Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 96802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
“Tell her to leave,” I said.
Katherine shook her head just once. “I can’t.”
“I didn’t know that was still happening,” Whitley said gently.
“It’s whatever,” Katherine said dismissively. But she hadn’t taken her eyes off of the woman.
“Why is that okay?” I asked her.
Katherine lifted one shoulder. “Because she’s nothing. And if I send her home, then she wins.”
“No, she doesn’t. She wins if you let her stay,” Whitley said. “I’ll send her home if you don’t.”
“No,” Katherine said harshly. “Trust me. It’s not worth it.”
And my heart broke for Katherine in that moment. I didn’t think that I’d have it in me. Having Natalie and Fiona in the same place, in her space. Sometimes, I didn’t understand the Upper East Side at all.
31
Court
“What the fuck is Fiona doing here?” I asked Camden.
He looked at me. “Why do you think she’s here?”
“I thought you’d moved on from her. Why do you even like her?”
“What makes you think that I like her?”
And he was serious. This woman he’d been sleeping with on and off for years, and supposedly, he had no real feelings for her.
Camden was my best friend. I didn’t judge him. He didn’t judge me. But that didn’t mean that I always understood him.
“Don’t go to see her, man,” I said instead.
He smirked. “Why ever not?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Your wife maybe?”
“Katherine doesn’t care.”
I snorted. “Like hell.”
Camden’s eyes darkened, but he remained silent. Just staring at his little Playboy bunny standing on the edge of the booth.
“Why don’t you just tell Katherine how you feel?”
“And how do I feel?” Camden asked.
“You love her.”
Camden didn’t even meet my gaze. “Is that what you think?”
“I can’t think of another reason why you’d marry her.”
“It’s an arranged marriage,” he said flatly, finally looking at me. “A contract. A business transaction. That’s it, Court. Feel free to delude yourself with romantic platitudes in your own life, but don’t attribute them to mine.”
“Fine,” I bit back.
“And anyway, if Katherine cared one way or another, then she’d send Fiona away. Let’s wait and see if she does.”
His eyes shifted to his wife where she stood with Whitley and English. She watched Fiona like a hawk. There was nothing in her expression. She was carefully blank. Then, after a minute, she turned her back on Fiona and the whole situation.
“See?” Camden said as if that proved his point.
But I didn’t think that it did.
Not that he seemed to care as he patted my shoulder and then strode away from me, straight to Fiona.
“Idiot,” I muttered under my breath.
Sam raised his eyebrows. He must have caught the tail end of that conversation. “Well, the Upper East Side is sure showing its true colors tonight, huh?”
I laughed. Leave it to Sam to cut straight to the point. “You have no idea.”
“Am I supposed to understand what’s happening between Katherine and Camden?”
“Not the slightest. I still don’t get it.”
“Good. But I’m happy for you at least,” he said with a smile. “You and English actually work together. It’s a miracle.”
“A bit. Though I guess I should thank you, too. You were the one who made me stop fighting her on everything back in the Hamptons.”
Sam shrugged. “Hey, I just told you to stop acting like a dipshit.”
“Worked out.”
“It did. I’m going to grab another drink,” Sam said. “Want anything?”
“Nah, I’m good.” I held up my still-half-full dirty martini.
Sam nodded and then headed to the bar.
I was just about to go steal English away from the girls when my brother appeared in front of me.
I arched an eyebrow. “Penn.”
To my surprise, he stuck his hand out. We shook, and it was amicable. No posturing of any kind. This wasn’t the same person who had ditched me when I first started back at the company. There might even be repentance in the blue eyes that matched mine.
“So, you’re still with the company, and you’re dating English,” Penn said. “That’s all new.”
“Yeah. That’s right.”
“She seems to be good for you.”
“We work,” I told him. “Mother even offered her a job with the company, and she turned it down. She wasn’t even mad that we were together.”
Penn’s eyes darkened. They shifted back to Natalie. “Guess she only made that mistake once.”
“Thanks for taking the brunt of it.”
Penn just shook his head. “I don’t know how to say it,” he said with a sigh. “But I acted like a dick the last time we were together. I thought you were just fucking around, but you’ve really done a one-eighty.”
I mockingly put my hand to my chest. “Is that almost an apology?”
He snorted. “Yes. And don’t make me regret it.”
I laughed and held my drink up to his. He clinked his against mine, and we both took a swallow.
“How did it even happen?” Penn asked. “I thought everything you were doing was all bullshit.”
“It was,” I told him honestly. “But for one, English believed in me. And two, somehow, I just stopped pretending. And I realized this was just me.”