“They won’t be there,” I say. “Asshole one and asshole two.”
Her lips tilt upward. “Can you make sure of that?”
“Absolutely.”
“Okay,” she says. “I’ll go with you.”
“Thanks. It might be boring, but being somewhere with you is always better than somewhere without.”
Her eyes soften, and then she kisses me. I deepen it in return. It’s impossible not to, with her this close.Maybe,I think,all she needs is time for her heart to heal.If I wait it out long enough, she’ll be ready.
25
SOPHIA
The car moves slowly through the New York traffic. To the left is the darkness of Central Park, and to the right, we pass building after building. I know which one is coming. Isaac is silent beside me, the car soft with the absence of sound. It’s not a heavy silence.
Ah. Here it is. Gray stone, silver sign, and the familiar green carpet. I turn my head as we pass to watch the building recede behind us. My old home.
And on the thirteenth floor is the apartment I’d moved into, so terribly in love, years ago. Our place. Except, of course, that it had been owned by Percy’s parents. It was never ours, and certainly not mine.
Never was.
I take a deep breath. Isaac has assured me that Percy and Scarlett won’t be at his parents’ tonight, and I’m not worried. But it will be a similar environment, and with some of the same people, as the parties Percy and I had once attended together.
“You’re quiet tonight,” Isaac says. His voice is steady. It’s an observation and a question, not an admonishment. He’s wearing a navy suit tonight and beneath his dark hair, his eyes meet mine. I focus on them instead of the city passing us by outside.
“I’m just thinking.”
“About anything in particular?”
“Well, I told Jenna and Toby today.”
He raises an eyebrow. “About us?”
“Yes,” I say.Us.The word makes me want to smile. “I thought it might have been too early, but with the work we’ll be doing, I’d hate for them to accidentally find out.”
“Of course,” he says. “Better to control the narrative. What did you tell them?”
“That we’re attracted to one another and have decided to date, but that the business deal is still our main priority.”
His lips tip up in a half-smile. “Good.”
“Honestly, they were much less surprised than I expected,” I say. Frankly, they’d been stoked. They know about my divorce, and that the circumstances around it hadn’t been… ideal.Get back out there,Jenna had said. “Apparently Toby’s fiancé Quentin was once his superior at Exciteur. I had no idea!”
“Workplace romances,” Isaac says, “are much more common than you’d think.”
“This is my first one.”
His eyes warm. “Yeah, I’ve never been in one either.”
“Really?”
“No,” he says, “unless you count one summer when I worked in the hotel reception after graduating high school.”
My eyes widen. “Did you have a torrid affair with your boss?”
“I did not,” he says, “but I did have a summer flirt with a receptionist a few years older than me.”