“Felix!”
I looked up to see Colin coming out of the office, and my stomach dropped. This was thelastthing Felix needed right now.
I felt his whole body tense up as he took a step closer to me, and I wanted to wrap my arms around him and protect him forever.
“What the hell is this?” he asked, waving the letter.
“It’s a withdrawal letter,” Felix said, voice even, but his fingers were crushing my hand now. “I’m sure you’ve seen one before.”
Colin glanced at me, then turned his attention back to Felix. “You can’t justwalk away,” he said.
“Actually, my agent informs me that I can.” Felix paused, taking a breath. “I’m not going to work with a company that’s shown less than zero respect for me. Not anymore. Not withyou.”
Colin blinked at him, and then his anger turned into a nasty smirk. “Is that what this is about? You’re still sore about me leaving you?”
“I’m really not,” Felix said. “I mean, I was? For a really long time, even. But if there’s one thing this whole incident has reminded me of, it’s that there are better men than you out there.”
Colin’s attention swung to me.
Good. He didn’t get to bully Felix anymore.
I didn’tknow, and neither did Felix, but we’d both come to the conclusion that Colin had deliberately rejected Felix’s book. Probably mad that he hadn’t backed the right horse when it came to Felix in the first place.
If hehad, he would have been dating a bestselling author right now. Based on what little I knew about the industry, I figured that would’ve looked good for him.
But he’d moved on to better prospects, and now he was mad at Felix for succeeding anyway.
“You mean this guy?” Colin asked, eyebrow raised.
“Yeah,” Felix said without missing a beat. “I mean this guy. Who never cared who I was or whether I could further his career or look good on his arm. Who helped me out when I needed it and who’s been there for me since I was too young to understand what love was. Who’slovedme since I was six years old and desperate to be his friend.”
Colin blinked, halfway to another patronizing smirk.
I’d never hit another person in mylifeoutside of the kickboxing classes I’d covered a few summers back, but I suddenly wanted to.
“Theyoga teacher?” he asked.
Where the hell had he found that out? I didn’t tell…
“Found your Instagram,” Colin said. “Weird how you’ve never mentioned Felix there before last week, considering you share literally everything else. And how you’ve never called him yourboyfriend. Not once.”
I swallowed. He was right, I hadn’t, because I wasn’tready. What if Felix was hurt? We’d just figured things out, he was having a ridiculously hard day, the last thing we needed right now was a fight.
“Are you trying to break us up?” Felix asked, and this time the calm wasn’t faked. He adjusted his grip on my hand, lacing his fingers with mine and turning to me.
“Kieran has been nothing but good to me,” he said, squeezing my fingers. “I don’t need him to stand on a mountain and shout about it. I don’t need him to treat me like a trophy boyfriend, even if I did that to him. And I’m sorry,” he added, softer, just for me.
He didn’t have anything to be sorry about. I’d agreed to it. I was evenflattered.
I’d never been a trophy boyfriend before.
“Don’t be,” I murmured, just for him. “Kinda liked it.”
Felix’s smile could’ve powered half of New York.
Before I’d made a conscious decision, I was leaning in and reaching out, cupping Felix’s cheek, brushing my thumb over that adorable dimple as I touched our lips together. It was only a soft, quick kiss, nothing I wouldn’t normally have done in public, but my heart was still pounding like a pack of stampeding horses when I broke off, sure everyone on the entire East Coast was staring at me.
But Felix was smiling, and I didn’t really care.
