After blotting my face and fixing my makeup, I opened the restroom door to see Daniel standing there, leaning against the wall with his hand running across the scruff on his cheeks. “What are you doing?”

“Waiting for you.”

“Why?” I asked, my tone annoyed. I headed back toward the grand ballroom—or at least the direction I assumed was the right way.

“For such a smart girl, you sure ask a lot of stupid questions.”

I stopped walking and turned to face him. My finger poking against his taut chest, I said, “I never claimed to be smart, and you’re the stupid one. Go find some other girl who will give you her panties.”

“I told you, I don’t fuck strangers.”

“Then, what the hell do you want?”

“He must have really screwed you over.” Daniel’s breath was hot against my cheek, and I swatted him away, determined not to give in.

“He who?”

“The one who made you hate men.”

“I don’t hate men.”

“Then, why are you so angry?”

“Maybe you’re just annoying.”

“Maybe you just hate men,” he fired back, the words drawn-out and deliberate.

“I told you, I don’t hate men.”

“Just me then? It’s just me you can’t stand?” He smirked, and his laugh lines reappeared.

Who the hell is this guy?

“I don’t even know you, and you sure as shit don’t know me, so stop making assumptions,” I growled before practically sprinting away from him.

Was I truly that transparent?

I hadn’t thought about Ben for years, but the minute Daniel had mentioned the one who screwed me over, I’d seen it all fresh in my mind again as if it happened an hour ago—pink panties stuck on her foot, chipped nail polish on the table, his face covered in her, his mouth spewing those soul-slashing words. I shuddered at the memory.

That moment had defined me. It was in that moment, standing in the entryway of my apartment, that I’d decided I would never be the kind of girl who gave up her hopes and dreams for a guy. I’d realized that no guy would ever be worth that kind of self-sacrifice, and no guy of worth would ever ask that of me.

If even half of what Ben had spewed that day was accurate, I’d decided that I would rather be alone forever than be with someone who wanted me to change who I was. Accepting that the majority of men wouldn’t be able to handle me and my passion for my job, I’d convinced myself that I was perfectly okay with that.

And I had been.

I was.