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“What the fuck is happening right now?” I asked, growing angrier by the second.
“I’m going home, and you’re going to the office like you said when the jet was over Arizona. That’s all. I’ll text you later.” She leaned forward and kissed my cheek before sitting in the car and turning to where Shane was typing like a madman on his phone.
“Well, okay, then.” I forced a smile. “You kids drive safe,” I said, trying to pull it together and act like the most beautiful woman on this tarmac wasn’t dumping me and driving off in a fucking Ford Fiesta.
I pulled my act together as fast as I caught it falling apart and slipped my wedding ring off. The days of playing the dumbass married couple had ended, and part of me was glad the ridiculous show was over. I hated fake shit.
With both rings tucked into my pocket, I turned to my driver, who was shooting the shit with the flight crew. “Tony, I’m going to need you to take me to the office downtown.”
“Right away, Sir.”
It had to be the look on my face that made everyone quickly return to their post-flight duties. My good mood was long gone, and now I had to focus on work, all while having not slept on the flight home and knowing jet lag would kick my ass in a couple of hours.
I texted Jim before I opened any more emails. Thank God I had work to keep my mind occupied.
Spencer: Wheels are on the ground. I’m heading to the office now.
Jim’s text came immediately back.
Jim: Take the rest of the day. I’ve got everything locked down from all the shit you handled on the plane.
Spencer: Nah, I need to focus on work and keep my mind off Nat.
Jim: You know, in most healthy relationships, you don’t want to keep your mind off your partner.
Spencer: And yet…
Jim: Is Tony driving you?
Spencer: Yes.
Jim: Good. I’m sending him the address to where I’m having drinks. I’ll see you in about fifteen minutes.
I honestly wasn’t in the mood to talk about feelings. But this was Jim, and if there was one man who could make you feel better about your shit, especially in relationships, it was that man. Too bad I hadn’t asked him if he’d be in the company of the entire gang tonight because I wasn’t in the mood for their bullshit.
However, it was too late by the time the hostess led me to the back of the room, where the three doctors and two CEOs sat, drinking their preferred drinks. They were all smiles, looking like sharks getting ready to devour my ass as soon as I sat down.
“Sexy Spence,” Jake, the heart surgeon and Jim’s brother, hit first. It was apparent they’d all been filled in that Spencer fucked up the first relationship they’d known me to have. “From the look on your face, I’m thinking whiskey tonight? Something a bit harder?”
“Harder? What are you going to give him, Moonshine?” Collin, the neurosurgeon and Jake’s best friend, said, elbowing Jake in his side.
“Bourbon,” I smiled at him and the waitress who’d approached for my order, “sour, thank you.” I finished and looked at the expressions of each of my friends who waited for me to spill my guts about what’d happened with Nat while we were overseas.
Cameron, the pediatric neurosurgeon, sat to my left, and Alex and Jim, wearing their no-nonsense CEO masks, sat at each end of the table silently, waiting to peel me open to see if I’d bleed for them tonight or not.
“Should I start?” Cameron spoke, his deep blue eyes mischievous as fuck.
“I hadn’t realized it was show-and-tell in kindergarten today, nor did I know Jim would be here with all the circus clowns,” I said, looking at Jim, but my deadly expression only turned a smile up on the bastard’s face.
Well, fuck. I’d always been cocky as shit with these assholes, giving them shit for their lovey-dovey relationships and insisting I’d never fall into this trap, and now, it was time to pay the piper. And they knew it.
Karma was about to bitch slap me, and I needed a whole lot more booze than what I’d ordered if I was going to be able to listen to this.
“So, he’s pissed,” Collin said, raising his glass of scotch toward me. “Everyone at this table owes my ass a round since I was right that you ain’t getting laid tonight.”
I couldn’t help but smile at the shit I knew I was about to take. “If that’s the way this is going to go, gentlemen,” I said, eying their smiles, “then raise the glasses and keep them coming because we’re all about to get drunk tonight.”
“Tell us what went down,” Jim cut in, keeping the conversation level so he could get the real information about what’d happened since I left three weeks ago.
