The Apartment Building
SARAH
When we got to the car, my phone was ringing. I took it out of my bag, glanced at the screen and froze.
Ten missed calls from Ryan.
Ten. I kid you not.
I sighed and tapped into my messages. He had only sent me two. The first one read, 'Where are you?' The second came almost an hour later. 'Are you lost?'
I rolled my eyes so hard it nearly hurt. Then I turned my phone off completely and dropped it back into my handbag like it had offended me.
When I looked up, Cullen was watching me.
“What?” I asked.
“Did you just turn off your phone?”
“Yes. Ryan has apparently started looking for me, I guess.”
Cullen raised an eyebrow. “What he should do is walk through that entire campus. Like, five times. Through the whole thing.”
I smirked. “Yeah. That’ll teach him.”
“You’re vindictive,” Cullen said but the way he said it, it wasn’t an insult. It was admiration. Like he liked it.
So I smiled. “I can be.”
Then he kissed me. But not in the way I expected.
The truth was... I’d been expecting something else. Honestly, I thought the second we were alone, he’d pounce on me, strip me down, do all the bad, delicious things I’d been quietly imagining. I’d been bracing myself for chaos.
But none of that happened. Instead, I’d had a really great time. Unexpectedly... I was actually enjoying myself. Maybe that’s why I didn’t try to start anything either.
Then he pulled back, looking a little nervous, which was new for him.
“So, I have an idea,” he said. “You can knock it off if you don’t want it.”
“Okay...” I said slowly. “Now I’m nervous. What are you trying to say?”
He ran a hand through his hair, hesitating. “I don’t think I ever apologised.”
“For what?”
“For being such an asshole when we got married.”
I blinked. And then I laughed.
I couldn’t believe this, that now hearing that from him made me laugh instead of breaking something inside me.
Just how far had we come?
“Well... you were such a douche,” I said with a smile. “I’m not against you apologising every day.”
He chuckled. “You are vindictive.”
“Twice in one day,” I grinned. “Should I put it on a T-shirt?”
He laughed, then got a little more serious. “Anyway... when we got married, I wasn’t planning on living with you. I wasn’t planning on... being with you.”
“I noticed.”
“I am sorry. The truth is I always planned to stay back at my parents’ house,” he continued, like he needed to say it out loud. “I’ve never really had that thing in me—to leave. I love it. I love the Cincinnati estate. I just... love that place.”
His voice softened a little.
“I’m not like Cyrus. He turned eighteen and practically ran out the door. But me? I like it there. I don’t have to do anything or worry about anything.”
I nodded slowly, watching him as he spoke.
“So why would I leave, you know? Doesn’t make sense,” he says, with a shrug that’s far too relaxed for the weight of his words. “Cyrus is Cyrus, and I’m me.”
I nod slowly, watching him carefully. He doesn’t flinch.
“But anyway,” he continues, “I had bought… well, this apartment building. For you.”
That stops me.
“For me?” I repeat, my voice catching mid-air.
He nods, casually, like it’s not the most shocking thing he’s said today. “Yeah. It’s in your name and everything. My dad and Cyrus thought I was out of my damn mind. I put every cent I had into it.”
And then he starts laughing.
“Why are you laughing?” I ask, honestly confused.
“Because I bought it in a place that was practically brushing the edge of Sullivan territory.” He chuckles harder. “I did that even though I didn’t know you, not really. I was going to marry you, and I thought, Okay, cool, at least let her have everything she needs.”
And now I understand. I nod slowly, the breeze whispering around us like it too is waiting for him to finish.
“You wanted me to have everything,” I say, “so I wouldn’t ever need you.”
His smile falters for the first time. He looks away, toward the view like he’s hiding behind the skyline. “Yeah. I know I shouldn’t have. But that was all me.”
There’s a pause. The kind of pause that doesn’t feel like silence, but like an unravelling. A confession breathing through the cracks.
“And after you left...no, after they took you away from me. Because you didn’t leave me,” he says, trying to convince himself, maybe.
“After they forced you to leave,” he continues, “I had a huge fight with my mom and dad. Things are not good at home. I don’t speak to either of them unless I’m addressing him as Don now.”
I stay quiet. He’s opening up in a way I never thought he could. He doesn’t notice my silence. Or maybe he does and just chooses to keep going.
“So yeah… home wasn’t sweet anymore. Not without you there. Not without getting into that bedroom and wishing you were in that bed. Either asleep or waiting for me.”
I breathe in slowly, trying not to react too much.
“I went back to my old room. I thought maybe it’d be comforting. But it didn’t do it for me. So, I went to the hotel. Then I remembered the apartment I had built for you.”
“You told them it was for me,” I cut in, my voice lower, more accusing than I wanted.
He hears it. And he answers softly. “I didn’t tell you to make you mad, or to prove to you that I was a bad person. I just… I didn’t want to lie to you. At that time, I thought it was going to be this grand gesture. Like everyone would think, 'He bought his wife a whole damn building. He must love her.' People wouldn’t look too closely, wouldn’t ask questions, wouldn’t care if we lived separate lives.”
His voice is distant now. Bitter in its own way. “But that’s what I thought then. It’s not what I think now.”
He exhales. “I rented out the lower floors. And I redesigned the penthouse. Now it’s a cool, open place.”
“And you’ve been staying there?” I ask.
He nods. “Ever since you were discharged from the hospital.”
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