Five
Noa
Staring down at my phone, I paced back and forth, barefoot, across the living room of my hotel suite.
I shouldn’t have responded to him. I’d told myself on the drive back that I would mourn the loss of a friendship and let him go.
But, dang it, he’d sent the text, and I hadn’t been able to ignore it.
The door made a sound as the key card tapped it, but didn’t unlock it.
I’d bolted the thing to keep Arden out. I’d sent his calls to voicemail and ignored his texts since leaving him without saying anything.
But he deserved it. He’d just sat there and not said anything when Ransom and Opal Carver were rude to me.
The way he’d been looking at Opal also wasn’t appropriate for an engaged man.
But did he really think of himself as engaged?
He didn’t want me wearing the ring in public.
The reasons for keeping it a secret were no longer relevant.
And honestly, I was questioning the entire thing.
I wasn’t so sure I wanted to be married to him.
Right now, I didn’t think I liked him very much.
“Open the door, Noa,” Arden called out.
I rolled my eyes. He was going to wake up the entire floor. Stalking over to the door, I unlocked it and swung it open to glare at him.
“What?” I hissed.
He pushed past me and came inside. God, I wasn’t in the mood for this. I had Ransom to deal with. Which … shouldn’t be more important than talking to my fiancé about how he had treated me tonight. But oddly, it was.
Yeah, I had issues.
“Your leaving was rude and childish,” he began.
Oh, no. He wasn’t getting to do that. I was done listening to him correct me.
“I wasn’t the one who was rude. But if you hadn’t been drooling all over Opal Carver, then you’d have noticed that,” I shot back at him.
He stopped walking and turned to look at me. “What? Are you serious?”
I stood there and placed a hand on my hip, then did a quick peek at my phone to see if Ransom had responded or not to my text. He hadn’t.
“Very,” I replied.
“She’s an author that I’m working with, Noa.”
I nodded. “I’m well aware of that.”
“Then you understand that this is important for my career, and you walking out like a spoiled diva who wasn’t getting enough attention didn’t help.”
A what? Was he serious?
“I don’t …” I paused. “I’m not sure what to say to that.”
He threw up his hands in exasperation. “Well, you need to say something. Because tonight made me question a lot of things about you.”
I nodded. “Yeah, same with me. I think it’s best if you get your own room for the night.”
He pointed at his chest. “ME? You’re kicking me out of a suite that I booked? If you have an issue, then you can get another room.”
Normally, I would do exactly that. The Noa I had been would have cowered, apologized, taken her things, and walked away, dejected.
But, dammit, after being treated like I had from Ransom and his sister tonight, I was done being a doormat.
My chest hurt, and it had nothing to do with Arden. He was just an added annoyance.
“Was this room booked with your card or the business card?” I asked, straightening my shoulders as I challenged him. I’d never done this before.
His brows drew together in confusion. Yeah, well, I was surprising myself too.
“Why does that matter?” he countered.
Don’t back down now, Noa.
My heart was racing in my chest as I stared back at him. I was pretty sure I might be on the verge of an anxiety attack.
“Oh, well, I don’t know. But I’m sure when I speak with Dawson about my having to get my own room and you staying in the suite, he’ll find that … interesting.”
I watched as his eyes narrowed. He didn’t like being threatened. I wasn’t one to threaten people. Dawson Diaglo, the publisher at Wilson Roe Publishing and his boss, was one hell of a threat. Especially for it to be the first one I’d ever thrown out.
“You’re threatening me with my boss?” he asked.
“It’s not a threat,” I replied, but it was. And I knew I’d never go through with it.
He said nothing for several moments, then turned and headed for the bedroom.
I wasn’t sure what he was doing in there, but from the slamming around, I assumed he was packing his things.
I hadn’t wanted to even come on this trip.
I was in the middle of a manuscript. He’d made it sound like a romantic getaway, then turned it into a business trip once we arrived.
When he came walking out with his suitcase, I wasn’t sure if this meant he was getting another room or leaving altogether.
“I think we need some space,” he said, stopping when he reached me. “I’ll need your first twenty-five thousand words by next Wednesday. I want to read over it and make sure it’s going to meet expectations.”
And there was his casual threat. He wanted to remind me that he edited my work.
“Okay.”
When I didn’t say more, he continued on toward the door. I waited until I heard it close behind him before blowing out a breath and walking over to sink onto the sofa. This night just seemed to get worse by the second.
The sound of a new text broke the silence, and I stared straight ahead, not sure if I wanted to read it or not.
When Ransom had texted me, asking what I was up to, I had tried hard to ignore it, and then I’d given in and shot him back a response.
At least it had been short and not at all like my normal responses.
My curiosity at his reaction to my simple reply of, Work , got the better of me, and I picked up my phone and opened the screen to read his response.
Ransom: One word? That’s all I get?
“Yeah, well, you were an asshole tonight,” I muttered.
My fingers hovered over the screen. He didn’t deserve a response.
Until whatever that had been at the coat check, he’d been cruel.
Or maybe that was too harsh. I had seen it as cruel because I knew him.
He didn’t know me. Was my reaction to his treatment because I had wanted him to see me differently?
I’d wanted to be that female who got the sexy smile from him and know how it felt to be found attractive by Ransom Carver. I might as well admit it to myself.
I put my phone down without responding. I’d say something tomorrow. When this wasn’t so fresh and I wasn’t so sensitive. God, why did I have to make it a thing?
Pressing my fingers to my temples, I massaged them in slow circles and closed my eyes. I should have stayed home this weekend. Then none of this would have happened.
“I told you the last time I was there that I didn’t like how he spoke to you,” Jellie said over the speakerphone while I put on my mascara.
“I know. I think I just didn’t want the drama or conflict of it all,” I admitted.
That was something I’d come to terms with. I hated any and all conflict, to the point that I shied away from it. Did whatever I could to keep the peace.
“Yeah, well, I don’t mind conflict. In fact, I thrive on it. I’m tempted to get on a train and come show the bastard just how well I handle it.”
I grinned and shook my head as I looked at myself in the mirror. Jellie had always been ready to take on an entire army if it got in her way. I loved that about her. If only it had rubbed off on me, but it hadn’t.
“If you want to jump on a train and come see me, then please, yes, do. But you’re not going near Arden.”
She let out a dramatic whine. “But I want to.”
Laughing, I screwed the mascara top that held the brush back into the tube, then put it in my makeup bag that she had given me two years ago on my birthday.
It was purple with pink fairies on it and said, Please don’t fuck with my shit , in lovely pink script.
Even in my worst moods, it made me grin when I read it. So very Jellie.
“So, this Opal Carver—she’s from Mississippi?” Jellie asked, although she already knew that.
I’d mentioned it when telling her about my evening. I left out the part about Ransom being a guy I’d been texting since I had been sixteen years old.
“Yep,” I replied.
“Do you think she’s angling for Arden?”
I wasn’t sure. “She doesn’t know we’re engaged. No one but you knows. So, it wouldn’t be angling, I don’t think. But if she wanted him, she could have him. She’s stunning. He was basically worshipping at her feet.”
“YOU are stunning. You just can’t seem to see it. And if he was worshipping at some bitch’s feet, he gotta go. Take that ring he doesn’t want you wearing in public and shove it up his ass.”
I’d already put it back in the velvet box it had come in and placed it on the kitchen counter. I wasn’t sure if I was going to give it back or not. He hadn’t texted or called me since I had gotten home yesterday. But Ransom had sent several texts. Five, to be exact.
“I think … I think … well, I think we outgrew each other. In the beginning, it was all new and exciting. My first book was a project that we both were a part of, and the whirlwind of all that kind of became our relationship. Since I’d never had a real relationship before, I didn’t understand that it wasn’t normal, I guess.
I don’t know. I just … I wish I hadn’t said yes.
It would be less sticky if we’d just been dating. ”
“I thought he was perfect for you too. Took me a minute to see past his facade.”
I wasn’t sure there was a facade. I’d just seen things differently.
My naivety when it came to men had led me to believe that was what it was supposed to be like.
Working with him as my editor would be complicated, and I didn’t want to send him my current manuscript to read. But I wasn’t sure I had a choice.
A text came through on my phone, and I reached over to pick it up and saw Ransom’s name. I was going to need to respond. I just didn’t know how. I saw him in a new light too. It seemed my entire world was being flipped upside down.