“Starving,” I tell her.
“You look like hell,” she says cheerfully while moving past me into the apartment.
“Were your best-friend senses going off or something?”
“Kinda.” She sets everything on the counter and starts opening cabinets, searching for plates. She hands me one. “I stopped and got the good stuff.”
“I already have a bottle of Zinfandel open.”
“Yeah, but this is your favorite.” She uncorks the sweet red and refills my empty glass without asking. “So, saw my brother today.”
“Yeah? Which one?” I ask.
“Don’t play dumb. Patterson hada lotto say. He’s livid.”
“Oh, well. Did he tell you how he called me a nepo baby in front of the entire team?”
“Actually, he left that part out.” Her expression changes, giving me the same angry expression I saw on her brother’s face earlier. “Fuck him.”
“I thought time and space would change that, where we could at least be in the same room together, but I was wrong. I genuinely hate him, Addy.” The words come out harsh, but I don’t take them back. “Everything about him makes me want to scream.”
She studies me while taking a bite of pizza. “I still don’t understand why.”
“Really? Have you heard how he talks to people and acts so damn cocky? He treats me like dog shit on his shoe. And anytime we’re close, he acts like I’m the problem when he’s the one who—” I stop myself before I say too much. “If he wasn’t such an arrogant, infuriating asshole, I could tolerate him.”
Addison snorts. “Yeah, but if he didn’t act like that, he’d be Jameson. Mr. Charming.”
The realization stings more than I want to admit. Strip away the hostility, the edge, the constant need to push me away, andPatterson would be exactly like the man I almost married. Sure, they have the same face, but their personalities are different. But let it be known that being engaged to his twin isn’t the reason I can’t stop thinking about him. It’s the fire underneath the ice and the way he finds me in crowded rooms. I hate that I notice.
She shrugs. “Honesty without sugarcoating, combined with that attitude, is Patterson’s entire personality. I’m convinced you two are obsessed with hating one another.”
“Obsessed?” I sarcastically laugh. “I wish he didn’t exist.”
She holds up her hands. “But he does.”
Addison doesn’t know what happened between Patterson and me. It’s a skeleton that’s been dangling in my closet for far too long.
“I really don’t get it though.” She reaches for another slice. “You and Jameson ended thingsyearsago. Twin loyalty is fucking stupid.”
I keep my expression neutral because Jameson ended things with me. He loved me, but he wasn’t in love with me. Sometimes, it’s still a hard truth for me to swallow.
“I really don’t know how I’m going to work with him for his portrait.” I take a sip of wine.
“You could pull references from the internet,” she suggests.
“Of course, but I’d rather do something fresh because I have a lot to prove.”
“I understand. But remember summer will be here before we know it.”
My shoulders relax because she’s right. In the grand scheme of things, a few months won’t kill me.
“Tell me about your subway project. I’ve been dying to know more about it,” I say.
Addison is a painting prodigy, and the only reason I got the job in Europe. She recommended me instead, and a recommendation fromtheAddison Cross is like being blessed bythe Pope. It’s a huge deal in the art world. It’s not something I asked for, and I was surprised she’d do it.
Her eyes light up. “Okay, so you know how I’ve always been obsessed with people-watching?”
“Yeah, like how you used to sketch strangers on napkins during our coffee dates.”
