Rose sighed to herself as she stared down at the coffee stain on the counter. Of course, because the world seemed to hate her, the stain was shaped like a heart. It was as though it was mocking her – this heart was still in-tact, unlike hers. Frustratingly, it seemed as though she was seeing love everywhere recently. The hearts she saw in the clouds, the teenagers walking down the street holding hands and laughing, the elderly couple that came in at exactly eleven-thirty AM every Saturday for their BLT sandwiches and black coffees...

Weeks ago, it would have made her smile. Now, however, it just made her nauseous. What was so wrong with her that she couldn't find that kind of love for herself? Why had it felt as though she'd come so close to it, only to have it ripped away from her? She'd let herself think that maybe she could change him, convince him to at least try to have a real relationship, only for it to be one big fucking delusion. She'd fallen in love with him, and now she'd spent the last four weeks in absolute agony. Each morning, she woke up happy, in love with Dimitri. Until she remembered what had happened between them - then it was like having her heart ripped to shreds, over and over again. It was as though it had been smashed into a million little pieces, so many pieces it would never be put back together again.

She hated that she felt like this. She hated that she'd cried so hard she'd practically run out of tears. The thing she hated the most however was the fact that she couldn't stop thinking about him. She couldn't help but wonder what he was doing, if he was doing okay or if he'd even thought about her at all.

Somehow, she doubted it.

"You know you don't have to be here, Rose," a voice told her, withdrawing her from her self-deprecating thoughts. Alberta. "You can go home if you're not up to it."

Rose smiled at her boss, thankful that her old family friend was always so kind to her, no matter the situation. Alberta knew that Rose had been having a tough time and, because she cared for her so much, she'd allowed her time off whenever she needed it. Nevertheless, Rose felt bad for taking advantage of their personal relationship, and so after spending the first two weeks crying her eyes out at home, she'd forced herself back to work. Still, Alberta reminded her at each shift that she wasn't expected to be there – not while she needed to work on herself, at least. Rose's mental health was far more important to Alberta than the diner.

"I'm scheduled to work today," Rose told her, grabbing a cloth to wipe away the irritating coffee stain.

"I know, Sweetie," Alberta smiled, a sympathetic twinkle in her eyes, "but you're hurting. If you need more time, you can have it. You don't have to work if you don't want to."

"I need to, though."

Rose had been cooped up inside for far too long. She couldn't keep isolating herself, even though that was all she wanted to do. She didn't want to see anybody; she didn't want to talk – she just wanted to wallow in her self-pity. The healthy thing to do, however, would be to carry on as normal and not let a man ruin her life.

"As long as you're sure."

Rose nodded, plastering a smile on her face.

"I had enough time off when I broke up with Mason. I can't keep putting you out, Alberta. It's not fair on you."

"It's not fair on you that you've had your heart broken," Alberta retorted, the sympathetic look on her face even more prominent than before. It was the same way everyone had been looking at her recently, and it was starting to get on her nerves!

Thankfully, it seemed as though the conversation ended there, with Alberta understanding that Rose needed to be there, regardless of how unhappy she was. Dropping the subject, the older woman put her arm around Rose's shoulders and gave a friendly squeeze, before heading into the diner kitchen. She may as well make herself some lunch while they weren't very busy!

Rose on the other hand, wasn't hungry at all – she hadn't been for the last four weeks, really. To tell the truth, she hadn't really felt anything other than... numb. She felt worse than she had when she and Mason broke up - if that was at all possible!

It was all her fault, though - she felt as though she only had herself to blame. She allowed herself to fall in love with a man who made it quite clear from the beginning that there would be no real future. She opened up to him, allowed herself to feel something for him when she'd initially intended to simply have a good time.

But, God, he was perfect... The lack of self-worth and him being emotionally guarded aside, of course.

He was ridiculously hot, he loved and cared for his family more than anyone she'd met before, he was easy to talk to, he was funny without trying too hard, they got along so naturally... and not to mention the sex! They were more compatible in bed than Rose could have ever hoped – he knew exactly what she liked, knew exactly how far he could push her before she reached her limits, knew exactly how to turn her mind into a sweet, delicious, cloudy haze until all she could think about was the pleasure he was giving her.

She hadn't stood a chance.

Work was quiet as always, which meant that the time seemed to drag by agonisingly slowly, leaving Rose with nothing much more to do than stew inside her thoughts. It felt like it took days for the clock to reach four-thirty, at which point she'd replayed her entire relationship with Dimitri over in her mind at least ten times. Every conversation they had, every little touch, every look, every joke, every time they fucked... and of course their last interaction. The words he said to her that made her just want to curl up into a ball and cry. She knew for a fact that he hadn't meant what he said – he'd only said those things to anger her and scare her away, but that didn't help the fact that it hurt. The things he'd said to her in that moment cut her deep, when all she'd wanted was for him to just acknowledge that maybe he did have feelings for her. He didn't have to love her – she just needed to know that maybe one day he could.

And now she was alone. Again. Maybe she was just destined for a life on her own - a life of third wheeling Lissa and Christian's marriage for the years to come. The thought made her even more depressed than she had been just moments before. She could feel tears pricking behind her eyes again, and she swallowed hard to keep them from falling. She didn't want to cry while she was at work. Hell, she didn't want to cry anymore at all! She'd had enough of that already, and felt like a complete idiot every time she did.

Still, she only had thirty minutes left of her shift before she could leave and return to her cave of isolation. Just thirty minutes. She could bear that.

"Rose!" A chirpy voice called out just as the door to the diner dinged, signalling the unexpected arrival of Rose's best friend.

Or well, it wasn't that unexpected, considering Lissa had been checking in with Rose every day, desperate to check that she was okay, hoping to cheer her up at least a little bit. She felt awful that Rose was feeling so down. Even more so because she felt slightly responsible for the situation in the first place. She'd pushed her into things with Dimitri, thinking it would be good for her, then pushed her to acknowledge how about she felt about him, leading to him breaking her heart.

Now Rose was back where she started – alone and depressed. It made Lissa angry! Rose was a catch, and she couldn't understand why men couldn't see that! Rose deserved to be treated like a princess, like she was the sun, so why did she always get treated badly? Why couldn't anyone acknowledge just how lucky they were to have Rose in their lives?

Although, judging by the limited interactions Lissa had had with Dimitri at her yoga classes, he'd realised he'd fucked up, losing the best thing that could have happened to him. That made her feel better, at least.

"Hey, Liss," Rose gave a small smile as she loaded the previous customers' cups into the small dishwasher under the counter, before placing their empty plates on the little window which connected Rose's station to the kitchen.

"How are you doing?" Lissa asked, her tone and face plastered with a sympathy that made Rose want to scream.

She was reaching her limit of all the sympathetic glances and worried looks that she could take! She'd been dumped, pretty much - she wasn't dying. As fragile as she felt, she wasn't made of glass – being treated that way just made her feel worse!

"I'm fine," she stated, fighting the urge to roll her eyes, pushing away her frustration.

Lissa shot her a look that told her she wasn't fooling anybody. Even so, Rose didn't want to talk about it – instead, she simply asked Lissa whether she wanted to order something. Strictly professional.

The blonde shook her head, dismissing Rose's attempts to shoot down her concern.

"No thanks. I just came to see if you wanted to come over later," Lissa explained. "Christian said he'll get out of our hair if we wanted to have a girl's night."

Rose couldn't think of anything worse – sure, she loved Liss and their girl's nights out, but she was in no mood for it tonight. Besides, the last time they went out... well, it had ended with her standing in the middle of the sidewalk, crying and yelling at Dimitri.

"I don't really feel like it, Liss," she said, shaking her head. "Thanks though."

Lissa sighed, her plan to get Rose out of her depressive episode clearly failing.

"We don't even have to go out anywhere – we'll stay in and hang out at mine."

"Another time."

"I just hate seeing you like this, Rose. I want to make sure you're okay."

That did it – Rose's frustration snapped.

"I'm fine!" She exclaimed a little too harshly, causing Lissa's eyes to widen marginally in shock, taken aback slightly at the sudden outburst.

Rose took a deep breath, reigning in her anger. Lissa hadn't done anything wrong, but Rose was irritable – taking it out on her best friend wouldn't do any good.

"I'm sorry, Liss. I'm just fed up with being treated like I'm fragile. I'm fine, honestly," she apologised. "I just need time to get over it all and move on."

She needed to get over it? That certainly surprised Lissa. Rose was meticulous, and ridiculously stubborn – she hadn't expected her to give up so quickly. She knew that Rose was angry with Dimitri, but she'd fallen in love with him for goodness sake! She clearly missed him. Missed being with him.

And he missed her, evidently.

"You know he's exactly the same, right?" Lissa questioned, deciding that Rose needed to be made aware. She hadn't seen the man since the morning of their altercation, and had no idea that he was just as affected by her absence as she was.

Rose stiffened, her chest tightening.

"He's been moping around for weeks. You should see him – he looks just as down as you do," Lissa continued. "I've never seen him look so... tired."

Rose felt her stomach drop and she could have sworn her heart skipped a beat – did Dimitri really miss her? Had he realised how he felt, finally?

Suddenly, the thought made Rose scoff. Who was she kidding? He'd probably already forgotten about her. She'd had the best, most mind-blowing sex of her life, and he was probably brushing her away like a stray hair.

"He's probably tired because he's found someone else to fuck 24/7 already."

"I don't think so, Rose," Lissa retorted, rolling her eyes at Rose's dramatics. "He's a broken man."

"Somehow I doubt that's true."

"Seriously. He's a shell of himself – he's lost his spark you know? It's clear something's bothering him," she explained. "And I swear, Rose, every time I walk into the studio I see a little glimmer of hope in his eyes. Hope that you're going to walk in behind me. Trust me, he's disappointed when he sees that I'm on my own."

Rose rejected the idea instantly. She didn't mean that much to him, clearly. If she did, he wouldn't have said everything he had said to her, even if he was lying just to make her angry. He wouldn't have essentially called her a whore. He wouldn't have hurt her like that.

"Okay don't believe me, but it's true," Lissa sighed. "I reckon he'd take you back in a heartbeat."

"Even if that's the case, I'm not so sure I want to go there again," Rose explained, her mind filling with thoughts buzzing a mile a minute. "He said some pretty shitty things."

"I know, I know - he was a complete and utter bastard," Lissa concurred – even if Rose did get back with Dimitri, she wasn't sure she'd ever forgive him for hurting her best friend like he did. "I'm not saying you have to run back to him, but maybe you should just speak to him, at least."

Rose didn't have the energy to argue with her, not when it was taking everything within her just to stand there and pretend as though she wasn't falling apart inside. The heartbreak she felt was overwhelming, and the mere thought of Dimitri missing her felt alien. She couldn't believe for a second that Dimitri wanted her back.

He didn't love her. He didn't even care.

If he did, they wouldn't have gone four weeks without even so much as a text message. Despite the hurt she felt, a part of Rose had hoped he might have tried to get in touch with her, to contact her at least once in the hopes of reconciling with her and making things work.

He hadn't, which meant he clearly didn't care.

No, the best thing to do would be to get over him. Life was far too short to love someone who didn't love you back.

A little Rose POV for you all. They seem to be hurting just as much as each other.

Kind of a filler-y chapter, but it felt important to get Rose's side of the last 4 weeks too.

Thank you for the reviews and comments! You're the best readers ever :)