I punched a hole in the wall when she hung up the phone.
I fucked up.
Badly.
I hadn’t expected to lose my flash drive in the tub when we’d been making out like a couple of teenagers. I hadn’t thought twice about shedding my clothes and making love to her. I hadn’t thought that it would be a big deal for us to share that time together, to touch one another. She’d been incredible, though, and that had been the moment when I realized that I really didn’t want to do anything to hurt her.
I didn’t get a chance to tell her I’d changed my mind.
There was no option to tell her I wasn’t going to go through with it, after all. In Paige’s mind, I had invited her to the gala, and then I’d essentially revealed my evil plan to go along with it. It had been nefarious. It had been horrible.
And I didn’t think there was going to be any coming back from that.
I tried calling her a few more times. I still had to do a few things at the office, but I called Caleb and asked if he could come in to help me out.
“Not a problem,” he said.
“Are you sure?” I said. “I’ll pay you for the trouble of course.”
“It’s fine,” he said. “I’m not doing anything today, and I like to think I know my way around the office better than most.”
“It means a lot to me.”
“Boss?”
“Yeah?”
“Is this about Paige?”
Caleb had always been wildly observant. Of course, he would realize that this had something to do with Paige. He would be the one to guess that my wild and random need for him to replace me for the day had something to do with that.
“I don’t think that’s any of your business,” I pointed out.
“Mr. Locke, I know it’s not, but I have some advice.”
Shit.
I needed Caleb, so I wasn’t going to tell him to shove his advice up his backside. He really was the only one I trusted to come in and help with the gala stuff. He knew his way around art, but he also knew his way around caterers and event organizers.
“I’m listening,” I said, gritting out the words. If Caleb was surprised, it wasn’t reflected in his tone.
“You messed up,” he said simply.
“That’s not advice, Caleb.”
“You need to make it up to her.”
“How do you know I messed up?” I asked him, feeling wildly defensive. He didn’t know. He had no way of knowing.
“If you hadn’t, you wouldn’t be calling me on a Saturday afternoon to come talk to people bringing in banquet forms for you to sign,” he said.
“Fine.”
“Mr. Locke, I’ve dated many people, and one thing I’ve learned is that people don’t like to be lied to, and they don’t like to be tricked. It doesn’t really matter what happened. What matters is what Paige thinks happened. What matters is how she feels.”
He was right, and I knew it. I wasn’t about to open myself up for more advice, though. I’d taken what I could handle.
“Thank you, Caleb.”