I bit my lip. I desperately wanted to confide in someone about Elliot, but I couldn’t bear the thought of people judging him for our relationship after I’d left.
“I’ve decided I’m leaving New York,” I said. “As soon as the pitch is done. My best friend is pregnant, and she needs me to help with a very last-minute wedding.”
“Whoa.” Michelle nodded somberly. “And it has nothing to do with a certain assistant?”
I gaped. Did she know? “Wh-what do you mean?”
“Well, Riley shared her suspicions with me.”
“Goddamn it, Riley,” I hissed under my breath.
“Don’t blame her,” Michelle said. “Look, I’ve known the guy for years, he’s the best, but … he’s always walked like he’s carrying a weight, you know? And then you.”
“And then me what?”
“There’s a lightness now. He smiles. I mean, he’s always smiled, but he smiles differently around you,” Michelle said. “I noticed it day one. And every day since.”
I blinked away an unexpected tear. “I think I’ve really hurt him.”
“How?” Michelle said. “Because you’re leaving?”
“Because what’s the point of it?” I replied, desperately.
“Ouch.” She winced. “You said that to him?”
“Not in so many words,” I said. “But … once the pitch is done, I’m out of here. I have to. So, you know—”
“No.” She shook her head. “Uh-uh.”
“Well, let me explain!”
“No, I think I get it,” Michelle said. “Your career comes first.”
“Well, in this case, it’s my best friend,” I said. “She needs me. And … yeah, I need to sort out my career.”
“Romance is a risk,” Michelle murmured.
I flashed back to the baseball game, Riley laughing at me not being a risk-taker. Elliot had accused me of it too. I hung my head. “I’m hearing that a lot lately.”
“Look, it’s none of my business,” Michelle said. “But nowadays? An ocean, a time zone … that’s nothing compared to love.”
I jerked my head up. “Love? Whoa.”
“Could it be?”
I opened my mouth, quick to say no, but then I stopped. I wasn’t sure about love, but what I felt for Elliot was morethan anything else I’d ever felt in my life. “I hadn’t thought – I don’t know.”
“So we come back to risk,” Michelle said. “Elliot’s a good guy. Someone you can count on. A man like that is worth the gamble.”
I nodded. Michelle hadn’t said anything I didn’t already know, deep down. “He might be the perfect person for me, it doesn’t change the fact that I still have to go back to London and deal with some stuff there. It’ll be a lot.”
Michelle smiled sadly. “You book your flight yet?”
“No,” I said. “I think Vivian has to do it with the corporate card.”
“Yeah, probably,” Michelle said. She flicked up my laptop lid. “Tell you what, let’s finish this, then I’ll let you leave this office and go ask Vivian to sort your flights if she’s still here.”
“You’ll let me?” I said with a laugh.
