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Chapter 30

"What, what is this?" Grace asked, taking a step away from Archer.

"Grace…"

"Is this some kind of cruel joke?"

"No, never," he assured her.

"How did you know?" Grace started, then paused for a moment as the situation finally dawned on her. "You–you aren't…?"

"I'm your mystery man," he confessed.

"Why? Why would you? How could you?" she stammered.

"Please, let's go somewhere quiet to talk, I'll explain everything," he pleaded.

"I don't know if I want to hear it," she snapped. "You knew the guilt I've been feeling, you knew that this was hard for me, yet you let this play out?" she accused.

"I know, and that's why I was going to end the charade tonight."

"What did you think would happen? That I would be so relieved that the two guys I've been talking to are the same person? That I would just fall into your arms with relief, and we would walk out of here, hand in hand, to our happily ever after? Can you not see how manipulative and wrong all this is? I poured my heart out to you," she said, trying to keep her voice strong and steady.

"Grace, I screwed up," he admitted, stepping forward, trying to close the distance between them .

"Yes Archer, you did. How could you?" she asked, as she continued to slowly step away from him.

"It was stupid but I–" Archer started, but Grace put her hand in front of his face to cut him off.

"No, never mind, I can't do this right now."

At that moment Grace and Archer were being approached by the police.

"I'm going to give my statement and then go home. Don't wait for me, you'll be wasting your time," she said, then walked away.

Archer waited.

Her questioning took a few hours. She had to explain the Jake situation, bumping into the vampire on the street, and then finally what occurred that evening. The detectives taking her statement were just as surprised as she was regarding the vampire's speech and his ability to track scents. However, Grace had the sneaky suspicion that their superiors may not be. She left out the part in her statement when the vampire told her they were all being lied to, and tucked that piece of information away for later.

When the police let her go, the wine festival had closed and all the vendors were packing up for the night.

"Dammit," she said aloud to herself. "So much for stocking up on wine."

"It's open all weekend," Archer said, causing her to jump. He had been waiting for her leaning against a tree.

"Yes, I know," she snapped. "It's an annual event. You'd know this if you weren't such a coward and hadn't run away from this city."

"Ouch, but okay, I deserve that."

"I told you not to wait for me," she reminded him, anger still heavy in her tone.

"And you should know by now that I'm going to do it anyway," he shrugged.

"I can't talk to you right now," she said, fighting a sob.

"I know. I'm still going to walk you home."

"No! I don't want you to know where I live," she exclaimed.

"Grace, I'm your boss. The first thing I did after I met you was study your employee folder," he admitted.

"You don't think that's a bit stalkerish?"

"No. If I were stalking you, I would've gone to your house," he stated.

"Right, of course, my mistake, you just did the gentlemanly thing and stuck to just looking up my address," she lashed back.

"I'm not trying to justify what I did. I told you, I know I fucked up. I fucked everything up. You see–"

"Don't you dare try to explain anything to me right now, Archer. I said I wasn't ready. We're finished with the talking portion of the evening. If you insist on following me to my house, fine, but I'm done."

Grace picked up her pace and sped away, but Archer kept on her heels. He respected her wishes and remained quiet for the remainder of the short walk back to her townhouse.

When they arrived at her house, Grace kept her head forward, walked up to her door, and let herself in without acknowledging Archer. She didn't even look back when she slammed the door.

When Grace was safely on the other side of her front door, all locks in place, she screamed in anger. She raged until her voice became hoarse and her throat burned. Then she got ready for bed, washing away her perfect date makeup, and all the emotions of the night. She crawled into bed and sobbed herself to sleep.

Archer didn't message her that night, and she was relieved when he gave her a break Saturday, but Sunday afternoon her phone wouldn't stop vibrating.

She ignored it at first. She knew it was him, and if by chance it was Scarlett, it wouldn't be the first time she ignored her.

After an hour of constant buzzing, she grabbed her phone to shut it down. Except she made the mistake of looking at the screen and saw that the last message Archer had sent was a picture.

"You are a weak weak woman," she said aloud as she unlocked her phone and opened his message.

It was a selfie of Archer holding a sign that read "I'm sorry."

The last twenty messages were pictures of Archer holding signs, each saying something different: "I messed up," "I'm not asking for forgiveness, just a chance to explain," "I'm an idiot," "I'm in the wrong," "You don't deserve this," "I took this too far," "I never should have done this," etc.

She gave him points for not making a fake pouting mouth in his selfies. She would have marched over to his apartment and punched him right in the face if he had. Instead, his face was solemn, with regret and despair broadcasting from his eyes.

She didn't get the feeling that he was being manipulative by sending the pictures, but that didn't mean she had to respond either.

She swiped away the last picture when new messages started to come through.

A rcher

You're reading my messages! This is good. I'll take that

I don't expect you to answer back. Grace, I don't expect anything

But you deserve an explanation

I also realize now that forcing you to listen to one when you aren't ready is selfish, and will only make me feel better, not you

When you're ready, I would love to sit down and talk. On your timetable. Whenever works for you

I had Lucas reschedule all the meetings I missed for tomorrow, so I won't come into the office, but I'll be there Tuesday

Grace…just know everything I ever said to you was true. I was a coward. I'm so sorry

Grace drew in a deep breath through her nose and let it out slowly through shaky lips. She was relieved that she wouldn't have to face him Monday, but she hated delaying the inevitable.

"Whatever, let him squirm and overthink for once," she said.

Perhaps it made her a horrible person, she felt like a horrible person, but the thought of him feeling even a fraction of the guilt she had felt just for talking to what she thought were two guys, gave her a tinge of pleasure.

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