Chapter 31
THIRTY-ONE
I slipped off my shoes and hung my purse on the hook next to the door, then stared at my apartment.
It was the same place I’d lived for the past two years, but right now, it felt empty. Or maybe my apartment was normal and it was my soul that was empty.
I hadn’t gone home from work early for anything less serious than vomiting since Matchify’s inception. I’d made an exception today—even if it was only an hour early.
I hadn’t heard back from Grant about the article yet. I missed him so much, I could feel it in my heart. Not the metaphorical emotion center of my body. My actual, blood-pumping heart. More than anyone else, I needed him here. I’d get the truth from him. The calm but unvarnished truth.
I’d been hiding and fearing truths about myself for years, but Grant? He made the truth less terrifying. He didn’t conceal it or shy away from it. He sought it out willingly and sunk his teeth into it.
Right now, that was what I needed. I was facing hard truths about myself and Matchify, and I had tough decisions about the future. I couldn’t make those decisions out of fear.
I took a long, hot shower, then blew my hair dry, wondering how I was going to break the news at the board meeting about our funding options drying up and the scandal I’d brought on Matchify.
An insistent knock sounded, and I set the blow dryer down. I hesitated. I was still in my towel.
The knock repeated, and the muffled but familiar voice of Katie accompanied it, demanding entry.
I hurried to the door, opened it, then blinked.
Katie, Jackie, Brooke, and Nick stared back at me, each with a bag in hand.
Katie pushed past me. “We brought dinner. And the results of our investigation.”
I moved aside for the others to come in.
The fact that Nick was here was a big deal.
He and his wife had been married for two years, but they still acted like newlyweds who feared they might spontaneously self-destruct if they spent more than a few hours away from each other.
He missed our founder get-togethers more often than not.
“What investigation?” I asked as I shut the door.
“It was Alex,” Katie said.
I raised my brows expectantly, waiting for her to expound.
“Forgive her,” Brooke said to me as she put a hand on Katie’s shoulder. “She’s…upset. What she means is that Alex was the one who leaked your compatibility score to Tanner.”
“Little skeezeball,” Katie said, pulling little white containers full of Chinese food from her bag with unnecessary violence.
“Apparently, Tanner used LinkedIn to contact some Matchify employees for information about you and Grant. None of them would give him the time of day. Except Alex.”
A flash of gratitude for my employees warmed my chest.
That Alex had been Tanner’s source made sense. I should’ve thought of it, but with everything else going on, I’d kind of forgotten about him. Ironic, given that he was the one who started the whole 12% debacle.
“We thought you might like some company tonight,” Nick said. “And food, obviously.”
“Perhaps after you’re clothed,” Brooke whispered.
I got dressed, and we sat on the floor surrounding my coffee table, covered in enough food to feed a group twice our size as we discussed the article from The Sentinel.
“How’d they even find Chase?” Brooke asked.
“Probably Alex,” Katie said bitterly.
I laughed at the resentment in her voice. It felt good to laugh. “I don’t know who it could’ve been. It’s not like I parade my dating history around the office.”
“I hate to ask this,” Brooke said with a wary look at me, “but…are you sure it wasn’t Grant?”
“Yes,” I said, even though the question stung.
“What has he said about the article?” Nick asked, biting into a wonton.
“Nothing yet,” I said.
“What do you mean?” Jackie asked.
“He…um…hasn’t responded to my text about it.”
It went quiet, and the little flicker of doubt in my chest intensified in the silence.
My heart insisted Grant wasn’t behind the article, but what if I was wrong? What if his boss had made all the convincing arguments to him about why he should, at the very least, help The Sentinel with the article?
Fear’s fingers started curling around my chest, one by one.
I pried them off. “It wasn’t Grant.”
“Then who?” Brooke asked.
“It wouldn’t be that hard to connect Vivian to Chase,” Katie argued, getting up with her cup. “This is the digital age—right, Jackie?”
Jackie nodded while she finished chewing an egg roll. “Definitely. And publications like The Sentinel know how to find the information they want.”
“Ooh, where’d you get this, Viv?” Katie asked from the kitchen.
I sat up straighter to see what she was referring to, but I couldn’t see, so I stood.
She was hunched over, looking at the glass bowl I’d put Grant’s dead plant in.
I squinted, then stepped over Nick and went over.
If I hadn’t been 100% confident in my building security, I would’ve thought someone had come in and replaced the tumbleweed with something else. The crusty brown had unfurled into a fern-like plant, green and lush.
“I’ve always wanted one of these,” Katie said. “The time lapses of them are mesmerizing.”
“What is it?”
“Rose of Jericho,” Katie said. “Or Resurrection Plant, depending on who you ask. It can survive years without water.” She touched one of the fronds.
I stared at it, quiet. Grant hadn’t given me baby tumbleweed. He’d given me a Rose of Jericho.
He’d said it had reminded him of me.
“How much was it?” Katie asked.
“I don’t know,” I said absently. “Grant gave it to me. I thought it was a dead plant—his idea of a joke.”
“That’s…really sweet, actually,” Katie said. “How many guys would give their woman a Rose of Jericho—or even know it existed?” She looked up. “Nick! What are the last flowers you gave Hailey?”
“Roses,” he responded. “Why?”
“Just curious,” Katie said, but she shot me a raised brow like case in point. She grabbed a glass from my cupboard and filled it at my fridge. “It’s official,” she said to the entire group. “Grant didn’t do it.”
“Oh!” Brooke said suddenly, holding her phone. “Lauren Chen from Stratus said yes to a meeting, Viv. She asked if tomorrow at ten would work. She had a cancelation in her schedule.”
I took a breath. Would I be in the right headspace to meet with a VC firm tomorrow?
I needed to get in the right headspace. That was the reality.
“That works,” I said.
The doorbell rang, and the room went quiet as all of us looked at each other.
“It’s probably Hailey,” Katie muttered to me. “Where’s the closest closet?” She avoided Hailey like the plague, and I didn’t blame her. Hailey wasn’t a Katie fan.
I strode to the door and opened it.