Read Online A Date to Remember by LeTeisha Newton - Free Book Online Page A

didn’t have to lift a finger to do a thing. A chef was brought in to cook dinner. At times she would get in there before the chef could arrive and cook anyway, but after Joel had told her it wasn’t necessary, she’d stopped. Some fire was gone between them, and her very heart ached for what they had lost. She felt like he was done with her, that his heart was not as entrenched with her as hers was with him. She’d broken something, and she didn’t know what. Over and over again she thought of the fateful night when he’d asked his questions but she didn’t know the answers. He couldn’t possibly know she wasn’t Natalie, and so she didn’t know what he’d asked of her. She was herself with him. She basically wore only Natalie’s name, but she was herself. She watched movies with him, TV shows, learned they shared the same taste in music and art. When they discussed things they liked, she would see glimpses of the man she’d fallen in love with.
    And that was the crux of the problem.
    She’d fallen in love with Joel. Somewhere along the way, she’d lost the end goal. She hadn’t kept the end in her sight. She’d just fallen harder and harder for the man he sometimes showed her, the man who had touched her the first few days they’d met. She’d spent her time looking for him, and now she’d lost him, with only a couple of days left in their time together. He hadn’t said a thing about keeping her longer, about making this deal no longer about business but about feelings. He just went about his day as if he hadn’t a care in the world.
    And that was what hurt most of all.
    Staring at him now across the dinner table as they ate in silence was nerve-racking. He didn’t look her way. The chef had prepared veal, a meal that Samantha had never been partial to, no matter how someone cooked it. Joel didn’t seem to overly enjoy it either. For a man who ate with gusto, he’d left nearly half his meal on his plate. After a minute of pushing peas around, she finally spoke.
    “What are we going to watch tonight?” she asked hesitantly.
    “We aren’t going to watch anything. I have work to do,” he replied, still not looking at her.
    “You worked until eight tonight. Surely you can’t have that much left,” she said.
    “Maybe, maybe not, but I am going to go do it.”
    “Is there something I’m missing here?” she fired at him, anger snapping through her. If he wanted her to leave, he just needed to say it. She didn’t feel in the mood to beg him.
    “Entirely, but it doesn’t matter now,” he retorted.
    “Should I just leave now then?”
    He watched her for a moment, his gaze assessing. The fact that he was thinking about it made her stomach fall to her feet.
    “You know, I think that would be best. I’ll call my driver to take you home, and get the doorman to pack your things. I will not remove the missing days from your pay. Do you want it in cash or check?”
    “Go to hell.”
    “I’m already there,” he growled, standing. “I’ll write you a check then.”
    He went to the jacket he’d left lying over the couch as she watched him, stunned. She couldn’t speak. He pulled his checkbook out and wrote a check for a quarter of a million dollars. He didn’t say a word to her as he placed it on the table in front of her and walked away, dialing on his phone as he went.
    She sat there, motionless, her heart breaking in her chest. So she’d lost him. This was how they ended. She felt the crushing blow as she rose to her feet. She didn’t remember how she had gotten to the room when she arrived. She slipped into the clothes she’d worn nearly a month before when she’d first arrived. They felt odd, almost unbelievable. Perhaps it was the memory they evoked, or the thought of the night that she had sealed her fate by agreeing to come with him. She loved him, and he was sending her away, like so much trash. It wasn’t about the money. It wasn’t about the clothes, jewels, or the fact that