Page 24 of George’s Big Day

“You’re not harmless,” I reminded him. “You have a sharp mind, and you could eviscerate her with the truth about the part she did and didn’t play in your past.”

He was quiet, listening to me.

“And you can also figure out why she wouldn’t get up and come sit next to you.”

“Can I?”

“I suspect you learned this in Psychology 101,” I replied, holding his gaze.

He gave a barely there nod. “Because if she did that, she would have to explain who I am to these women who aren’t actually her friends.”

“That’s right.”

“Plus, she’s now in wife-of-business-mogul mode.”

“Exactly. She has to be as perfect as possible, as does the whole family. If they’re not flawless, that could be exploited.”

His sigh was long. “I’m really glad I don’t play at this level.”

“Me too.”

He leaned back into me, and I wrapped him in my arms. “I don’t get this from your boss.”

“What’s that?”

“The acting. Sutter doesn’t pretend to be perfect.”

“Yeah, but he doesn’t have to. There’s no one he has to impress to make his business run. There’s no one higher up the food chain that he has to suck up to or that can hurt him with some piece of gossip. I mean, you’ve met Duncan Stiel. Flawless he’s not.”

“The way Sutter looks at him, you would think he is.”

“Which is pretty romantic, don’t you think?”

He grunted softly. “You look at me the same way.”

“Do I?”

His chuckle was nice to hear.

“Maybe you give your mother a second chance.”

“I don’t think it’s going to happen right now.”

“No, I agree. Not tonight. But down the road.”

“I promise to think about that,” he said, sitting up and turning to me. “But I don’t want to be here anymore, so I’m choosing to leave.”

“You want me to pretend to get a text and we have to go?”

“That’s not necessary. I don’t need to slink away, tail between my legs.”

“I wasn’t suggesting that.”

“No, you were trying to make it easy on me, which I appreciate. But I’m an adult, and as one I can say I simply don’t want to be here, as this is not at all what I thought it would be,” he clarified, gently putting down the butter knife I hadn’t noticed he’d picked up.

“What were you planning to do with that?”

“Put one of the pats of butter on the end and flick it across the table at what’s-her-name’s face.”