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Last week, he’d made it clear she was not his priority. He’d made it clearer this week when the only contact she’d received from him was a text message. As much as she wanted to vilify him, she couldn’t. She understood why she wasn’t at the top of his priority list. He had gone back to Crane Hotels and taken on a new role. COO would take most of his time. He’d have to find a new routine, learn the ropes, fall down and pick himself back up.
If she had been navigating a relationship while building her business, one or the other would’ve collapsed under the weight of long days and longer nights. There simply wasn’t enough time to succeed professionally and personally in the beginning.
She set the invitation aside and let out a sigh. This was the hard part. She knew what she had to do and it was the last thing in the world she wanted to do. She’d spent the last week wishing she were the kind of person who could be with Eli and keep her feelings at bay until he was ready.
She wasn’t willing to wait. The waiting could last a few weeks—a few months. A few years. Being in love alone wasn’t an option. When she’d confessed how she felt about him, and he didn’t concur, a piece of her shrank. If things continued on that same path, how much longer until she withered away completely?
With Josh, she’d shrunk herself so small that by the time they split, she felt microscopic. She couldn’t do that again. She was responsible for a team of people, for running a business that helped very important people. She had to put herself first, which had always been one of her biggest challenges. In this case, that meant she needed to put her needs before Eli’s.
Chloe had a date tonight, so she’d already gone home. Isa assured her she would be safe walking from the front door to her apartment. She doubted the mugger would be back for seconds, and if she was by herself, she had to learn how to fend for herself.
She couldn’t expect Eli to ride in on his white horse again.
Keys in hand, she pulled her purse over her shoulder and went to the front door. Not for the first time, she considered creating an entrance from the office space to the upstairs apartment. Maybe that was something she would do this year. She had bought a small container of mace to hang from her keychain, so as soon as she had the door locked and was outside, she held it at the ready.
At the foot of her stairs leading to her apartment, headlights shined across the parking lot, causing her to jolt with panic. But the panic was short-lived. The car belonged to her former assistant-slash-new manager.
Chloe stepped out of a grass-green smart car, her auburn curls bouncing. The rest of her, however, wasn’t bouncing.
“That was a fast date,” Isa said.
“I was stood up.” Chloe shrugged, arms out to her sides before dropping them next to her. “My new dress is going to waste. Want to go to Posh for a martini?”
Isa smiled. “Chloe Andrews. Are you asking me out?”
“If you’ll have me.” She swept an arm toward her car. “Your fuel-efficient, environmentally savvy chariot awaits.”
Isa couldn’t refuse that offer. Especially after the week she’d had.
Twenty minutes later, Isa and Chloe sat in Posh, a martini bar with a clublike setting.
“I now understand why they have the ‘it’s complicated’ description online for relationships.” Isa plucked the cherry out of her Manhattan and pulled the fruit off the stem with her teeth. “You think you know what you’re doing,” she said as she chewed, “but then sex happens and you have no idea what you’re doing.”
Chloe nodded sagely and sipped her martini, her reddish hair reflecting the pink bar lights. A DJ hovered from a platform overhead, across from him a shelflike overhang with furniture and a table, a private area for people who’d rather not smash in with the crowd.
Smashing in with the crowd suited Isa just fine.
“Sorry about your date,” Isa said to her friend.
“Eh.” Chloe shrugged. “Being stood up is better than following a relationship to the bitter end, I guess.”
Isa considered that.
Chloe winced. “I didn’t mean to imply things were over between you and Eli.”
But it felt like things were over, which meant they probably were. Isa hadn’t reopened the conversation and neither had Eli.
“It’s not like you broke up,” Chloe added.
“It’s not like we were ever official,” Isa amended.
“At least you had a guy.”
“You don’t want one. Trust me. ” Isa lifted her stemmed glass. “I’m the moron who fell in love with him. I have no one to blame but myself.”
Chloe patted Isa’s hand with sympathy, then sipped her own cocktail. Isa relinquished her glass to dig the Royale London invitation from her purse. She slid it across the bar to Chloe, who lifted the expensive paper and regarded Isa with confusion.
“What’s this?”
