"Why are you wearing a coat, by the way? It's not that cold out."
Fabian smirks, his eyes glinting with mischief.
"It's always nippy whenever you're in close proximity," he tells me.
He grabs his thermos and phone, turning toward the door. I reach out and catch his arm, stopping him in his tracks.
"Fabian, hold up."
He stops, not turning around. His beautiful light brown hair, which rests on his upper back, sways beautifully as he turns his head to look at me with that smug look on his face.
"There's a lot of things that you might not know," I tell him. "I know you say you see everything, but Lincoln was in a really bad place in that marriage. Gabby is not the person you think she is."
Fabian raises an eyebrow, his tone light but probing.
"Is that right?" he asks.
I nod, unflinching.
"Yeah, she drove Lincoln crazy," I say.
Fabian glances away for a moment, then turns back to me with a slow smirk curling his lips.
"Well, lucky you were there to help keep him sane, right?" he says, sarcasm dripping from every word. "What would he have done without you?"
I feel the heat rise in my chest, but I keep my voice even.
"I'm not the one who broke up his marriage," I reply coolly. "That was already headed down the drain."
Fabian leans back slightly, his smirk sharpening.
"Yeah," he says, "and you made sure it stayed there."
I narrow my eyes at him, irritation flaring. I really don't like the way he's coming at me.
"Is it such a problem because you clearly like Gabrielle," I shoot back, "so you're acting as though there's nothing in it for you?"
Smiling, Fabian turns to me and starts walking back slowly.
"I didn't say there wasn't anything in it for me. Now there clearly is, but two things can be true at the same time. I'm interested in Gabrielle, and you're also not a nice person who took advantage of a man who was vulnerable at a time he should've been working on his marriage," Fabian says.
I grit my teeth.
"So Lincoln is completely absolved of any responsibility?" I ask him.
"Didn't say that either," Fabian says. "Gotta go, Sarah. See you later."
He waves over his shoulder as he leaves.
-??-
Chapter 38
Fabian's POV
That girl is so annoying. She thinks she's better than everybody. And she's smart, but she's also a viper. I cannot stand people like that. In my last relationship, my girlfriend and I were having problems, and a guy friend that she kept hanging around did all the same things that I watched Sarah do when she thought nobody noticed. Maybe I can pick up things a little bit better than other people. It's quite busy, yes, of course, but I notice these things.
I never knew who Gabrielle was before that point. I had only seen her in passing at the office party a couple of years ago. I remember thinking she was very pretty, but it's not like I ever stuck around long enough to notice her, and apparently she wasn't important enough until recently, when she went to the Christmas party and mouthed off to the CEO, something that I heard as a rumor, making Tobias Voss look stupid, which is something that people don't get away with often.
