I still resist but without conviction now. “Not everyone can afford a lawyer.”
“I’ll email you some annotated documents and bank statements so you can make up your own mind,” he says.
We remain silent for a moment.
“Listen,” he says, “I’m not asking you to apologize for the horrible things you called me, and I won’t apologize for firing you. In fact, I’m glad I did.”
“You have some cheek telling me that!”
“I’m glad because…” he hesitates.
“Because what?”
“Because I think it would help us reboot our relationship.”
I’m too flabbergasted to say anything.
“Lucie,” he pleads, “it was the unhealthy office situation that ruined our love. It deserves a second chance.”
Ourlove?
In three years, this is the first time Jerome has uttered the L word or any emotion word, for that matter, about me. When we first got together, he informed me he wasn’t the cheating type, nor a committing type. It was very casual in the beginning, but even as we grew closer and became not only lovers but friends, I always guarded myheart. Love was a forbidden land where neither of us ever ventured.
So, now, I don’t know what to say. And that’s exactly what I say to Jerome.
“I understand,” he sounds a little deflated but still hopeful. “Take your time. Think about it. You’re still angry. I was too when we fought and broke up.”
“Youbroke up with me,” I correct him.
“Right. But I was able to overcome my anger. I want you back, Lucie.”
Do I want to get back with him?
Regardless of what Max and I did in Lyon, regardless of how much I fancy that man, do I miss Jerome? Do I want him back?
My rational mind tells me I should welcome this new kind of relationship with Jerome. He has ripened for something more than “friends with benefits.” He’s a man I know well, a man with no secrets, a man who’s in my own league. And he’s no longer my boss!
Rekindling our relationship would be so much safer than jumping into the unknown and hoping that the heartthrob Max Delaroche will be there to catch me. Chances are, he won’t be, too busy looking for an antique key or a new woman to seduce. Likely, both at the same time.
“Luce, I want a future with you,” Jerome says, rolling out the heavy artillery. “A family. Kids. I know that’s what you want, too.”
“I do.”
“Then—”
“But not with you,” I find myself blurting.
In Jerome’s stunned silence, I face a bitter truth. Ladies and Gentlemen, Lucie Laborde is not the grounded youngwoman she fancied herself to be. Emotions and lust rule her life. At this very moment, they are sending her headlong off a cliff into some deep, dark, ice-cold waters.
It’s disappointing.
But also… exhilarating.
19
LUCIE
Ienter the vast room behind Camille and Aurélien, not really knowing what to expect from this staff meeting. MINDFUCH holds them weekly, but I missed one the week I started, and then I missed one more last week when Max and I went to Lyon. So, this is my first. Come to think of it, it’s my first real staff meeting ever, given that Mom, Gran, and I never held one. Nor did Jerome and his dad.
