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“I don’t know, Nova, he could be lying to cover his own ass.” Juliet swiveled around in her chair to face me.
Every muscle in my body tightened. That wasn’t true. I would know it. Wouldn’t I? Oh, yeah, I was such an excellent judge of character these days. I rubbed my temples, pleading for the headache I had to disappear.
“I don’t think he is, though.” I leaned back and stared at the ceiling. “He wouldn’t lie to me, Jules, I just know it.”
She scoffed, and I jerked my head in her direction. “You don’t even know him, Nova. Kinda stupid to ruin your whole life over a man you don’t even know. Next, you’re going to say you’re in love with him.” She snickered.
I don’t know what she saw when she looked at me right then, but her face dropped and she smacked her forehead. “You’re kidding, right? Please tell me you are not in love with this guy.”
Of course I wasn’t in love with Cian. I just feltsomethingfor him. He got me, and I got him. He made me feel safe, like I was the only woman in the world. There was a yearning deep inside of me he seemed to be able to tame. It wasn’t just the sex, although that was definitely a bonus. There was something else, something I couldn’t put my finger on.
Oh, God, she was right. I might be in love with him. How the hell had that happened? No, no, no. Not ready to admit that out loud, especially right now.
“I’m not in love with him. I just…” I paced around the office to shake off the growing butterflies in my stomach. “I feel something for him I’ve never felt before. I don’t know how else to explain it.” I stopped and stared at her, looking for encouragement. There was none. I lowered my eyes, not willing to accept what she was saying with hers.
“Look, Nova, you’ve got sex brain. That’s all.” She stood and placed her hands on the desk. “You can’t ruin your career for good sex. You promised you would see this through. Everything is riding on this.”
“Maybe there is a way out of the contract?” I tapped my chin. “Maybe I can get out of this and still save our business.”
She shook her head and huffed. “There isn’t, Nova. We’ve been over this.” Her voice was rising to a whining tone, and I scrunched up my nose.
“Why are you acting this way?” I placed my hands on my hips. “There is always an option, Jules. There is always a way out. We always figure it out.” I was pleading with her to understand, to listen, but it was bouncing right off her. I stepped closer to the desk and noticed the sheen of sweat on her forehead. “Are you just saying this because of Riddick? Because you don’t want to ruin what you’ve got going with him?”
It was a reasonable question, or so I thought. She had been acting differently lately. Distant. Not available. But I guessed I was no better than her, if I was being honest with myself.
“Wow, just wow.” She scoffed and reached for her jacket. “You’re so damn reckless, Nova. Always have been. You make decisions without thinking and now you want to blame me? You want to ruin your career over sex with a man you barely know, and that’smyfault?” She grabbed her purse and headed for the door. “I’m out of here.”
“Juliet, wait. I didn’t mean—”
She stormed out, leaving me standing there with my mouth hanging open. I wasn’t trying to blame her. How could she even think that? We had never argued before, not like this anyway. A spat here and there about dildo shapes, but that was it. It was so unlike her to react this way. She was my rock, my comfort zone. But the way she’d just walked out without even trying to listen to me was so unlike her. Something else was going on, but I didn’t know what.
I stayed up all night looking over the contract, word after word until the lines blurred together. There was nothing. No hope, no secret sentence that popped out and said “gotcha.” I gave up around three in the morning. If I could talk to an attorney, maybe they could help me figure out a way. But I couldn’t, and I knew that. It was one hundred percent confidential. Talking to an attorney about the contract, well, was a breach of the contract.
Juliet didn’t show up to work the next morning. Typically, I would have been worried sick, but I knew she was just angry. I had to fix this with her. It was one thing to think I couldn’t trust Ryzen or Cian, but a completely different story if I didn’t have Juliet by my side.
Another black rose showed up, and I stomped on the box, taking my irritation out on it. The last thing I needed to worry about was some weirdo stalker. It was probably someone who had bought a toy from our shop and was having all types of weird fantasies. Well, let them show up today and see what happened.
Owen sulked around the office all morning. He was upset that Thora wasn’t there anymore. Hell, I was just as upset as he was. She had done such an amazing job of getting everything organized and ready for us to move. It was like she had done the work of ten people in half the time.
We were just three weeks away from moving. I couldn’t believe how we had started and where we were at now. But if I didn’t figure out this whole thing with Ryzen and getting married, then it was all for nothing. We would be screwed.
Maybe I could ask Cian? He would know what to do. I mean, he said he was familiar with Ryzen’s tactics. No. I couldn’t risk it backfiring on me. I wanted to trust him, needed to trust him, but a small part of me just couldn’t let myself. I refused to be gullible or duped by another man again. Or, like Juliet said, ruin my career for good sex. My chest burned, and I swallowed another Tums.
Owen hardly said ten words to me all day, and when five o’clock came around, he hurried out of the office without saying goodbye.
How the hell was I the bad guy here? I had been doing everything in my power to save this company, to ensure that we didn’t lose everything. But now everyone was mad at me? I threw the bottle of Tums in Juliet’s trashcan and headed home.
I nearly stumbled when I saw a black box on my doormat when I got home.Please don’t let it be a black rose. Please, oh, please, don’t tell me some weirdo has my home address.I couldn’t deal with any more bullshit today.
I ripped the seal open and shrieked when something exploded in my face. OK, not exploded, but flew. A butterfly. A swarm of fake fucking butterflies flew out of the box and surrounded my countertop.
I leaned over the counter, holding my head in my hands. Great. This was not what I needed right now. Grace and her shenanigans.
Creepy music played from a music box inside and I peeked in, wary of more flying bugs. Fake or not, it almost gave me a heart attack. There was a red envelope peeking out from what looked like cotton candy. I wanted to burn the whole thing without opening it, but curiosity got the best of me. I ripped open the card and rolled my eyes. An invitation to Grace’s engagement party next week with a suggested list of gifts. Unbelievable.
I had almost forgotten about her wedding. It was irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. How could I care about her getting married when everything around me was falling apart? I flipped the card over, my stomach making a cruel growling noise when I read the back.
Don’t bring your weird friend. Bring your FIANCÉ! Mommy and Daddy aren’t happy with you right now.
