I turned my attention back to my phone and replied to Phillip.
I’m fine. Now leave me alone. I’m not running away. I’m just not ready to talk about how you have royally fucked over our friendship. You and Judd are welcome to each other. Now piss off.
I hit the Send button and immediately thought of a dozen other things I wanted to say that would have been far more dismissive, more cutting, and just generally... better.Dammit to hell.
I took a deep, calming breath, stared at the phone in my hand for what felt like a millennium, and then pressed Call.
Phillip answered on the first ring, sounding breathless and genuinely worried. “Oh, thank Christ. Finally. Jesus, Thad, I’ve been worried that you might... well... you know?—”
“What?” I cut him off. “Top myself?” I gave a mirthless chuckle. “Trust me, neither of you arseholes is worth that.” The sudden raw truth of that sent a wave of crushing grief through my chest at the loss of our friendship, but there was no going back, and Phillip needed to know that. “We’re done, Phillip. Our friendship is over. The business partnership is also done. I’ll either buy you out or sell you my share. I really don’t care which. You can have it all if you want, Judd included. It’s what you wanted, after all, right? Control of everything?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Phillip started to protest, those smooth honey tones falling far short of my patience. “I never wanted?—”
“Yes, you did,” I replied evenly. “Don’t lie to me about this, Phillip. Not on top of all the other lies.”
He was quiet for a moment. “I never meant to hurt you, Thad. It just... happened.”
I huffed. “And exactly how many months was itjust happeningfor Phillip? One? Two? Six?”
More silence. Then he whispered, “Five. Five months.”
I let the shock settle in my heart.Five fucking months? I counted back in my head and almost dropped the phone. “That conference I attended in Singapore.”
He whispered, “Yes.”
I almost laughed. “A week. I was only gone a fucking week.” Then it occurred to me— “Shit. That’s why Judd had those flowers delivered to my hotel. He was feeling guilty. Oh my God, I am such an idiot. He’s never sent me flowers before, or since. So, who approached whom?”
Another pause, this one a lot more awkward and needing no interpretation.
“Oh my God, it was you, wasn’t it?” I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry that it hadn’t been Judd who’d made the move.
“It wasn’t planned,” he argued miserably. “It just?—”
“Happened. Yeah. So you said.” I tried to keep my temper. “You know what? I don’t care who started it. I don’t care who kissed whom first. You both had to be on board for it to happen, and that says it all. My boyfriend and my best friend. Jesus Christ, could the two of you be any more of a cliché?”
“Thad, I?—”
“Well, you’ve got him all to yourself now. Good luck to you. I hope he shows more loyalty to you than either of you did to me, but I wouldn’t bank on it. Once a cheater, always a cheater, isn’t that what they say? Still, maybe you could ask Judd to step in as the creative for the business when I’m gone. Except, oh, that’s right, Judd hasn’t come up with an original fucking idea since... let’s go with forever.”
“Thad, please,” Phillip was begging now, and the idea viciously thrilled me. “This isn’t what I wa?—”
“We’ll talk further whenI’m ready.” I cut him short again. “And no, I don’t know when that will be. I need to think. I’mgoing to take a couple of weeks off. I haven’t had a vacation in years.”
“A vacation?” Phillip scoffed. “Christ, you wouldn’t know what to do with one.”
“I’ll learn,” I said bluntly. “I’ll make sure you have what you need to keep the place running and clients happy, but I’m not coming in, not as long as you’re both still there.”
“You want me to fire Judd? I can do that,” Phillip offered. “He’ll get work easily enough.”
I snorted. “You just don’t see it, do you? What Judd did was a complete betrayal, but it pales compared to what you did.”
“But—”
“And as for my mother,” I ploughed on, “you’re not going to say a word to her, do you understand? You don’t get to put your version first. I’ll call her today. Consider yourself shut out of the family phone circle. As far as I’m concerned, you don’t fucking exist other than for work purposes, until I’m ready to say you do. When my mother learns what you did, she’s not likely to want to hear from you either.” I wasn’t as convinced about that as I sounded, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to let Phillip know that my mother would likely find a way to blame me and not him. “She loved you like a son, you do know that, right?” Which was, unfortunately, true. “This is going to break her fucking heart.”
Phillip’s response was a numbing silence. He knew how my mother felt about him. In truth, he probably felt more guilty about her finding out than me. It was a sobering thought. When Phillip finally did respond, it was all about the business. Typical.
“We’re supposed to meet with that guy, Rosburg, this afternoon.” He sounded genuinely panicked now. “The delivery date on that first software framework is coming up, and I can’t cover the technical side of that shit. That’s your lane. And yes, I realise Judd isn’t up to it, I’ll give you that. And while we’re on the subject, I don’twantJudd, Thad. I never did. Not inthat way. Things just happened between us. I swear, it was nothing... serious. I fucked up. I get that. And I’m sorry, Thad. I’m really, really sorry. It was a stupid fucked-up thing to do, but you can’t just walk away from everything we’ve built becauseIscrewed up. You need this company too.”
