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Twenty-Three
"AND THAT WAS IT?"Mairi Tanner-Leventis exclaimed incredulously. "You told him Gareth Evans wants you to work for him for six more months, and he just saidyes?"
Pippi gave her a small nod, and Mairi's astonishment turned to disbelief. Even she knew who Gareth was. The man was one of Miami's most infamous womanizers, and for Acheron Simonides to simply say yes to such an arrangement...
If Damen had been in Acheron's position, her own Greek billionaire husband would've thrown a fit. She had expected Acheron to do the same since both men were made of the same mold, but perhaps she had misjudged the other man incorrectly this whole time?
Pippi uneasily stirred her juice at the older woman's worrying reaction. "I guess he's being understanding?"
"I...suppose." Mairi did her best to sound convinced but knew she had failed when she saw the way Pippi winced ever so slightly. She was about to say something reassuring - anything, really, to stop the girl from worrying - when her phone suddenly rang, and she had to excuse herself from the table.
Pippi watched the men in the restaurant gaze admiringly at Damen Leventis' wife as she walked away. It didn't make her feel a single bit of envy, but it did make her wonder rather wistfully if she could ever inspire Acheron to feel jealous about other men's attention.
She used to think she could, but he had just grown so distant these days they might as well be back to being CEO and lowly secretary.
Weeks had passed since the day she had accidentally heard Acheron speak to Amelia on the phone, and so much had changed since then.
For one thing, he had stopped sleeping at Mariposa House and had instead checked into a hotel next to Excalibur Park's construction site. It would've been a reasonable move...if he had done the same thing to all the other properties Simonides Inc. had previously developed. Moreover, Excalibur Park was neither the company's biggest nor most expensive real estate project to date.
Knowing this, she couldn't help thinking that he was deliberately avoiding spending time with her.
But if he was -why?
"I'm back," Mairi said as she returned to their table, but her smile faded when she saw Pippi's strained expression. "Oh, Pip."
"Could you—-" Just thinking of what she was about to ask made Pippi's hands perspire and she found herself looking away, not wanting to see Mairi's eyes as she heard herself say, "I just need you to be honest."
Mairi bit her lip hard, the woman part of her knowing right away what it was the girl was trying to find the courage to ask, and that same part of her was already crying.
"I don't think he's having an affair with his ex," Mairi said softly.
But even if Acheron wasn't, it wasn't right that Pippi felt the need to even ask such a thing.
The pain in Pippi's heart eased a little at Mairi's words. Maybe she was being willfully blind, but she truly believed the older woman was saying the truth.
So that was one worry taken care of, which only left about 999 more...
The thought made her want to laugh and cry.
Oh, Acheron.
