just got out of an involved relationship and don’t want to get into another one. I figured when your company was through here that that would be the end of it.”
“Of us?”
“Yes.”
“Well, you were wrong; we belong together.”
“No, Gabe, you’re wrong; we don’t belong together. You were also wrong for putting more stock into our relationship than what was there. We should have talked about it. I would have saved you the trouble. I don’t want or need love in my life.”
After saying those words, she grabbed her overnight bag off the bed and left, slamming the door behind her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
“Let me make sure I got this right. Gabe told you that he was in love with you, so you gave him hell?” Rose asked as she assisted Sage with her packing.
Sage raised her eyes to the ceiling as she folded a nightgown to put inside the luggage that was spread open on her bed. “I did not give him hell, Rose. I merely tried explaining why I thought he was wrong.”
“For loving you?”
Sage frowned. “No, for thinking he loves me.”
Rose strolled over to the bed and sat down. “Oh, so now he’s not old enough to know his own heart, is that it? Just how old is he anyway? Thirty? Thirty-one?”
“He’s thirty-two.”
Rose nodded and laughed lightly. “Oh, then that explains things. Everyone knows that a thirty-two-year-old man, a very successful one at that, would be confused about something as complicated as love.”
Sage stopped packing and drew in a long, deep breath, then exhaled slowly. “You don’t understand, Rose.”
Rose stood and glared at her. “You’re right, Sage, I don’t understand. A good man, and I mean a really good one, is hard to find, so the way I see it, when you find one, you latch on to him and keep him forever. You certainly don’t throw the love he expresses to you back in his face.”
Sage’s heart thumped wildly in her chest. “I didn’t do that.”
“Yes, you did if you said to him all those things that you told me you said. Think about it, Sage.”
Sage placed her hand on her hips, angry and frustrated. “But I don’t want him to love me, Rose. Can’t you see that? And I don’t want to love him. I should never have let things go this far between us. I should have put an end to things when I saw how my need for him was becoming overwhelming, and when the thought of Eden being completed made me have stomach cramps because I knew everything between us would have to end then.”
Rose reached across the bed and grabbed Sage’s trembling hand. “Hey, nothing has to end, Sage,” she said softly. “People conduct long-distance relationships all the time. Just look at Malcolm and his wife. They didn’t break up because of the time and distance separating them.” She studied Sage intently. “There’s another reason for you not wanting Gabe to love you, and you know it.”
Sage pulled her hand free to wipe the tears from her eyes and to continue packing. “What other reason could there be?”
Rose crossed her arms over her chest. “One that’s connected to Erol. You don’t want Gabe to love you because the one man who you thought loved you the most let you down, so it stands to reason … in your mind … that Gabe will eventually do likewise.”
Sage closed her luggage. Rose didn’t know the half of it. Actually,