"I can't believe you're dating her, Neal."
He'd thought she was better than this. Smart enough to take a hint, to get out unscathed, to leave when she wasn't needed, and frankly, never wanted. Leave it to a conman to be a bad judge of people. The irony stung stronger than it should have. He should've seen this coming.
"She's…she's manipulating you. She has to be. The woman helped put you behind bars, for God's sake!"
"And you never visited me there, so don't try to act like a martyr here, Alex." The words escape before he can stop them, edged with such bitterness that it doesn't even hurt when he sees her flinch.
When they'd met, they'd slept together in the same night. She'd preyed upon his vulnerability when he had been looking at Kate and that boyfriend of hers, and he'd allowed himself to be filled with round upon round of shots. For the record, she'd done the fucking, not the other way around. It was easier to ignore her face if he was on the bottom.
She'd been the reason Kate had left, too. If it hadn't been for the Copenhagen tip, he and Kate never would have fought, she never would have left, and frankly, he wouldn't have been caught by Peter. He'd spent so much time blaming himself for his own stupidity, but now that he looked at her—pathetic, lanky, and far too angular and bony for a woman of such refined taste—it was more apparent than ever that everything that had gone wrong in his life in the past six years had been her fault.
When he'd sought her help a little over a year before, how could she have not realized it was all because he needed to get Kate back? Was she really vain enough to think that something could happen between them again? Alex was a safety fuck. She was quick, easy and convenient. The fact that she seemed to have some ill conceived notion of the epic love story she wanted them to have only made him feel physically ill as he looked at her. Who could ever love someone so damaged?
And then the kiss had happened, the kiss that had nearly cost him his relationship with Sara. The fact that the other woman had so graciously accepted his numerous apologies and assurances that Alex meant nothing to him only made him appreciate Sara all the more.
"But the kiss, Neal!" Her voice was hoarse, her eyes sickeningly red-rimmed. What was she doing, trying to guilt him into a relationship? "A kiss always means something!" She sounded like she was whining now, an annoying cat screeching in his ear at best. He wanted to kick her out. But not before getting something across first.
"Oh, it did mean something. Care to guess what it meant?" He was grinning now, enjoying this much more than he should have been. He wasn't sure where this malignity was coming from, but he supposed it had been a long time coming.
"I love you?" she rasped, whimpering after the fact. That was the final straw for him.
"No, Alex…." He moved towards her, hands extended, providing the illusion of an embrace. Before going too far, however, he gripped her upper arms and turned her around, motioning to the door. "It meant goodbye. Good riddance. We're done."
"Neal…." She was whining again. "You can't—"
"Oh, but I do." He grinned again, opening the apartment door and giving her a light shove towards it. "Don't let the door hit you on the way out."
She shot him one final desperate, angry and hurt look, her eyes glassy and her nose pathetically red, and with that, she was gone from his life forever.