“Not particularly.”
Charlotte frowned. “Okay.”
Silence fell, punctuated after a moment by his sigh. “We dated for three months. We broke up because she wanted things I wasn’t prepared to offer. We have not stayed friends and do not speak. I don’t regret it.”
“What things did she want?” Charlotte pushed, even though he was obviously speaking through gritted teeth.
“She wanted the fairytale.”
“The fairytale? What’s a fairytale?” She said with irony.
“My thoughts exactly.”
“What was her version of a fairytale?”
He ticked his fingers off, one by one. “Prince Charming. A declaration of undying love. A marriage proposal. A trip to England to meet the family.”
“You didn’t want to bring her here.”
“I didn’t want any of it.”
“So what did you want?”
“What I thought we had—an easy, light, expendable relationship.”
“Expendable,” Charlotte said with a slight shake of her head. “I mean, I don’t believe in fairytales, but even I can see that’s pretty callous.”
“Is it? Why?”
“Because…no one likes to think they’re expendable.”
“But everyone is,” he said, simply. “People have unrealistic expectations about commitment and love, thanks, no doubt, to a billion romance books and Hollywood movies on the subject. I personally don’t buy into that. We’re born alone, we die alone, why not live that way?”
Charlotte’s lips pulled to the side. “That’s incredibly cynical.”
“But am I wrong?”
“I can’t imagine my life without Dash.”
“He is like a child to you,” Alessio dismissed. “That is not romantic love.”
“But it is love,” she said emphatically. “I will never be alone, because I have him. I don’t think it’s written in the stars that we must live alone. I think you’ve made a choice.”
“Even if that were so, it’s my choice to make.”
“Don’t you feel—,” She cut herself off when she realised what she’d been about to say—and how rude it might have seemed.
“Don’t I feel?” He prompted, and even though she’d stopped herself before, she sipped her wine, then answered:
“Don’t you feel like you should have told her all this? If she wanted the fairytale, and you didn’t, wasn’t that something she should have known, before things between you got serious?”
“I am always honest about my feelings for the simple reason that I am not ashamed of them. The fact Lucinda fell in love with me is her failing, not mine.”
Her lips parted into a perfect ‘o’ of surprise.
“You are judging me anyway?”
“I’m—yes. No. I don’t know.” A divot formed between her brows. “It’s just very…cold.”