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“Don’t be sorry for me. I knew what I was getting into. He was seeing someone else when we met,” she told him. “I had one friend who tried to warn me, but I wanted to believe I was special.”
“You are. Someone else—someone not a complete shithead—will figure it out.”
“You sound pretty sure of that,” she said with a laugh.
Victor shrugged, letting himself fall back against the couch cushions. “I like to think we’re not destined for this kind of misery. Alice will never make him happy, and Charlie will never be someone she can trust. That sounds like punishment enough, if I’m being honest.”
Hannah let out a soft hum. “I keyed his Bentley.”
Victor almost choked on his laugh, shaking his head as he grinned up at the ceiling. “That works too.” He took a slow breath, then asked, “How did you find out?”
“He told me. I think he was running himself up the wall waiting for you to do it, and when I didn’t say anything for so long, he cracked.” She went quiet for a beat. “It was better that it came from him, I think. I’m going to take him for fucking everything.”
“Good.” Victor stretched his legs out once they were calmer and flexed his stiff toes. “I’m going to be leaving the company.”
“Don’t let him do that to you,” Hannah said in a rush. “I know we were never friends, but—”
“I don’t want it anymore,” Victor interrupted. “I never belonged there.”
“No,” she said from behind a sigh. “No, you didn’t. You were never one of them. When you got engaged to Alice, I was so damn jealous of her.”
Victor choked. “Hannah…”
She laughed. “Not because I’m in love with you, Victor, though God knows you would have been a better choice of husband. No, I just…I knew what kind of life Alice was going to have married to you, and it hurt knowing I’d never have that.”
“You might,” Victor told her softly. Before he could say anything else, the door opened and Oliver walked in, wearing a massive grin on his face. He winked at Victor before swaying through the room and into the kitchen, and Victor felt his heart skip a few beats.
“Victor?”
“Sorry,” he said, turning his attention back to her.
“You’re with someone, aren’t you?”
Victor took a breath, knowing whatever answer he gave would get back to everyone else. But he realized in that moment, it didn’t matter. “I know how it looks, but…”
“No,” Hannah said quietly. “No. I’m happy for you. If anyone deserves it, Vic, it’s you.”
He couldn’t bring himself to tell her that his liaison was paid for and that he might be damn near head over heels, but it was coming to an end with no hope for a happily ever after. “Please take care of yourself,” he murmured.
“I’ll do my best,” she said, and then the line went dead.
* * *
While Oliver soaked in the tub, Victor cooked dinner and had everything ready and on the table by the time his lover finished up. He padded into the room wearing silky pajama bottoms and a lacey tank top, and Victor wasted no time getting his hands all over him.
He was warm from the water and floral from the soaps, and he tasted like he’d been eating something sweet as Victor pressed his tongue into his mouth. Oliver groaned, leaning his whole body against Victor, who was braced against the counter.
“You’re so hot,” Oliver murmured.
Victor laughed as he pulled back. “I was going to say the same thing about you. Did you have a nice bath?”
“Would have been nicer with company, but this dinner looks amazing, so I can’t really complain.”
Victor flushed with some pride. Cooking wasn’t something he was particularly skilled at, but he was good at the dishes he did know, and it was nice to have a little something besides the takeout he and Oliver had been indulging in since he came to stay.
They kissed another moment before Oliver finally let him go, and he smiled over his shoulder as he sat down in the seat next to the window. “Can I ask who you were on the phone with earlier? You seemed a little shaken.”
Victor bowed his head, hoping he could avoid the topic of Charlie and his ex, but Oliver was far too observant. He grabbed the small dish of roasted carrots and carefully made his way to the table. “It was Charlie’s wife.”
