The Three-Month Rule

Chapter 14 - The Break-Up

"Do you love me?" he asked her. 

Allegra stared at him for a few moments in shock, pondering over her next words carefully, trying to pick the ones which would hurt him the least. 

"I don't think I can do this anymore," she said breathlessly, nausea flooding and turning her stomach like a washing machine. 

"Why not? Did I do something wrong?" he asked her desperately, tears beginning to well in his eyes.

 "No, Oliver, it's just... We're too different," Allegra told him as she stood up, wanting to be out of the situation as quick as possible. 

"But that's why we work," he insisted, joining her standing. He took her hands in his, his sweaty palms covering her small hands in a sticky, salty residue and leaving her feeling unclean. 

"No, we don't," she told him firmly, claiming her hands back and rubbing the sweat off on her jeans. "I don't think we feel the same things for each other." 

Oliver couldn't blink. The tears pricked and stung his eyes but he couldn't believe what he was hearing. He looked her up and down and the tears began to fall. 

"But I love you, Allie-" 

"I know, and that's partly why we can't work." 

Suddenly, Oliver's expression changed and he wiped the tears away with the sleeve of his green hoodie."No one will ever love you like I do, you know," he told her, a new tone in his voice. 

Allegra stared back at him in disbelief, feeling anger from his words as they pierced her mind, turning her heartbeat rapid as it pumped blood quicker through her veins. 

"Are you sure you want to do this?" he challenged her, almost threateningly. 

"It's what best," she replied, trying desperately to maintain composure and calmness. 

He scoffed and turned away from her briefly, before looking back and observing her from head to toe. 

"You know you'll never get better than me," he hissed. "Have a nice life, Allegra."