Man Who Loved Pride and Prejudice Read Online Free Page B

bite of her sandwich. The faster she finished it, the sooner she could escape.
       "Just like old times." He opened the ketchup bottle and shook it, but nothing came out. He reached for a new one on the next table. "It's good to see you, Cassie."
       "That's Saint Cassie to you." Did he think she would forget the past that quickly?
       He winced. "You weren't meant to hear that."
       "Then you shouldn't have said it so often." The dry sandwich seemed to stick in her throat. She took a swallow of water.
       "You're right. I was blaming you for something that was my own fault. If it's any consolation, nobody believed me."
       "Some of them did. It doesn't matter anymore." It had mattered a lot then. It made her finish her PhD as quickly as possible so she could get away.
       "What I'm trying to say is I'm sorry. About everything."
       There was a time when she would have given anything to hear those words from him, but that was long ago. "What do you want from me? Forgiveness? Okay, you're forgiven. You can go home with a clear conscience."
       He had the gall to look wounded. "You and I were friends once. I'd like to be friends again."
       He had told her he loved her once, too, not long before dumping her. He had no idea what she had sacrificed for his sake. "Why? I haven't changed. I'm still driven about my work and still as boring as I was then."
       "It wasn't like that. I didn't like coming second to work, but I was proud you were my girlfriend. You were the golden girl. I just wanted more."
       "More time? I spent every free minute I had with you." She regretted letting him draw her into the discussion. It only brought back the pain she had worked hard to put behind her.
       "Not more time—more of you. We were together for a year and a half, and you never told me a thing about your family. I don't even know where you grew up. I took you home for Christmas. You met all my family, all my friends. You knew everything about me."
       His pleading look was so familiar, even after all these years. Cassie turned her face away. It hadn't been completely his fault. She had been living a lie, and because of that, he never understood her. But she'd been right to keep it a secret. If he'd known the truth, people would have been calling her worse things than Saint Cassie.
       Softening toward Rob was dangerous. "My parents ran away with the circus, and I was raised by gypsies in deepest, darkest Africa. Happy now?"
       He looked down at his half-eaten hamburger as if it held some answer for him. Finally, he raised his eyes again. "I guess the answer on being friends is no."
    "I guess it is."
       He drained his soda and placed the empty cup on his tray. "I never realized our break-up affected you like this. It didn't seem to bother you much then."
       "You knew how I felt, even if I put a good face on it."
       He shook his head. "You were always so strong, so confident. Everybody liked you. I thought you bounced right back."
       "I'm so strong. Right." She pushed her tray away. Loving him had only made her vulnerable. "I'm leaving now. Don't follow me."
       Cassie dumped the remains of her lunch into the trashcan. Hurrying out of the building, she set off at a swift pace, heading the long way into town, around Eel Pond. She would be less likely to run into anyone she knew that way. She had dreamed for so long of Rob begging her to come back to him, and it turned out he never even knew how much he hurt her.
       Rob's words were still with her when she reached the far end of Woods Hole.
       She couldn't face the lab yet, especially the possibility of seeing him there. She decided to stop at Harbor Books, a small bookstore near the ferry dock. It was one of her favorite destinations. The proprietor greeted her by name when she walked in.
       "Any recommendations today, Ed?" She tilted her head toward the bookshelves. This was a good idea. It reminded her she had a