"You've been here five minutes and are already trying to dig into my brain," Charlotte replied. "I know you're trying to imply something."
Rachel shrugged. "We just haven't talked about you and Jordan yet, which I understand. But I was thinking maybe he's one of the down sides to moving here."
Charlotte sighed and poked at her lamb souvlaki. "He's not, but he might think I am after what happened."
"And maybe half of the city too." Charlotte's eyes snapped up and stared at her friend. "What? You know there are people who blame you for his recent disasters."
Charlotte knew. The snarky remarks by the newscasters today were just the latest she had been aware of lately. There were also the sports bloggers who blamed her for the Pirates' struggles since the fight in New York. There were the gossip sites that loved reporting and rehashing from their "trusted" sources the details of her apparently salacious love life, blaming her for both Jordan's personal and professional woes.
"Charlotte?" Rachel leaned over, pushing her way into Charlotte's line of sight. "You know it's not really your fault."
She let out a small bitter laugh. "But it is. I should've told him about Declan, and now I'm the city's biggest enemy."
"Ah, yes. You're the villain," Rachel said before taking a bite of her Greek salad. "Did I ever tell you that I used to have a nickname?"
"And what was that?"
"I was the Shark of Silicon Valley."
For the first time in weeks, Charlotte let out a loud genuine laugh. "The Shark?"
"Yep. I was in charge of mergers and acquisitions for a major law firm out there. Well, more acquisitions than mergers," she added. "If there was a hostile dot-com takeover, my company was the one the hostile party would hire, and I was put in charge. I was ruthless and I always caught my prey."
"So you met Adam when his company wanted to take over someone else."
Rachel gave her a small smile and shrugged. "I met Adam when I was hired by another company that wanted control of Titan."
Charlotte was shocked. "Wait, you tried to take Titan from Adam and Jack in a hostile takeover?"
"Tried, yes. But there was something about facing off against Adam that just..." Her voice trailed off and she leaned back in her chair.
"So he somehow made you decide not to go through with it?" Rachel nodded quietly. "You were the Shark and you lost because of Adam."
She laughed at Charlotte. "Oh no, that's not what happened," she replied, a smile teasing at the corners of her mouth. "I didn't want his company. I wanted him. As I said, I always got what I wanted."
Charlotte laughed. "And you lived happily ever after!"
"You know, you can do the same thing."
The smile was still on her face, but Charlotte shook her head. "I'm not sure about that."
"We all know how much he wants to be with you."
"Wanted," she said.
"Wants," Rachel said with determination. "You may not have seen it, but Adam and I did. Why do you think we left that night after his dinner here as soon as we had an excuse?"
"I didn't think it was that obvious," Charlotte muttered.
"Oh, it was," Rachel said. "Then the story about you meeting some book club spread throughout the suburban moms' gossip network."
"Really?"
"Oh, don't be embarrassed," she replied. "Those women have been bragging to their husbands that they knew about you guys way before that fight with Declan."
Charlotte started pushing the souvlaki around with her fork again, suddenly feeling like she wasn't as hungry as she had been.
"That fight was because of me."
