“Fuck off.” Griffin grimaces.
“Happily,” I reply as I glance at my watch. I have an early meeting with Stuart in the morning and it’s already later than I thought. “You want to fly back together now?” I tip my head toward the door as I throw some bills down onto the bar and catch the bartender’s eye with a nod.
“Ha, the fuck, ha,” Griffin replies, standing from his seat. He gives me a wry smile as I pat him on the shoulder.
“Thanks, man.”
His hand claps on top of mine. “Don’t mention it.”
We walk back together. Harley’s bedroom door is closed when I get home and I pause outside it, straining to hear if she’s still awake. Not that I would expect her to be at this time. A soft, sleepy moan, followed by the shuffling of sheets as she moves in bed are the only sounds that I can make out.
I’ll have left before she gets up in the morning. Maybe it’s a good thing. Because the more time I spend with her, the harder it is not to give in to the urge to pull her to me and see what those pretty pink lips of hers taste like.
But it’s like she keeps reminding me. This entire thing is fake. For show.A lie.
And if trying to set me up with another woman isn’t a blaring, flashing, loud enough signal that she does not see me in any other way than a ‘fake’ boyfriend, then I don’t know what is.
“We’re in good shape. Early whisperings are that you’re the front runner.” Stuart stretches his arms behind his head and the cracking of his back echoes around the room.
“Says who?” I circle a figure in the paperwork I’m reading. Sixteen hundred rapes in the city of New York in the previous twelve months.Sixteen hundred.And that’s only the reported ones.
Acid burns in the pit of my stomach as I throw my pen down on top of the paper and give my attention over to Stuart.
“Says everyone.” He grins. “Of course, it does help that you have the panther on your team.”
I look at his shit-eating grin and chuckle, despite the fact my main setting has been ‘grumpy fucker’ throughout our breakfast meeting. I can’t shake the look on Harley’s face as I stormed out last night from my mind. She was stunned. The way her mouth fell open before I left her standing there, the hint of panic in her voice as she called after me. She’s probably wondering what kind of asshole she’s living with.
“Come on, spill.”
“Pardon?”
Stuart sighs and leans back in his chair, twizzling his pen between his finger and thumb as he surveys me. “You. There’s something up with you. You’ve barely said two words all morning.”
“It’s nothing,” I murmur. “Just a small misunderstanding with Harley.”
“Right.” He purses his lips and drops his pen onto the desk.
“Nothing worth mentioning.”
“No, course not.” Stuart holds his palms up toward me. “I guess it must suck, though. I mean, if you were a real couple, you could have banged each other’s brains out during makeup sex and be over it by now.”
The thought alone is enough to make my redundant dick stir in my pants. “Yeah, well. We’re not.”
“So go beat your frustrations out in another way. Have a run, hit the punch bag, go to one of those places where you get a bat, and smash shit up. Do whatever you need to get your head back in the game. It’s not long until the election and I need you focused. One million percent, you understand?”
“I am.” I clench my jaw. “Nothing is more important to me than winning this thing.”
Stuart nods. He knows I mean it. He knows I’m driven to landing the role of mayor, and he’s sure as hell been witness to my determination and thirst for it since working together. But not even he knows what truly motivates me. Only my family and Griffin know that.
“Better still, go tell Harley you’re sorry for whatever shit went down.”
I snap my eyes to his. There’s no use in pointing out that the ‘shit that went down’ might not have even been my fault in the first place. He won’t care. All he will care about is that I’ve got my game face on. Plus, from the handful of times he’s met Harley, he’s already enamored by her, as most people are. She’s got this easy, genuine way about her. Her eyes light up when she’s speaking, and she gives everyone her full attention. You feel like you’re the fucking king when you have her eyes on you. She shines like the sun. I swear, if her beloved plants were put in a completely darkened room, they would still flourish if they had her in there with them. Given the choice, if people were asked who they like more out of the two of us, I know what would happen. She would wipe the floor with me.
Every. Single. Time.
“And while you’re at it, you can make sure she’s free for the retreat?”
“Is Shannon coming?”