I blink away. I don’t want to make him feel that way, but I also can’t have any ambiguity between us. Finn’s made it clear he wouldn’t appreciate that. “Itisover, Rich. I won’t change my mind.”
“It’s hard to believe you’re so certain when we were fine just a month ago.”
“We weren’t fine. I mean, we were, but we’ve never been a good match. My dad just needed someone to pawn me off on. With your upstanding family and career track, you were the guy for the job.”
“I still am. Why is it bad that I’m a good boyfriend to you?”
Rich looks handsome in the yellow light. Dean Martin croons about a marshmallow world. Richisattractive and won’t have trouble finding a girl who’s gaga for him. “I’m not looking for a handler. I want a partner.”
“I can be that. Give me another chance. If not for me, then for yourself.”
“What does that even mean?”
He toes nothing on the ground. Just when I think he won’t respond, he says, “Look at you. I can see right now, and sometimes at work, that you’re sad. You were late yesterday for the third time this month.”
Finn and I had post-breakfast sex in the shower. “So?”
“So I’m worried.”
“Why?”
“Obviously, because I still love you. I’m not the one who ended this.” He sighs. “He’s not good for you.”
My dad? Well, that’s a plot twist I didn’t see coming. Rich has always been my dad’s champion, taking his side over mine nine times out of ten. Maybe some distance has made him see if he wants me, he has to support me. “We have our issues, but I wouldn’t say he’s bad for me.”
“No? If you ask me, that guy’s trouble.”
That guy?
“It concerns me whether or not you’re my girlfriend. I think I have that right since we were together two years.”
Rich sounds almost jealous—of my dad? There are a lot of words to describe George Fox, but trouble isn’t one of them. If he’s not referring to my dad, then who?
“How long have you been seeing him?” Rich asks.
Finn. Our private little world cracks open. It’s too soon for Rich to know about Finn, for my dad to come in and make changes. I curl my hands into fists and take a few steps toward Rich, my pumps solid on the wood floor. “You’ve been spying on me?”
His eyebrows meet in the middle of his forehead. “No. If anything, it’s the other way around.”
“Excuse me?”
“He’s the one who hunted me down. He brought me into this.”
“Finn?” I ask. “How? When?”
“At the office Wednesday.” Rich’s expression eases. “He didn’t tell you?”
What the . . .? Finnwasat my office on Wednesday. But so was I. We were together the entire twenty minutes he was there . . . except when Finn went to the bathroom. “What’d he say to you?”
“He nearly threatened me, Halston.”
“Over what?”
“To stay away. He said he was your boyfriend.”
I told Finn I’d handle Rich. That was my way of saying butt out. This is the kind of thing my dad would do, talking on my behalf, trying to protect me from things thatcouldormighthappen instead of letting me handle it on my own. Finn abused my trust, at my office of all places, when he’s the one who’s encouraged me to take back control over my life. I try to muster the anger I should feel, but I’m just as annoyed with Rich, and he’s here. “He is my boyfriend,” I say.
“How can that be?” Rich asks. “We just barely split up.”
