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“A trip to where?”
“It’s a surprise.”
I sighed. I freaking loved surprises. The bastard must have guessed as much. “Fine. But I need to make sure the Ashford kids can watch Termite while we’re gone.”
“Then it’s settled.” Christian strode off, leaving a wake of silence behind him.
Once the elevator doors swished shut, everybody collectively took a breath. The intern slouched into the wall and let her phone hang in her hand. An older woman at her desk let her forehead fall on the keyboard, fingers no longer pretending to move. Others just got up, stretched, and went back to their usual routines.
“Holy shit,” Cassie whispered. “Did you just get us a raise?”
“I did,” I said.
“I think I love her.” Paisley smothered me in a hug. I laughed until Cassie joined in, using her considerable muscle to squeeze the breath out of me so the only sound I could make was a gasp.
Where the hell would he take me as a surprise? I wanted to know, but I also didn’t because it’d ruin the fun of the surprise. As long as he wasn’t about to drag me back to New York where I’d inevitably have to face the mess I’d left behind, I wasn’t going to complain.
33
CHRISTIAN
“New York?” Lola gasped.
She was sitting across from me on the swivel chairs of a private jet. I wasn’t snobby enough to own a private jet, but I was snobby enough to rent one when it was convenient. The cabin was about the size of a limo with more headspace. Max was busy enjoying the snack bar and ignoring both of us. We’d been in the air about twenty minutes before Lola seemed to lose the ability to wait and pestered me to know where we were going.
“Just hold on,” I said carefully. “I know you have unresolved business there. But Manhattan is huge. Nobody says we have to talk to anyone from your past. And what are the chances they’ll know you are in the city?”
“Well, I have this app on my phone. It tells my parents where I am. And my best friend, Kate, also has the app. So I’d say the chances are… I don’t know, a hundred freaking percent?” Lola started off talking slowly and ended up speaking so quickly that she was out of breath.
“Hey,” I leaned over to put my hands on her knees. “Look at me. Just relax. Turn the app off. Problem solved, right?”
“R-right.” Lola pulled her phone out in shaking hands, hesitated, then slammed it down on the seat. “No,” she snapped. “It has been long enough. I can’t keep being afraid to confront this.”
“What the hell happened, anyway?” Max asked around a mouthful of candy.
I watched Lola carefully, afraid if I said anything she might decide not to explain. The honest truth was I wanted to bring them to New York because I’d spent a few years living in Manhattan. I knew most of the best places and shows. I wanted to give Lola a good time, and then I wanted to surprise her by taking her to a farm in upstate New York I’d booked a day at. I was promised there was even a grumpy rooster there.
“It was really just stupid,” Lola said quietly. “It’s a bunch of drama. You two don’t want to hear it.”
“Uh,” Max said, stuffing more candy in her mouth. “I’m a teenage girl, dude. I feed on drama. So you better start spooning it in here.” Max opened her mouth and made a gesture like she was a baby bird waiting to be fed.
That earned a little grin from Lola, who looked like she was on the verge of a panic attack. “I have a policy,” she said. “If the truth could hurt somebody, I never hide it. I’m not going to tell my grandma that her new haircut doesn’t look good or something. But if I know a truth that I think people need to know, I’m going to tell it, no matter the consequences.”
“Oh, wait,” Max said. “Can I guess? You have an STD and you told some guy you hooked up with?”
“What?” I asked.
Max shrugged. “I saw this Korean drama where the guy had like genital warts. He claimed he hadn’t slept with any of the women in their friend group, but they were able to trace the path left by his warts to find out exactly who he slept with. Spoiler, it was like every girl in the group.”
“What the hell are you watching?” I asked.
“It wasn’t like that,” Lola said. “You have to understand my fiancé’s family was pretty well-off. They’d run this financial advisory firm for a few generations. And my family always wished they were well-off. My dad is a real estate agent, and my mom has been trying to become a novelist. But both of them always wished they lived the country-club lifestyle and all that. So when I got engaged to Brian, my parents were over the moon. His parents started having them come for brunch at the country club and inviting them to tennis at places where you have to wear all white. It was like their dream come true.
