Page 42

When her eyes fell on Ali’s ultra sunny customer service persona her shifting expressions didn’t disappoint. Victoria’s steps stuttered. The brandished laser white smile most people probably found charming—none more so than Victoria—dimmed and winked out. Her eyes turned hard, nostrils flaring, jaw clenching, neck cording.

It was glorious.

Ali waved and Victoria sauntered over, stopping right in front of her, planting her feet as far apart as possible in the dress squeezing her hips and ass like a vise. For forty something, her body was indeed rocking.

With a clipped tone she asked, “What are you doing here?”

Ali rose to her feet, moving around the small table and pulling a chair out, gesturing for Victoria to sit.

“Charlotte had an emergency at work. Something about an outage. The binder was already at my apartment, so she asked if I wouldn’t mind meeting with you. I had nothing better to do, so I happily agreed.”

For the most part, none of it was true. She should actually be home preparing for a group show. An artist backed out leaving Ali scrambling to complete a new body of work to fill in. But she would worry about that later.

Victoria hesitated but took the offered seat.

“She was always a work-a-holic.”

By now, Ali had discerned Charlotte suffered from a need for perfection. She took the wellbeing of her company and her employees’ livelihoods very seriously. She cared about even the ones she never met in person. That care added an endless amount of fuel to her need for everything to be just right.

Ali knew that need well.

“She never made time for me,” Victoria murmured, expression and body language shifting again.

Ali took her seat, biting back the urge to defend Charlotte. She wanted Victoria to know that Charlotte wasn’t alone and that Ali was willing to back her up even when she wasn’t there. But that wasn’t the mission at hand.

Victoria’s shoulders sagged, gaze dropping to her hands.

“I tried so many times to get her to make time for me but…”

Ali opened the binder, flipping to the list awaiting approval.

“She didn’t leave things in a good place between us. I was hoping we would have a chance to find closure today.”

Victoria’s following sigh was drawn out and so dramatic.

Her bottom lip actually wobbled…

“I’m sure she would be open to it when and if she’s ever ready,” Ali offered, eyes scanning the pages.

“What about me? What about what I want and need?”

Ali looked up, meeting pleading jade eyes. Such a beautiful job of playing the victim.

“Just because you need or want something doesn’t mean that what Charlotte needs or wants matters less. You’re no longer together, by your own decision I’m told. She doesn’t owe you anything.”

“She told you I ended things?”

Ali laced her fingers together, resting them atop the binder, realizing they weren’t getting anywhere until Victoria felt some level of control. She needed to decide if she would give it to her or ignore her entirely.

Inner peace…

“Are you saying you didn’t break it off right before your engagement party?”

Victoria’s voice thickened, eyes seeming to water. “I suppose it depends on how you look at it. Yes, I told her we needed to take a step back but it was her choices that led us there. And she didn’t want to put in the work to fix things between us.”

Ali nodded, pretending to consider her response. “I guess there are two sides to every story.”

Victoria’s lips pinched but Ali had decided she had no intention of letting her run things. Natasha would never forgive her.