“No. When we get back to Malibu we’ll do it at the house. Any other questions?” he asked.
There weren’t any and they were all dismissed. Staci went immediately to the express elevator but the line was long and by the time she got on Remy was standing next to her.
“We have to talk,” he said.
“I don’t see why. I’m cool with everything for the show,” she said as they were squeezed together along with a large group of conventioneers and a family of four. Remy was pressed right against her.
Her heart started to beat so fast and it was all she could do not to reach out and hold onto him. But then she remembered he wasn’t the man she thought he was and no matter how she looked at it or how he tried to justify it, she honestly didn’t know Remy Cruzel.
She pulled back and wrapped her arm around her waist. And tried to put more distance between them in spite of the crowded elevator. Remy remained still.
Here, she’d made up her mind to ignore him and now he wasn’t letting her. Which just added to the anger building inside of her. When they reached their floor, she and Remy stepped off the crowded elevator.
“I’m being as civil as I can be right now, Remy,” she said. She had heard his explanation and while she could buy it, she didn’t want to. At least, and not right now. She felt betrayed and brokenhearted today.
“I don’t want you to be civil. We need to have this out. We need to get it all sorted so we can move on. I asked you to come and live with me,” he said. “That invitation still stands.”
She shook her head. “And I tried to console you because you didn’t have a job. Wow, that must have made you chuckle.”
“I’m not that kind of man,ma chère?—
“Don’t. Do not use any endearments. We are competitors, that’s all.”
The elevator dinged and people got offthe elevator. Remy took Staci’s arm, leading her down the hall to his room. “We need to be some place private.”
“Fine,” she said. Agreeing that she didn’t want anyone to hear the things she had to say to Remy. And now that she’d started talking to him, she had a lot to say to him.
She’d promised herself she wouldn’t get upset and she was determined to keep her word.
He opened his door and gestured for her to enter. His room was set up similarly to hers with a king-size bed and two chairs over near the desk. She sat on one of them as he took the other.
“Staci, I want you to know that everything I said to you was the truth. All of it.”
“Really, Remy?” she asked. Feeling that wave of emotion roiling up inside of her only this time instead of shocked tears it came out as anger.
“Do you have a job?” she asked.
“Yes, but?—
“Is your last name Stephens?” she interrupted to ask him. Hurt overcoming her patience.
“No, but?—”
“Would you really give it all up and move to San Diego to live with the co-owner of a cupcake bakery?” she asked. And this was the one that bothered her the most. The one she knew he’d hate to have to answer honestly.
“No, I wouldn’t.”
“So you kind of proved my point,” she said. “You lied about the important things. The foundational things. And you said things to me that you never should have. Not until you were free to be who you really are,” she said.
“If you’d give me a chance to explain then I will. I didn’t lie toyouper se I?—”
“That’s not helping,” she said.
“Truthfully,” he said. “I wasn’t sure I would go back toGastrophile. What if I’d lost all the challenges and had it proven that I wasn’t the cook I thought I was. Then I wouldn’t go back there and take over the restaurant. Technically, I was out of work.”
“It’s not the same thing and you know it.”
“I do know it, which is why I’m sitting here trying to explain. I knew from the first that you were trouble.”
