Page 531 of Manhattan Bossholes

“I don’t have to imagine it; I’ve seen you in action. Steph, it’s perfect. I’m so happy for you.”

She puffed up with pride. “I’m psyched. But you know what it means, right?”

“Fame and fortune?”

She laughed. “No, it means a complete moratorium on sugar and alcohol at our place. My abs are going to be on display every damn day!”

I smacked her tight belly. “Doesn’t look like a problem to me.”

“Says you. Anyway, it’s time for some stress-release,” she said, beckoning me to follow her. “We’re going to box.” She put her hands up in fighter position.

We walked through the gym laughing about the different poses she was going to do in her first shoot, passing by the treadmills and bikes on the way to the boxing room. The bank of TVs were all tuned to the same channel, some inane entertainment program.

Steph’s happy expression dimmed when she glanced up at the screens. “Uh-oh…”

I looked up and saw grainy footage that showed two women dancing in the darkness of a nightclub.

“Wait, that’s Heidi,” I said. My heart fractured when I spotted James in the shadows behind her.

“And Brayleigh D’Amato, the TikTok star.”

We watched as the dancing turned to shoving.

“Yikes.” Steph sucked in a breath. “Heidi looks really drunk.”

The footage cut to a close-up of Heidi that looked like it came from someone’s live feed. She seemed unhinged, yelling at Brayleigh. The subtitles censored what she was saying, but the meaning behind it was still unmistakable.

“Heidi called Brayleigh the c-word!” Steph slapped her hand over her mouth in shock.

I didn’t notice what was going on between the two women because I was too busy watching James, as much as it hurt me to do it. There he was, looking weary and disgusted, with his arms crossed as he watched the drama unfolding. The footage cut to James leaning over to whisper in Heidi’s ear, and her screaming at him. The next stitched together scene was of him outside the club, getting into his Maybach alone.

“Wow,” I said softly. I didn’t even realize that I was rubbing my hand against my chest, over my heart, as if trying to soothe an ache.

“You okay?” Steph asked, studying my face.

I shrugged. “Whatever. It’s not my business. This is what he wanted.”

“Yeah, but he didn’t seem happy at all, even before the slapfight. He looked like he’d been taken hostage or something. He doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who appreciates that sort of attention.”

“That’s because he doesn’t,” I said.

A part of me wanted to grab my phone and dive into the rabbit hole of Reddit gossip about what had gone down. I was sure there was more footage to watch and eyewitness accounts of the whole thing. But what good would it do me? James wasn’t a part of my life now. He’d made his choice, which clearly included late nights at clubs and an unhinged girlfriend who threw the c-word around.

I didn’t recognize this version of James. I thought I knew who he was, that I’d met the real James. The man who had so much more to him than the bosshole persona he showed the world.

I was wrong.

“Let’s glove up,” Steph said, sliding her arm around my shoulder. “I have a feeling that you have some pent-up rage that’s ready to come out.”

I didn’t answer her, because my rage was long gone, and all that was left was sadness.

27

JAMES

Tension spread across my chest as I jogged up the steps to the Museum of Natural History for a bunch of different reasons. The primary one was trying to figure out why were we meeting here?

When Christopher had suggested the two of us getting out in the world instead of hanging in his apartment like usual, I’d been shocked. But then again, in the weeks since his “slip up” (as Bernie called it), he’d been making all sorts of changes. It was almost like going through the trauma had shifted the way he saw the world. Well, that and the new therapist he’d hired.