Daphne grabs a glass storage container holding what looks like leftover lasagna and shuts the fridge while the coffee maker starts to sputter loudly.
“Your job?” I guess.
She grunts and shoves the lasagna in the microwave.
Pretty sure that’s anogrunt.
“Friend issue?”
Another grunt.
“Family?”
“Freaking Margot.” She stares at the microwave while the lasagna circles inside and the coffee maker gets louder. “Our father is insisting she give her ex another chance once his dad’s out of prison, and I just—they’re not right together. Like, if they were truly soulmates, that would be one thing. But he’seasyfor her. He’s notrightfor her. You know?”
“I think so. Does she want him back?”
“She keeps sayingwell, I’m not dating anyone else and there would be strategic business advantages. Like that’s a reason to get back together with an ex who broke her heart.”
“If he broke her heart…there was something there.”
She wrinkles her nose. “Maybe. I’ve always thought she was more brokenhearted at the loss of the idea of him than she was at the actuality of him. Like, it wasn’thimthat she was mourning so much as it was mourning the idea of checking falling in love and getting married off of her to-do list.”
“Oh. That’s complicated.”
“Yeah. She wasn’t unhappy with him, and he hurt her a lot when he dumped her, but they were boring. And boring and not unhappy is never a good standard for a relationship.”
“I’d take boring over toxic or abusive.”
“No. You take being single. You never take being bored. And he isso boring. So boring. Like, he redefines boring. That’s how boring he is.”
“What’s the dude in prison for?” Hudson ambles into the kitchen, apparently interested enough in gossip to voluntarily wake up.
“Not her ex. His dad.”
“Whoever. What’d he do?”
Instead of answering, Daphne pulls up her phone, thumbs over the screen, and then passes it to him.
Hudson makes a strangled noise. “Oh, shit—your sister dated that family?”
“Not the whole family. Just the only son.”
I peer over his shoulder and take in the headline from several years ago. “Miles2Go CEO Sentenced to Four Years in Embezzlement and Wine Fraud Case.”
“They own gas station convenience stores, we own hotels…” Daph pulls a face as she takes the lasagna out of the microwave. “Margot’s the good girl who always does everything Daddy tells her to, Oliver’s the boring guy who always does everythinghisdaddy tells him to…”
My body flushes involuntarily at the mention ofgood girl.
I told Simon last night that I was always the good girl too.
And then he gave me the greatest orgasm I’ve ever had.
In his backyard.
With our clothes still half on, which weirdly made it even hotter.
I shiver, smile, and realize Daphne and Hudson are both looking at me.
