Chapter Seventeen
“YOU’VE GOThim where you want him,” Nolan crowed. He lifted his glass of champagne, and Scarlett mirrored the gesture. They were having post-dinner drinks, Liam had told them what was going on at the office, and they seemed genuinely excited for him. Secretly strategizing and figuring out ways to turn the situation to their advantage? Probably. They’d worked togetherat the same firm fresh out of school and had always been competitive with each other. But they were excited as well.
“Don’t get ahead of yourselves,” Liam warned. “I wouldn’t even have told you if I thought anyone at the office would be able to keep it a secret.”
“Anna sounded thrilled,” Scarlett said with a warm smile. Anna had worked at Scarlett’s firm before moving over to Tristan’s, andthe two women had stayed friends. Mostly. “She said she was really worried when you left—thought the well was going to dry right up.Andshe likes you, of course. She’s looking forward to having a boss who isn’t staring at her ass all the time.”
“Donotmake me start worrying about sexual harassment lawsuits. I’m supposed to be celebrating.”
“Ah, the burden of command.” Nolan lifted the champagnebottle out of the ice bucket and refilled their glasses. “You gonna pull Allison off the Taybec Briggs project?”
Liam didn’t remember having discussed the Taybec Briggs project with Nolan or Scarlett. Well, maybe while he’d been working on the proposal—shit, yeah, while he’d been working on the proposal. They knew he’d wanted it, knew he hadn’t gotten it…. “No,” he said. “I won’t really havetime to give it the attention it deserves. And I can still have input, obviously—Allison has a lot to learn, and I can mentor her through this.”
“You’ve just got it all put together, don’t you?” Scarlett raised her refilled glass. “To Liam—first of us to claw his way to the top.”
“Make room, though,” Nolan said, “because we’re right behind you.”
They drank that toast, and a few more, and Liamtried to relax and enjoy the moment. This was something special. He’d worked for it. Sure, he’d also capitalized on an old man’s heart attack, but—well, opportunity had knocked. He’d just answered the door.
Of course, that wasn’t exactly how Ben would see it. Ben’s moral compass had always spun a little less freely than Liam’s, and he’d never really been too ambitious. Would he even be proudof Liam’s current accomplishments?
And why the hell did Liam care?
He drained his glass and stood up. “Thanks for this,” he told the others. “I really appreciate it. But I’ve got to get home now—lots of work to do tomorrow.”
“Yup, that’s the future,” Nolan said sagely. “You think you were working a lot of hoursbeforethis? Just wait. Tristan’s gonna expect even more from you now. And you’llbe more in demand for social stuff, promo opportunities—damn. We’d better say goodbye now, because we may never see you again!”
Just like Ben might never see him again. But at least Nolan was kind enough to look sorry about it.
Ben hadn’t cared at all.
Liam pasted a smile on his face, got his kiss from Scarlett and back slap from Nolan, and made his way out onto the street. He was far enoughfrom home that he could easily justify a cab, but he started walking anyway.
Everything had worked out. The people at the office had seemed genuinely excited by the change, and things were going smoothly. Allison had been satisfyingly unsure of herself before he’d pulled her aside and offered a little reassurance. He’d been vindicated, and he’d celebrated with his friends. It was good. Everythingwas good.
And his goddamn face was wet again. Crying? Seriously?
“No,” he muttered, and he brushed impatiently at his eyes. He needed to make a doctor’s appointment or something—maybe his tear ducts were blocked, or overproducing—he didn’t really know how tears worked. Because he’d damn well never had to know, because he didn’t cry!
“Everything’s good,” he told himself, and he walked a littlefaster. If his cheeks got wet again, he refused to acknowledge it. Everything was fine. Better than fine. He was incredibly lucky. He was absolutely not crying.
BEN MADEit through the week. Two more dinner dates with Kevin both ended with kisses and thinly veiled preaching about not rushing into anything or making anyone nervous. The dinners themselves were fairly pleasant, and it wasn’tas if Kevin didn’t have a pretty good reason to be cautious of Ben’s level of commitment, so Ben tried to put up with the irritation at the end of the night.
And he tried not to think about how things had been different with Liam. Petty irritation? Hell no. Ben would have told Liam to stop being such a prissy pain in the ass, Liam would have told Ben it took one to know one, and they would havehad a quick fight followed by scorching makeup sex.
Well, that’s how they would have done it when they were kids. But, Ben reminded himself again, the way they’d done it when they were kids hadn’t worked. Liam had cheated. Ben had—well, Ben still wasn’t quite sure how to classify his own behavior, but it certainly hadn’t been mature. It certainly wasn’t the way he wanted to behavenow.
And itwasn’t really that important for him to understand the details of it because it was all in the past, and he was focused on the future. Yup, the future. He was spending time with Kevin, not thinking about Liam—well, hardly thinking about him at all—well, yeah, he was working through some issues, possibly, that were somewhat related to Liam, but—
It wasn’t a good sign that when his phone rang onFriday afternoon, his first thought was that it must be Liam calling. There was absolutely no reason for it to be Liam. Liam was gone, he was done. But when the display showed an unfamiliar number with a Manhattan area code, there was no surprise. It all felt fated, somehow.
Ben answered calmly, and the jolt through his belly when he heard Liam’s voice? It would have been nice to pretend thatit was surprise, but Ben wasn’tquitethat good at self-deception. Or at least not that quick.
Still he managed to keep his cool as he said, “Why are you calling, Liam? I thought we agreed that we wouldn’t be seeing each other.”
“Agreed?” Liam snorted. “If that’s what you want to call it. But actually thatiswhy I’m calling.”
Ben braced himself. He needed to be strong. Whatever Liam was aboutto say, Ben would just be cool and controlled and deal with it. “What do you mean?”
