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Dismay settling into the lines of her face, Mimi took another step back. “No,” she rasped, emphatic. “I don’t believe it.”
He gave an uncaring shrug. “That won’t make it untrue.”
She gave her head a hard, fast shake. “You’re lying.” She slammed her manic gaze on me. “He’s just saying all this to hurt me, right?”
Uh … quite possibly, come to think of it. After all, she’d probably disappear for good if he could convince her of his claims. Dax didn’t exactly have an issue with being deceitful if it meant getting what he wanted.
“That’s all it is, isn’t it?” she pushed.
Digging my teeth into my lower lip, I cut my gaze to him. He wasn’t looking at me. Or her. His attention was on the object he was smoothly pulling out of his pocket.
He lifted it up for her to see. “Maybe this will answer your question.”
Chapter One
Six months earlier
“Idon’t know why you keep giving me that look.” Sabrina sat across from me on a leather egg chair, idly picking at the silicone protector attached to the corner of my office desk. “I’m not saying anything that you wouldn’t say to me if the situation was reversed.”
Probably not, but admitting that out loud would only encourage her. Besides … “I’ve told you I’ll handle it just fine, and I will.”
“I don’t doubt that you can handle it, I just don’t want you to have to.”
“Which is sweet, and I adore you for it, but you have to understand why I didn’t do as you suggested.” I set my almost-empty coffee cup on my cute fox coaster. “I’m a professional. I do not let people down.”
“The couple would have understood.”
I frowned, closing my laptop. “Understood that I’d decided to pull out of organizing their wedding just because my ex is on their guest list? Not likely.”
“There’s no ‘just because.’ You two were super serious about each other. You loved him, Addie. And that dufus loved you—probably still does. What he did hurt you big time.”
“Yeah,half a year ago. It’s not like I’m hung up on him or anything.”
“You were when I first suggested you pull out of the wedding,” she reminded me.
“He and I had only just broken up then.”
“Yeah, and I get why you chose to still forge on ahead with organizing this event. But I reserve the right to be annoyed by it, because I know it’s going to sting for you to see him and Felicity together, even though you’re over him. Andshe’llsit there looking all smug because she managed to lure him back to her. If she has the opportunity to throw verbal barbs at you, she will.”
Such was the life of a shrew.
I’d read countless romance books where the female main character got involved with a dude who had a bitch of an ex. In many of those novels, said ex strived to win the guy back. But he’d resist, he’d choose the female lead character, and they’d live happily ever after.
In real life, though, it didn’t always work out that way. Sometimes, the man chose his ex-wife, even when he swore it broke a part of him to do it.
“You know I’m right,” Sabrina added.
“She might go ahead and act like a tool,” I conceded. It honestly seemed like Felicity couldn’t help herself in that regard. “But I would never let something like that stop me from doing my job, nor would I let down my clients. Period.”
I’d started my company, Sapphire Glade Events, six years ago. While there were plenty of highs and lows to running your own business, I loved it.
A whole lot of time and effort went into designing and managing events. The work could sometimes be complicated, and the hours could be long—particularly since we were often planning several events at once.
No two were the same—each had different needs and stages, so the process of bringing one to life would vary. This also meant that, although there were some things we commonly did each day, we had no real daily routine.
So, yeah, the job could be challenging and unpredictable. Even stressful at times. But it was also highly rewarding.
I cocked my head at a sulky-looking Sabrina. “Knowing me as well as you do, did you honestly think I’d agree to pull out at any point?”
