"I drove down that road just this afternoon. There's no internet cafe there. You're just pulling a sob story to guilt Ms. Sanchez into caving first, aren't you?"
"Ms. Sanchez, if you actually go, you'll only be rewarding his tantrums. Once you two are officially married, he'll threaten divorce every time he doesn't get his way. How embarrassing would that be?"
Before I could get a word in, Lauren exploded.
"Laurence, you are absolutely shameless! You'd stoop to a lie like that?!"
"Don't think for a second I'm going to coddle you this time. You want to come back? Fine. Tomorrow morning, you get on your knees in front of my office and tell me you were wrong!"
"Without me, that pathetic little salary of yours couldn't even cover rent on a decent apartment. You'd try to sell yourself on the street and people would turn you down for the lousy accommodations. Go sit somewhere and think about that!"
The line went dead. A heartbeat later, the screen went black.
Something inside me died with it.
Click.
The bathroom lock turned from the outside.
The cafe owner barged in, grabbed a fistful of my hair, and grinned.