“Terrific,” I say.
“I’ll see you there.”
“Can’t wait.”
Isaac extends a hand. “Well, always a pleasure, Browne.”
His voice drips with the opposite meaning.
Percy shakes the offered hand. “Likewise, Winter… Soph.”
“Bye,” I say and lean into Isaac’s side. He supports me away from my ex-husband. Away from the situation, and through the crowd.
Perhaps people are looking. Perhaps they all are, but I can’t see anything, can’t focus on the goings-on around us.
“Oh my God. I’m sorry, Isaac, I shouldn’t have said yes. Of course, I won’t force you to do that. I’ll get us out of playing doubles, I just had to… wow.”
“You’re okay,” Isaac says quietly and pulls open a door that saysStaff Only.“In here.”
We walk up a flight of old stone steps and emerge onto a small balcony, complete with lounge chairs, that overlooks the vaulted hall beneath us. It’s replete with guests, servers, and music.
I sink down onto one of the chairs. “I’m sorry,” I say again. “Don’t know what came over me, truly.”
He takes a seat opposite me and reaches for my empty champagne flute. I watch as he sets it down gingerly on the stone floor. “It’s all good.”
“It is?”
“Yes.”
I lean back in the chair and close my eyes. “He didn’t seem unbothered. Did he?”
“No,” Isaac says, “he definitely didn’t.”
“Good.” I take a deep breath, then another. “He’s here with her.”
“With who?”
“The woman I caught him with in your hotel. Scarlett.”
There’s a quiet curse from the man opposite me, so unexpected it makes me smile.
“Yes,” I say. “Exactly.”
“That’s who he’s partnering with in the tournament, too?”
“Yes.”
There’s complete silence from Isaac. And then, in sepulchral tones: “No offence to you, Bishop, but your ex-husband is a son of a bitch.”
A laugh slips out of me. “Yes. Quite literally.”
“He taunted you by saying it would be a contest. Between her and you.” Disgust drips from Isaac’s voice. “The motherfucker.”
I look up at the vaulted ceiling and the intricate designs and laugh. It’s a fight against the constriction of my tight dress. “Yes,” I say. “That, too, although not literally. Not that I know of, anyway.
“We’re beating them at tennis.”
“We are?”