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I hail a cab and message Connor.
Operation Zeppelin is on track. I’m on my way.
Roger that.
When we arrive in Hell’s Kitchen, I hop out of the cab and stand across the road looking into the restaurant. I can’t see much, so I tug my black bomber jacket tighter around me and curse the six years I’ve spent in the warm Mexican climate. The cold is going to take some getting used to.
I cross the road and see her beautiful face before anyone else.
Isabelle.
It’s been a long fucking week that feels more like half a lifetime. She looks different and yet the same. She’s wearing a black dress that scoops low, showing the tops of her breasts. I can’t make out the delicate pendant she’s wearing, but it's sparkling. Unlike her eyes.
She’s laughing at something Nathan is saying, but her smile doesn’t meet her eyes and I want to barge inside and change that.
Instead, I stand in the shadow and wait as Todd and Blond Guy walk in.
Isabelle is in the middle of a sentence when she spots him. She stops talking, her face following them as Todd is greeted with familiarity and shown to a table.
I watch as she swallows and looks confused.
Connor catches my eye and nods.
That’s my cue.
––––––––
ISTEP INSIDE the restaurantas Connor motions to a server to create another table setting for me. In true Barrett fashion, the world revolves around him, and it’s done in thirty seconds.
Right beside Isabelle.
“Hello, darlin’,” I say, sitting down and placing my arm along the back of her chair.
The entire room hears her gasp.
“Deck,” Mack says.
“Hey dick,” Nate says, and we fist punch across the table while Mia and Sienna stare at me with their mouths parted.
“Ladies.” I nod.
“Hey,” Mia says, her eyes darting at once to Isabelle and then to Connor with narrowed eyes that clearly sayI knew you were up to something.He simply lifts his glass and takes a drink with that poker face of his.
Isabelle takes a long sip of her wine and spills it down her front. I hand her a napkin, and she glares at me.
“What are you doing here?” she asks, glancing over my shoulder to Todd.
She’s flustered.
I would be too, if I were her. Todd had his hand in the small of the man’s back when they walked through the restaurant, and while it’s probably taking a little while to compute, she has to know.
Everyone who sees them knows they are a gay couple.
Nothing wrong with that unless you are engaged to a woman.
“Wondering why you’re sitting here while the man you are supposed to be marrying is across the room?” I reply, stealing Mack’s water and taking a long sip.
I feel like a bit of an asshole, but it’s time for Isabelle to face the truth. About who Todd really is. And how she feels about me.
