"FUCK!"That final fuck, I roared out loud in my now Sunny-less apartment.
Before deleting the last message and simply typing…
No.
Agnes could do with that answer what she wanted.
I didn't have the energy to CEO.
Or shave before the engagement party.
"Oh, no, Coley, what did you do?" Nora asked when she opened the door to her house in Summerlin.
"Nothing."
"Nothing?" Nora tilted her head at me, and her eyes flared with disbelief. "Where is Sunny? Why aren't you holding on to her hand like a leprechaun protecting his gold? And what's this mess on your face, then?"
Norareached up to cup her hand around the jaw I hadn't shaved since Friday morning, when I sat down to have what I believed would be a reasonable last contract negotiation with Sunny. "As I told you the second time your grandfather had to pay off the coppers to cover up your arrest, you do not have what it takes to pull off a bad boy aesthetic. All this scruff looks adorable on Maxie, but you simply haven't got the coloring for it. This will ruin the photos I had planned!"
"I've been busy at work," I answered dully. "Sunny's meeting me here."
"You're back to being too busy again?" A worried look replaced the censoring one in Nora's darker-green eyes. "Seriously, Coley. What's going on with you? You look a mess. Totally bad energy, as Cynthia Latham always says when I float the idea of the two of us having a threesome with her wife."
Three days. Three days of replaying that last argument over in my head.
Something bitter and cruel made me answer, "I'd tell you, but then, I'd probably have to put up with more threats about simply handing the business I worked so hard to turn around over to Max."
"Oh, Coley, I wouldn't do that!" Nora splayed a hand across her chest."All that business before was simply me looking out for your best interest. If you need to talk, I can?—"
The pity was too much to bear, coming from the woman who'd put me in this position in the first place.This is why,I wanted to roar at her.This is why I don’t do emotional relationships.
I'd had rules. Rules that kept me and everyone involved safe—before my grandmother blew my life up with her meddling and ultimatums.
But...ice. This would be over soon.
"I'm sure Sunny will be here any minute." I set my jaw and pushed past Nora into the house before she could ask any more questions about why I looked as unraveled as I felt on the inside.
The party was already going strong in the expansive backyard of the Spanish hacienda-style mansion. Every Vegas mover and shaker above the age of sixty appeared to be there, proving it had been a thinly veiled con job to show Sunny and me off to Nora's friends all along.
I spotted most of the board members as I beelined toward the left-side pool bar. Apparently, even knowing they were all going to vote against her when I presented the resolution to remove her from the board wasn't enough to quell their love of networking beside mansion pools with an open bar.
Speaking of which, I squinted at the little sign on the standing bar's counter, listing the ingredients for the "Cole and Sunny Day," an engagement party cocktail exclusive:
Premium vodka
Freshly squeezed lemon juice
Simple syrup
A splash of sparkling water
Crushed ice
Optional garnish: bitter lemon slice
"Can I get you something to drink, Mr. Benton?" the bartender asked. Her voice sounded nervous for some reason.
I immediately found out why when I looked up to see a familiar woman with long dreadlocks—the same woman Sunny had called Carly—standing on the other side of the engagement cocktail sign.
