After Leo left my office this morning, his cheery enthusiasm rubbed off on me, and I was literally skipping through my day. Nothing was going to ruin my mood.
Bright is going from strength to strength, and finally, I feel like I’m settling in. The move to London was just what I needed. A fresh start. Even though my ex is still very much a fixture in my life.
“Jade?” I peer around her door.
“Ria.” She smiles at me, tearing her eyes away from her screen. “Come in.”
“Thanks, babe.” Walking into her office, I take a seat opposite her, and she gives me her complete attention.
Jade is my associate here at Bright and is the calm I need in the office when Grace and Leo get to be a bit much. She balances out their mayhem.
“I hear you’ve got a big client to wine and dine next Wednesday.” She waggles her eyebrows at me.
“Don’t you start.” I groan. “I’ve already got Grace planning my outfit. I have no idea what goes through her head most days. She was muttering something about my tits and how they need to be perky enough to rest my drink on.”
“We need to limit her time with Lily. Those two are loose cannons.”
“They are too much,” I agree.
“But we wouldn’t have them any other way.” She tilts her head slightly before asking, “You doing okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good.” I nod, knowing she’s only asking because this weekend is her joint bachelorette and bachelor party with Hunter. And Trixie is coming with us, one of her best friends who also happens to be now dating my ex.
Ezra St. Claire.
He’s the shit on your shoe you can’t get rid of no matter how hard you try to clean it. It still lingers.
After three long years of self-discovery and also a lot of self-loathing for what the prick turned me into, I was finally in a good place. But he sprang back into my life in spectacular fashion when my brother started dating Jade and I moved to London to take over Bright. I tolerate the dick for Jade because since she’s started dating my brother, we’ve become really close friends. She’s been like the little sister I always wanted, and I know if I acted on my instincts and called him out for his shit, it would create drama that we don’t need, and Jade would feel like she had to choose between Hunter and Trixie. I could never do that to her, so I’m civil. His face was the reason I needed to find my Zen, to ease the tension that even just the thought of him stirred in me.
Oh, and the prick bought out Bright’s biggest competitor, Peak Investments, so my ex is now my rival.
Lucky me.
How he managed it none of us know. But between when he disappeared until now, there’s a huge chunk of time where no one knew what he was doing or where he even was. I don’t trust him.
“Good. I’m not sure I am though.” She cringes.
“Why?”
“I think I overheard Lily last night talking to someone about, poles and superheroes, but I could be wrong.”
“Well that’s…actually I am not sure why those things would be linked.” I do know, but I can’t let on that I do because it’s actually hilarious.
“Exactly. I have no idea where she even comes up with this stuff.”
“You never know—it could be something to do with a sport she’s covering.”
“What the hell type of sport has those things together?” She quirks an eyebrow at me, and I have no comeback. “Exactly. One that has the potential to have me arrested.”
“Only if you partake.” I shrug.
“You saying no to Lily?”
“I’ll say no to Lily if you say no to Grace when she struts in here in five minutes with my outfit for my nondate with Cole West.”
“I’m good. I’ll lube up the pole with whatever sauce Lily’s offering.” We both cackle, and I’ve got tears in my eyes from laughing so hard.
“Who’s lubing up poles?” Ted, Jade’s assistant, walks into her office with a pep in his step as he hands her some files.
