“Which is why I’m telling you all this. If I wasn’t your best friend, I would’ve told you to dump him and get yourself a new boy toy.” She starts to leave with a playful smile. Before closing the door, she says, “You have a meeting in ten minutes with the finance team.”
I nod and plunge into the rest of the day, which is jam-packed with meetings. Just as I end the final one, my stomach cramps in that familiar but unpleasant way. My period has started.
For once, I actually welcome it.No unintended consequences.
After I wrap up a few last-minute items on my agenda, I pick up beef burritos with extra cheese from Manny’s Tacos and head home. Sebastian texted he was going to be home late.
I eat my dinner alone in the huge, silent house. For some reason, the place feels even bigger and quieter today. He doesn’t come home until I’ve been tossing and turning in bed for a while. The cramps are making it impossible to get comfortable.
He changes and slips under the covers. I ball up on my side, my back to him.
“I’m on my period,” I tell him before he can touch me. “So you can sleep in your room if you want. I’m going to be tossing and turning a lot.”
He says nothing, but I can feel the weight of his gaze. I hold my breath, waiting for him to leave.
“Sometimes I just like to hold you at night without wanting sex,” he says quietly, his breath on the back of my neck.
I bite my lip.
He pulls me close, lays a large warm hand on my belly and rubs gently. The heat and the massage seem to alleviate the cramps.
Placebo,I tell myself. No matter how protective his arms feel around me, the gnawing emptiness is still in my heart. Bianca’s words that I want him to like me back float in my head, and it’s a struggle to fall asleep.
He continues to hold me every night, and I keep being silent, mulling over what Bianca said. By the time my period ends, I’ve given up and admitted she’s right. But that doesn’t provide me with a guideline for future action. How do you demand that someone like you just because you like him? There’s a reason words like “unrequited” exist.
We also don’t discuss whatThe Hollywood Newsclaimed about the origin of the photos, although I ask Bianca to hire a security team to look into my home’s IT infrastructure. She turns horrified when I tell her what Sebastian discovered, but recovers and promises to get on it as soon as possible. We’ll find the real culprit behind the photo leaks. Unlike him, I’m not going to assume anything.
Sebastian and I also don’t discuss what the Hae Min Group said about Gabriella. The peace between us is as fragile as a butterfly’s wing. You breathe wrong—it’s going to break. And I don’t want to be the one to breathe wrong.
So instead, I instruct Karen to look into getting another partner in Korea, since the Hae Min Group seems to have become unreliable. I also ask her to look into ending the venture altogether.
“That would be catastrophic for you,” she says, deep lines between her eyebrows.
“I know, but the Hae Min Group might not work out after all.” If everyone’s dragging their feet and going behind each other’s backs, the venture’s doomed. We should end it before we spend more money and energy.
“There’s a penalty for pulling out,” she says. “Sebastian Jewelry’s legal team wasn’t stupid.”
“I’m not saying I’m going to do it.” I press my lips together tightly, trying to hide the frustration welling. This project should have never been this complicated to execute. I don’t know where it derailed so badly. “I just want you to look into minimizing the loss. Just in case.”
She stares at me for a long time. “Okay.”
After she leaves my office, I sigh. The shareholders are going to be infuriated if I end the collaboration. I spoke highly of it before, and many of them were excited over a new market and bigger profits. I need something to distract them, something shinier, but can’t think of anything. It doesn’t help that I have less than forty-eight hours to come up with a new idea for the shareholders’ meeting. But is that what they really want? I’ve had so many great ideas that eventually flopped for some reason. They aren’t going to be pleased about the latest.
My phone rings. It’s Yuna.
“Hi, Yuna,” I say, with a warm smile in my voice.
“Hi. Am I interrupting anything?” She sounds…taut.
“No. Is everything okay?”
“Not really. But I wanted to talk to you first. Knowing what I know, I just can’t accept their side of things.”
Dread slowly wraps its fingers around my heart. “What happened?” Tabloid gossip? Did someone say something to her?
“My dad is furious that Peery Diamonds is refusing to create a custom-designed diamond set for my mom for their anniversary.”
“What?”
