Chapter Two

HEARTBREAK AND BETRAYAL

The yellow maxi dress complimented her olive skin tone perfectly and the little extra height that came with the white heels she wore made her appear thinner than she was. The clock beside her bed read five-thirty, giving her enough to scrutinize her appearance in the mirror before she had to leave for the restaurant.

She fingered the perfect ringlets of her black hair, wishing it were shorter, but Brent loved her long hair, so she never cut it much. Her left hand froze in her hair, in the mirror all she could see was the french ombre she had done the day before, but when she closed her eyes she could picture a simple princess cut ring around her finger.  

The thought made a pleasurable shiver run down her spine, God knows she’d been waiting for this day for a long time. Opening her eyes, she shook away the image and turned to leave with her white clutch in hand. 

Sierra arrived at the restaurant earlier than necessary which was as a result of her excitement, Brent hadn’t yet arrived, but that didn’t bother Sierra much since he was generally a few minutes late for things. 

Sipping on a glass of white wine while she waited, Sierra browsed through a recent journal by a biology professor in India. Her work was her passion and she loved keeping up with other professionals in her field, she believed that learning from each other was the best way to improve and most of her unorthodox methods came from reading about others performing them in unrelated projects. 

“Here you go sir, what can I get you to drink?” The hostess smiled brightly at Brent who placed a kiss on Sierra’s cheek and took his seat across her. 

“Scotch on the rocks, please.” The hostess’s smile widened and her eyebrows fluttered before she rushed off to deliver Brent’s request. Sierra watched the scene with amusement, she could hardly blame the young woman, Brent was a handsome man, his molten brown eyes and athletic physique were subjects of admiration of much of the female population. 

He was dressed to perfection in a pair of dark jeans and a white t-shirt below his blue blazer, his hair was swept up in the perfect quiff he always seemed to sport, a look she’d grown to love.      

“Hey, handsome.” Sierra grinned. 

“Hi.” His usual charismatic persona was replaced by a nervous look and Sierra’s heart warmed, he really was nervous, so she promised herself she would go easy on him. 

“How was your day?” Sierra asked, offering him a soothing smile. 

“Busy, I presented my new idea to the board today, it went okay I guess, they want to make a few changes, but I’m glad they didn’t throw it out altogether so we are reconvening on Monday to amend it according to their notes.” Brent was the marketing manager for an advertising agency that was looking to rebrand in order to rake in new clientele, she knew the project was stressing him out and took up a lot of his time, but she knew how important his career was to him, so she didn’t complain when they didn’t see one another as often as she’d like. 

“That’s good, you’re making progress and that’s important. You’re brilliant Brent, but not all of your ideas are going to be mindblowing, cut yourself some slack and give it your all.” Brent sighed, running his hand through his hair. 

“I wish it could, I just feel like I’m in a slump, you know?” Sierra nodded, just as the hostess returned with Brent’s order. 

“A waiter will be with you shortly to take your order.” Sierra nodded, ignoring the way the hostess spoke to her boyfriend, but grew irritated when he smiled back charmingly making a joke about how he thought she would be the one to serve them. The hostess’s airy laugh suddenly annoyed her, but before she could intervene, the girl was gone. 

Brent tipped the glass down his throat in one gulp, an action unlike him unless he was very stressed. 

“Honey, are you okay?” Sierra asked in concern, noticing the frown lines on his forehead and the way his hands fisted on the table. 

“I’m sorry, I thought we could have dinner first, but-” Brent dragged in a deep breath and Sierra’s heart rate increased, “Sierra, I have a confession to make. I asked you out tonight because there’s something I’d like to talk to you about.” Sierra’s heart was pounding so loud, she could just about hear him above it, but she was confused, the look on his face was grave and nervous, which made her nervous. 

“What is it Brent, you know you can tell me anything.” She tried, reaching for his fisted hand, but he pulled it back. 

“I have been feeling this way for a while, I just didn’t understand it and I should have told you about this a long time ago, but I just didn’t know how to bring it up.” Sierra’s eyebrows knit together, this didn’t sound like a proposal.

“Just say it, whatever it is.” He gulped hard and locked eyes with her. 

“Sierra, I don’t think this relationship is what either of us wants anymore.” Sierra froze and blinked twice, she wasn’t sure if her mind was playing tricks on her or those words really came from his mouth. 

“Excuse me?” 

“I’m sorry for doing this here, but I just couldn’t keep pretending anymore. These past five years with you have been amazing, you’re amazing and so supportive, you’re the perfect woman, but lately, I’ve been feeling so out of touch with myself. Ever since my brother got married, I’ve seen how he is with his wife and I realized that we don’t have anything even remotely like that. I used to wonder why I never had the urge to take our relationship to the next level, but in truth, we’re just friends that sleep together.” Her heartbeat had long slowed down and with every word, she felt the knife cut deeper. His words hurt her, but more than that was the frank tone in which he spoke. 

His demeanor told her that it was something that had been on his mind for a long time, something he thought through thoroughly, but she didn’t want to believe him. She didn’t want to believe that what was supposed to be the happiest night of her life, turned out to be the exact opposite. 

“Brian’s wedding was last year, Brent.” She looked at him with betrayal written all over her face. 

“I know and this has been a long time coming, this just isn’t exciting anymore.” He tried to reason and it was then that she realized that he’d fallen out of love with her. If it wasn’t the lack of tenderness in his eyes, the pity would have given it away. 

“You don’t get to decide how I feel.” She could feel anger seeping in.

“Think about it, Sierra, when last did the thought of seeing me make your blood rush?” Sierra looked him dead in the eye, unable to believe the words he was saying.

She glanced around at the other guests in the restaurant, realising how out of place they were she stood up with tears burning the back of her eyes, “Today.”

She didn’t wait for him to speak before she rushed out of the restaurant, praying that the tears didn’t fall before she reached her car.