“That's what it says on the brochure.”
“Fuck. So how’d Hastings get in?”
A hollow, cynical-sounding laugh shook loose. “He flashes those fucking dimples and doors magically open for him. In this case, quite literally.”
I debated whether to share my suspicions with David. I’d trusted him with a lot of confidential information, but he’d known Michael for years.
His brows furrowed. “Wait. How’d he know where to find you?”
I lowered my voice. “I think Michael might have told him.”
David’s head swung toward the door as if he could see Michael through it, then back to me. “What?”
“You heard him in there.” I lifted my chin, gesturing in the direction of the conference room. “Sometimes he talks like I’m an extension of Wyatt who’s only here on loan. I’m not saying it was malicious or anything if he did do it, but you know as well as I do he’s a Wyatt Hastings fanboy. If he showed up out of the blue and asked Michael where he might find me, he’d probably draw him a goddamn map.”
“Fuck.”
“Yup.”
David leaned back and let out a sigh, scrubbing his hand over his mouth.
"But you don't know for certain it was Michael? You didn’t ask Wyatt how he found out where you lived?
I shook my head, slipping my hands into my pockets and crossing my legs at the ankles. “He didn’t really give me a chance to. He just barged in and started making demands.”
“What kind of demands?"
David knew about Taylor and had kept that confidence. That wasn’t nothing. In this business, it was actually everything. I could trust him with this.
“He said he'd divorce Celine if I went back to him.”
David had the good grace to look scandalized. “No.”
I nodded and slid my hands from my pockets, scratching the bridge of my nose. “He told me he loved me. Incidentally, in case you're wondering, that was the only time he'd ever said those words to me.”
I felt my cheeks get hot. The fact that Wyatt thought that ploy would work on me filled me with so much shame. How gullible did he think I was?
Very, apparently.
“Holy shit,” David whispered. “Does … does Celine know about you two? That you were together?”
I couldn’t stop the genuine laugh that erupted out of me. “Oh, she knows.”
“Fuck,” he said again.
For a few long seconds, we just sat there, staring at one another. Then I blew out a breath and said, “For what it’s worth, I really didn’t know about his announcement. Either of them.”
“Oh, I know,” David said, his mouth tipping to one side in a half-smile. “You looked like you were about to have a heart attack.”
“I did feel my soul leave my body there for a second.” I chuckled, dropping into my chair and appreciating that I could find some humor in my life imploding.
David’s expression turned serious. “Tell me you know it’s not going to take long for people to put two and two together."
"The instant he said 'best friend' I knew I was fucked." "I’m surprised your phone isn’t already ringing off the hook.”
“I turned it off,” I said, planting my feet on the ground and swinging back and forth.
I'd briefly considered flushing it down the toilet, but then I'd just have to get a new one. It's not like I could change my number.
