Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 154

Chapter 154

CELESTE

I followed Pat out to the lobby and stopped dead in my tracks. Julian was standing there, surrounded by more bouquets of roses than I had ever seen in one place.

Red roses, white roses, pink roses, yellow roses, peach roses, lavender roses, orange roses, bouquets of every color and size arranged around him like he was standing in the middle of a flower shop that had exploded.

The scent hit me like a physical force, cloying and sweet and overwhelming, filling every corner of the room. I counted quickly, my eyes scanning the sea of petals, and I estimated there had to be at least a hundred bouquets, probably more.

The staff who were working overnight had come out of their stations to watch, their faces a mixture of curiosity and awkwardness. A few people who had already been given accommodation in the dorms had also wandered out, drawn by the

commotion.

Julian himself looked terrible. His face was pale, almost gray, dark circles under his eyes, his clothes rumpled like he had slept in

them.

He looked like a man who had just walked out of a hospital, which, according to Riley, he had. He walked toward me and then dropped to his knees right there in the middle of the lobby, his knees hitting the floor with a thud that echoed through the silent room. The staff gasped, a collective intake of breath that rippled through the crowd.

“Celeste,” he said, his voice hoarse and cracked. “I know this is nothing. It is probably nothing to you, but it is just a gesture. I need you to understand how deeply I regret what I have done. How much I still feel for you. Please. Please give us another

I leaned against the door, my eyes closed, my breath coming in short, sharp bursts. The image of Julian on his knees, surrounded by a hundred bouquets, the eyes of the staff fixed on me, the whispers that would follow. It made my blood boil Seraphine, Riley, and now Julian, all of them turning me into a topic of conversation, a piece of gossip for people to chew on instead of doing their work.

I spent the rest of the night lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, my mood sour and my mind restless. When I finally fell asleep, it was the kind of sleep that left me more exhausted than when I closed my eyes.

Morning came with grey light filtering through the curtains and the weight of the day pressing down on my chest before I even opened my eyes. Today was the day I would end things with Dominic. The thought sat in my stomach like a stone

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