“I’m not angry you didn’t call, I’m angry because you used me.”
He stepped toward me and I stood to the side to let him in. We might as well have this out as he was right in front of me.
He stepped inside my flat and I closed the door and lent back.
“I’m not a stupid guy but I’m having a hard time following your logic. We agreed it was going to be uncomplicated fun.I’m not pretending it wasn’t about sex for me but you can’t pretend it wasn’t about sex for you. I thought we were on the same page. If I’d known you’d expected me to call . . .”
“What are you talking about? I didn’t expect you to call.” My voice had dropped to almost normal. I was exhausted from being so angry at him.
“Then I don’t follow you,” he said.
We stood in silence for a long minute. Thoughts were racing through my head and none of them made sense. Having him so close was not helping my clarity of thought. He was near enough to touch, to . . .
“Do you want a drink?” I asked. He nodded and I headed to the kitchen and poured two glasses of whiskey. Another thing to be mad at him for—whiskey and Ethan were synonymous for me now.
“Can you stop swearing at me for just a few minutes and talk to me?” he asked.
I didn’t look at him, I couldn’t look at him as I handed him his drink and then moved past him into the living room and collapsed on the sofa.
“Anna.”
“You should have been honest with me from the beginning,” I said calmly.
“About what? That I was a lawyer?”
I glanced at him and he looked confused.
“Jesus.” Was he being deliberately stupid?
“Anna, seriously? What?”
“About the fact that you knew exactly who I was, that you wanted information about Allen & Smith, that you were using what you knew about me to get laid or something.”
“What? When?” he asked.
“In New York.” He couldn’t think I hadn’t realized what he’d been doing.
“You think I knew you worked for Allen & Smith when we met?” he asked, his voice lighter. I didn’t respond. “How would I have known?” he asked.
Silence.
“What, and I arranged for you to be in New York, at the same bar as me?” I hadn’t quite worked out how he’d managed to bump into me.
“And at lunch the following day.” I prompted.
“Well, yes, that’s true. I did know you were going to be at lunch at that place the next day.”
My head snapped round to look at him.
“I didn’t tell you because it made me look like a stalker but I wanted to see you again and the only information I got from the concierge about you was where you were going to be.”
“Oh. My. God.”I knew it. I knew it.“And how did you know I’d be in that bar?”
He stood up from the chair opposite me and took his jacket and tie off and came to sit next to me. I didn’t move a muscle.
“Is that what you think? That I arranged the meeting with you to get information about Allen & Smith?”
I stayed silent.
