“And yet, you are the one who brought it up.” She pressed a finger to her lips.
“Actually, Mina brought it up,” he said, and grinned at her.
Mina dropped the bag she’d been holding back into the box on the floor, and put her hands on her hips. “Oh, no!” She shook her head. “Don’t you pass the buck on to me. Fred’s got ears, she could hear your attitude for herself.”
“Yes, I could,” said Fred. “So, spill it.”
Ryan looked deeply uncomfortable as he rearranged thepaper cups. “He just seems a bit full of himself, that’s all. I don’t like his manner.”
“His manner?” Fred laughed.
“He watches a lot ofBridgerton,” Mina whispered.
“Okay, okay, fine, mock me if you will, but I don’t think he has a nice way with people.”
What could she say to that? It wasn’t like she hadn’t thought it herself but, in his absence, she felt like she needed to fight his corner.
“It’s a nervous thing,” she said. “He’s socially awkward, and he overcomes it by being—”
“A prick?” Ryan offered.
“When he’s just with me, he’s a completely different person. He’s sweet and self-effacing.”
Ryan burst out with a disbelieving guffaw. “Really? Self-effacing? Try self-absorbed, self-serving…”
“That’s not fair, you’ve only met him, like, three times,” Fred protested.
“You’ve barely spent any more time with him!” Ryan retorted. Dammit, he had her there.
“I don’t want to get in the middle of whatever this is.” Mina gestured between them. “But I must admit that meeting someone three times ought to be enough to get a measure of them. I mean, the first time you could have caught him on a bad day, we all have those, and first impressions are hard. And maybe the second time—if he’s still being a prick—you could blame it on stress or nerves. But if by meet three he’s still displaying the same behavior that gave youthe impression he was a prick the first time”—she was using her hands like balance scales—“then maybe he is, in fact, a prick.”
Ryan raised his eyebrows at Fred, like, “See, Mina thinks so too!”
Fred scowled at him. “That would make sense”—she addressed Mina, ignoring Ryan—“were it not for Warren confiding in me that he is socially anxious, and he doesn’t like how he comes across, but the only way he’s found to manage it is to employ a kind of alter-ego.”
Mina tilted her head, considering. “Okay, I can understand hiding behind a persona to make up for a lack of confidence.”
“Thank you.” Fred pulled atold you soface at Ryan.
“This is such bullshit!” Ryan shook his head in disbelief. “If he was that worried about the way he comes across, he would have changed tactics by now; found another way to overcome his shyness. I’m sorry, Fred, but he is full of it.”
Fred raised her chin. “You don’t need to be sorry, because he isn’t full of anything.” Hewasa bit full of it, she knew this, but her stupid pride would never let her back down in an argument, especially with Ryan. In her mind’s eye, sensible Fred was holding up a sign that read,What the actual F! Have you learned nothing?But she ignored it.
“I did a little digging…”
“Oh, for god’s sake, really, Ryan? You’re a private detective now, are you?”
“No!” he retorted, petulantly. “I just looked him up.”
“And?” Fred challenged.
“He’s full of shit. That big play he makes about coming from the wrong side of the tracks, or whatever narrative it is that he’s pushing, it’s all bullshit. His family are rolling in it. He’s a former private school kid from Surrey.”
This rocked her back on her heels, but she wasn’t going to let Ryan see he’d rattled her. There had to be some explanation. Maybe he’d got the wrong Warren Reeves…
“And before you tell me I’ve got the wrong Warren Reeves, I saw pictures of him with his family in Cannes; he was a few years younger, but it was definitely him. Last year he had a private box at Ascot.”
Dammit! She couldn’t believe her bullshit antenna was that rusty. Or maybe it wasn’t. He’d made it clear that he didn’t get on with his family, butshe’dassumed that his life was tough financially. But she couldn’t have pulled that idea out of nowhere, could she?
