Chapter 28
CHAPTER 28
ABIGAIL
I walked into the party on Austin’s arm, relieved as hell that we’d formulated this plan on our way over here. Hazel had suggested it, that Austin help me make Simon squirm.
Despite having been told on numerous occasions that there was nothing going on between my friend and I, we’d all seen the way Simon had risen to Austin’s bait at dinner that night. Seeing me with him tonight would definitely make Simon at least a little bit upset.
He deserved way worse after the way he’d left me to scramble for a different pitch with absolutely no notice at all, but this was a start. Break my heart, I break yours back. For his part, Austin had immediately agreed, assuring me that it was much better payback than I realized.
According to him, Simon was going to see red and lose all his shit, even if we wouldn’t necessarily see it happen. Of course, as soon as he’d agreed, he’d turned to Hazel to reassure her in turn.
“This is all for show,” he’d said. “You know you’re my actual girl.”
Hazel had laughed and rolled her eyes, as quick as always with her retort. “In your dreams.”
She’d been pleased about it, though. Her cheeks had glowed in the dim interior of Austin’s car, the bluish lights on his dashboard enough to illuminate her secret smile. Personally, I was rooting for them. I just hoped she realized sooner rather than later that she actually liked the guy.
When we’d arrived at the party, I was surprised by a few things. Mostly the size of the party itself, but also by the fact that Benny lived in a massive, suburban family home, and also by the fact that one could raise the GDP of a small country if you sold just a few of the cars lining his long driveway.
The guys’ parties always had been impressive, but this was a whole new level. Evidently, Benny had invited everyone who was someone in the city, judging by the amount of people and the cars they drove. I shook my head. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Perhaps I should take this as an omen from the universe to remind me of that.
As soon we walked in, I knew our plan for a tiny taste of revenge was working. Simon turned away from his friends and scowled when he glanced at Austin. Then he was on his feet and already on his way toward us.
I tried not to notice how good he looked in a pair of jeans and a white Henley, his short facial hair as neatly trimmed as always, but his dark hair not so perfectly styled as it was at work. Those green eyes bored into mine from across the space separating us, and I purposely looked back up at Austin.
“Here we go,” I murmured, smiling and pretending to be having the time of my life while clinging to him.
He squeezed my arm, not diverting his gaze from Simon’s approach. “I’ve got your back, baby girl. Don’t worry about it.”
Simon reached us and planted himself in our path, making sure I couldn’t just step around him without it being weird. He gave Austin a stern look before turning his gaze to mine. “We need to talk.”
My heart pounded, skipping and jumping, but I wouldn’t give in so easily. “I have nothing to say.”
“But I do,” he insisted. “Just give me one minute. That’s all I ask.”
Austin shifted forward to put himself between me and Simon. “She said that she doesn’t want to talk to you.”
“ She can speak for herself,” Simon snapped at him almost without moving his gaze from mine at all. “Who do you think you are? This doesn’t concern you.”
Austin smiled, obviously knowing that we were getting under Simon’s skin. “Well, actually, it does concern me. I’m who she came here with. Excuse us.”
As he moved to lead me away, I looked at Simon, not smiling but not forgetting what my mother had said either. “Maybe later. I’m here for the party and for Eden. Not for you.”
Leaning on Austin emotionally and maybe even a little bit physically, I let him drag me away, my entire heart yearning to go back to Simon and give him a chance to explain. Stealing my pitch was unforgivable. I just wasn’t sure if he was the one I needed to be mad at.
Austin bent his head to mine as he walked me to the bar. “Just breathe. He’s an asshole. Maybe your mom is right and there is more to it, but that doesn’t mean you have to cave as soon as he looks at you. We got to him. Let him stew in it for a while.”
I took his advice, sticking close to him and Hazel for the rest of the night and trying not to feel like a third wheel. Eden and Josh moved around the party but kept coming back to us, and eventually, the group of us wound up sitting around a fire in Benny’s backyard.
The party was still going on inside, but it was winding down a bit as people took off to clubs and other engagements. The revving of engines pierced the silence of the night as the cars outside started up, their owners racing off to whatever came next.
Frankly, I was happy I hadn’t planned anything else tonight. Benny’s last-minute invitation had already interrupted a weekend of self-care and relaxation. Gosh, I really am getting old, aren’t I?
I almost chuckled to myself at the thought, but instead, I tuned into the conversations going on around me. Josh and Eden had really been hitting it off all night, barely leaving each other’s sides and laughing a lot.
Austin and Hazel were talking quietly at the other side of the fire. I sat next to Eden, and Simon was on Josh’s other side. Both of us just kept staring at the flames, awkwardly silent, but Benny and David kept trying to draw us into conversation from where they sat at the furthest part of the fire pit from me.
Simon must’ve waited long enough. Standing up, he came over and stood right in front of me, the firelight behind him casting his face into flickering shadows similar to those I remembered from our last night together in high school. Although his features were so much sharper and more mature now, I saw the boy I had known as I looked up at him and I felt my defenses faltering.
“My dad didn’t tell me that pitch was yours.” Clearly, he’d decided that he was going to tell me what had happened, whether I wanted to hear it or not.
“Simon—” I tried to stop him, but he wouldn’t have it.
“Just hear me out,” he insisted, that alpha-hole streak of his surfacing in a big way. “What have you got to lose, Abi?”
My heart?
I didn’t say it, though. My interest had been piqued already by his mention of his father, and since it coincided with my mother’s thoughts on the matter, I finally rose. I didn’t like grudges, unnecessary anger, or even confrontation. They’d always felt like things that poisoned me from the inside and I didn’t need that.
“Fine. One more minute, Simon.” I motioned for him to start walking, and when he stalked ahead, I followed, ignoring the uncomfortable silence that had fallen between our friends.
Benny’s backyard was expansive, large enough that even though there were still people milling around outside, they wouldn’t overhear us from where Simon led me to an old wooden swing set near the back wall. With nothing better to do with my hands and needing to keep myself busy so I wouldn’t bolt, I sat down on the swing and gently started kicking my legs back and forth.
Simon leaned against the support beam, hands in the pockets of his jeans. He watched me move slowly back and forth, steadily gaining momentum. “Yesterday morning before the meeting, I got a call from my dad. He’d emailed a new pitch and insisted I use it. Now that I think of it, he even told me to go first.”
Drawing his phone out of his pocket, he clicked into his call log and turned the screen to show me the incoming call from his father—and another outgoing call to him around the time I’d been seething in the bathroom.
“I didn’t know it was your work, Abi.” He turned his screen back to himself and, a few seconds later, handed the device to me. It was open to his emails and in particular, an email forwarded to him from his dad. “He happens to know one of your interns. Don’t ask me how. He made a call, got your pitch, put it on one of our presentation templates, and sent it to me.”
I scrolled through the emails on the thread, my gaze zeroing in on the address used by the person who’d started the chain. Motherfucker!
“This is real?” I asked incredulously, my voice breathy with shock. “Adam Rose sent this to your dad?”
“It looks that way. I take it you know him.”
I shook my head. “Not for much longer.”
Simon took his phone back when I handed it over and slid it into his pocket. “I’m really sorry, Abi. I only got the call just before I walked in that morning. I didn’t even look at any of the trailing emails. I just opened the attachment and ran with the pitch, thinking that Dad had gotten some of our people to work on something new because he didn’t think mine was good enough. It wouldn’t be the first time.”
I frowned at him, genuinely confused as to how a person’s own father could do something so rotten to them. His features hardened, his brow furrowing and the corners of his mouth turning down. “I would never intentionally do anything to make you look bad. You have to know that. If I’d known it was your pitch, I never would have used it. I would never do anything to hurt you and I know you might not believe me, especially because I’ve hurt you so much in the past, but I didn’t do this, Abi. I promise.”
“I believe you,” I found myself saying, even as I sent my own father a quick message about the rat intern. I was still reeling, but the guy had to be terminated immediately. Who even knows what other information he’s stolen from the firm? Every minute he’s there poses a risk to us. A serious breach.
My heart thudded in my chest as I climbed off the swing, moving over to stand in front of Simon but not touching him. I just looked up into his eyes and felt that inescapable connection snapping back into place between us, the strands of it sparking with electricity.
“I honestly didn’t realize your father was this bad. I do believe you, Simon. There were a lot of things about this that didn’t make sense to me and this explains them all.”
He took a small step forward and lowered his forehead to mine. He didn’t touch me outside of that one point of connection, but it was like I could feel the relief and the gratitude swirling deep within him. “I’m so sorry.”
“I know.” I wanted to tell him that it was okay, but it wasn’t. “I don’t blame you for this, but I’m just going to need you to start giving me a heads-up or something when your father is involved.”
“Yeah, maybe that’s not a bad idea.” He drew in a breath and lifted his head up again, looking into my eyes and not taking a step back. “So, what’s really going on between you and that Austin guy you keep bringing around to make me jealous?”
“Was it working?” I asked, genuinely curious.
He chuckled. “You don’t have to make me jealous to get my attention, Abi. You already have it.”
I shrugged and shot him a smile. “Well, a girl can never be too sure.”
“I don’t know about other girls, but you can be sure, Abigail. You can always be sure of that with me.”
Despite myself, I almost swooned. Taking a steadying breath, I put a few feet of distance between us and asked him to tell me exactly what had happened with the intern and his dad. Simon ran me through everything he knew, which wasn’t much but it was enough.
We eventually rejoined our friends and hung out around the fire, catching up a little bit, but I couldn’t bring myself to just drop all my guards immediately. Nothing stung worse than someone you trusted stabbing you in the back. The intern and I didn’t know each other well, but it was still upsetting.
At the end of the night, when Simon insisted on walking me to Austin’s car, I agreed. Baby steps, Astor. That’s all I can take right now.
“Are you ready for Florida?” he asked after he’d opened one of the back doors for me, steadfastly ignoring my friends.
Hazel was already sitting shotgun and we’d lost Eden to Josh at some point. In an attempt to give us some privacy, Austin climbed in behind the steering wheel and I smiled at Simon, still feeling wary but not angry.
“I’m ready.” For the state and the expo, anyway. Whether I was ready to go there and work with him , I didn’t know yet. “Good night, Simon.”
“Good night, Abi.” When he bent his head forward to kiss me, I turned mine at the last moment, not ready to have his lips on any part of me other than my cheek. He let out a soft sigh but didn’t push it. “I’m going to fix this.”
I nodded. “I know. I just need some time to process. Give me a few days, okay?”
Climbing into the car without saying anything else, I buckled up and covered my face with my hands. Austin pulled away from Benny’s house, chuckling as he glanced at me in the rearview. “Our plan worked then?”
I shook my head and peeked at him from between my fingers. “It might’ve even worked a little bit too well. I don’t know, guys. I think Simon Astor and all these ups and downs with him might actually just end up killing me.”
“Not if I kill him first,” Austin said, but I knew it was an empty threat. He was just being supportive.
None of my friends were coming right out and saying it, but I knew they were rooting for me to find happiness—and I also knew they suspected I might just end up finding it with Simon. If we could survive each other.