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Fucking Stuart.
I still couldn’t believe that he was seeingher, the girl who, before yesterday, I’d only seen in the naked picture I’d found on my fiancé’s phone mere hours before our wedding. When I looked up and saw him, smiling withBecca, it was like a fresh hit of betrayal. I’d panicked at the sight of them, anxiety causing me to totally freeze, but then Max had rescued me yet again.
He hadn’t actually done anything other than tower overStuart and look threatening, but it felt like everything, like some sort of win.
Especially when I knew Stuart was sensitive about his height.
It gave me great pleasure to see him have to look up at Max in fear.
Although, to be fair, Max had lookeddangerouswhen he’d stared down Stuart.
I honestly hadn’t been able to stop replaying it in my head, over and over again.
Also, he hadn’t asked any questions afterward, for which I was eternally grateful because I’d been too sad to speak. He asked if I was okay when we went outside, and when I just nodded, he moved on and proceeded to tell me the architectural history of all the buildings we passed on our walk home.
I clicked on Stuart’s email, which had been sent to the HR and marketing departments, as well as his entire sales team. I started reading, but it was filled with so much unnecessary language and so many cheesy buzzwords that my teeth were gritted by the time I reached the signature line.
God, he was so full of himself.
I just hate him so much.
Normally, I prided myself on drilling into his messages to find the one tiny thing he was wrong about and point it out—tactfully—to everyone on the chain. Was it petty? Probably. But not as petty as the way he’d told me the week after our canceled wedding that even if he hadn’t cheated, he didn’t love me anymore.
I don’t want to hurt you, Soph, but you need to let the cheating thing go. We fell out of love a long time ago andthat’swhat ended things.
FELL OUT OF LOVE.
Like it was simple, like we’d fallen out of a boat.Oops, we fell out.
If love was real, you couldn’t just fall out of it.
I inhaled through my nose and focused on the email.
And... I found it. I found his one tiny little mistake.
I hit reply all and typed:
Stuart,
This looks fantastic and we’re here to help. Circle back with exactly what level of support you’ll need.
Great job!
Sophie
It was almost painful, hitting send, but I was going to get that promotion sooner rather than later, damn it.
Max texted me at noon, letting me know he was there, and we had a perfectly casual lunch together. It was weird how comfortable I felt with him already, and I was genuinely disappointed when it was time to go back to work.
“Is your office nearby?” I asked as he pulled into the lot and I unbuckled my seat belt.
“No, downtown,” he said, looking over at me through dark Oakleys. “But we’ve got a project over here, so I’m basically in the area every day.”
“Is that right?” I asked, opening the door. “Maybe we could do this again sometime. As friends, of course.” I grinned.
“Of course,” he said, and I wished I could see his eyes behind his sunglasses when his voice got quiet like that. “Tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow it is.”
