Acting Royal #Wattys2017

Chapter 33

"And leave her loving you? Leave her knowing that you love her but that circumstances are the only thing keeping you apart? She will never be able to move on, she will live with that tiny bit of hope inside that will drive her mad every single day."

Zayn had gotten the distinct impression that Rafiq knew about this kind of heartbreak first hand. And so now he was here, standing in front of the woman he loved, the only woman he had ever loved and about to break her heart in the most cruel way possible.

B cruel to be kind... this was so unfair.

"Zayn." She ran up to him with tears in her eyes and was just about to throw her arms around him when he blocked her. His heart broke even more.

"What...what....what's going on?" Jenny looked up at him with a confused look plastered across her face. He looked away- he couldn't look her in the eye.

"I think it's best if you leave." he said flatly.

"Are we leaving now?" She asked. We. The small word stung him.

"Not we. You. I'm not coming with you, in fact..." Zayn pulled the cheque out of his pocket and handed it over. "The rest of your money as promised."

"I don't understand." Jenny tried to reach up and touched him, but he pulled her hand away.

"This is not going to work. Let's face it. It's been a fun weekend, but it's over now. You've done the job I hired you to do, it's time you left." A wave of nausea rose up in him as he said it and he could taste the bile at the back of her throat.

Jenny gave him a tiny confused smile. "What do you mean?"

"I mean exactly what I said. Do I have to repeat myself?"

"Yes. Yes you do." Jenny said, looking angry now. "Repeat yourself, because I have no clue what's going on here." And then a look of acknowledgment washed over her face and she leaned in and whispered in her ear. "Is someone listening? Are you doing this because Amir is here and we need to? Is everything ok? Do you need me to play along with this?"

Zayn forced himself to push her away. "No. I'm not acting. I was acting before- I was acting this whole weekend, but I'm not acting now. You need to go!" Zayn wished so hard that he wasn't doing this right now. All he wanted to do was tell her the truth, but if Rafiq was right, the truth would just give her some beautiful, tragic Romeo and Juliet story she could lament about. He needed to give her the benefit of a clean start. Wipe the slate clean. Wipe him from her memory, erase the memory of every nice thing he had ever done. Release her.

"I don't believe you. This isn't you. I know you." She didn't look sure when she said that. In fact, she looked pained. Her face had contorted and crunched up as if she was experiencing pain. All he wanted to do was take it away- but instead he went for the jugular.

"You don't know me." Zayn said. "You know nothing about me and who the real me is. You know that photo you saw of me and the two girls? Those two hot naked models in my Jacuzzi the other night. Well, that's the real me. I'm the guy that fucks two women in a Jacuzzi and doesn't bother to even find out their names. That's me."

He could see that her eyes were clouding over, but she was shaking her head. "No it's not. I've seen the real you. I can see him. That's not you."

Why didn't she believe him and just go? Why was she dragging this out? Did she have that much confidence in him and love him so much that she could see past it? He needed to pull out all the stops now.

"You were nothing more than a little game to me- something to keep me entertained for the weekend. A challenge for me. I've never fucked a woman like you before, so I thought I'd broaden my horizon's, you know? Sample something a bit different. It was fun while it lasted, but now it's time for you to go."