Chapter 10
Sutton
My phone buzzed as I walked up the stairs from the subway, a block away from the Copa. I answered with a smile on my face.
“I know you’re calling at seven PM on a Friday night to make sure I’m not home alone wallowing, and you’ll be happy to know I’m on my way to a bar.”
“Shit,” Miles said. “I guess you saw the post?”
“What post?”
The line went quiet. “Wait, why are you going to a bar instead of going home to wallow?”
“Because it’s a work happy hour and I was invited?” I left off that the bar was the place I’d met Jagger and almost hooked up with him—and also happened to be the building he lived in.
“Oh. Shoot. Okay…forget I called. Go have a great time.” He paused and then added an awkward, “Woohoo! Happy hour.”
What is he up to? “No so fast. What post were you calling about?”
“Eh, it’s not important.”
“Miles Brighton Hartley, you know I can’t just forget that you have gossip juicy enough to call me about.”
He groaned. “Just this once, try. Keep off social media and enjoy your evening.”
“Hang on a second.” Of course, I did the exact opposite of what he’d just told me because now I needed to know. Lowering my phone, I was about to swipe to go on to social media, but a missed call stopped me. My mother. A pit formed in my stomach. If my mother was calling me, that meant—
I swiped the missed call away and went straight to Instagram. One, two…three scrolls in, and the reason for Miles’s call smacked me square in the face.
Colette looking up at Brendan with a big smile—as she held out a sonogram picture. I stopped in place on the busy New York City sidewalk. Someone cursed and stepped around me.
“Move it, lady!”
“What the fuck!” another guy said.
“Get out of the damn way!” a woman spat.
After the third person yelled at me, I managed to step out of the flow of traffic and stand against a building. I’d almost forgotten I was on the phone until I heard a faint voice in the distance.
“Sutton, are you there?”
I lifted the cell back to my ear. “Sorry, yeah, I’m here.”
“You just went on Instagram, didn’t you?”
I nodded, though Miles clearly couldn’t see me. “Why does it hurt? I mean, this was inevitable. He married her, for God’s sake.”
“Because you did all the hard work for nothing, that’s why. That man would be wearing a gray zip-up hoodie and Crocs if you hadn’t helped him. It’s like someone buying your fully trained dog after three years of you cleaning up its piss.”
I smiled sadly. “I really need to move on.”
“You have moved on. What you need is to move up and down.”
I took a deep breath and let it out on a big sigh. “Yeah.”
“I’m sorry I ruined your night, cookie.”
“You didn’t ruin it. I’m actually glad I found out before I had a few drinks.”
“Are you still going to go for happy hour?”
I felt even less like mingling with strangers now, not to mention my feet were starting to hurt in these heels, but I knew myself—going home would only make it worse. “Yeah, I’m going to go for at least a little while.”
“Excellent. Maybe find some dork who works in a different department with a face made for radio and a body made for the big screen.”
“Why does he need to have a radio-worthy face?”
“Because men tend to only look in the mirror when they go to the bathroom, which means they just see their face. The homely guys forget they have a killer bod and feel like they have to work twice as hard in the bedroom to make up for it.”
“I can’t tell if you’re a genius or you just make this stuff up.”
“Only one way to find out. Bring a homely boy home and take him for a test ride.”
I shook my head. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“You better.”
I stayed in the same spot for a long time, staring at the people moving along the sidewalk, yet not really seeing them while completely lost in thought.
Then I did the inevitable—called up Instagram again to take a closer look at the stupid picture.
The sparkling diamond on the hand holding up the sonogram hurt less the second time, but my heart still had a welt on it from the first wallop.
Somehow, though, I managed to tuck my phone into my purse, force one foot in front of the other, and walk the next block to happy hour.
Or perhaps now more appropriately called gloom hour.
Though a few buildings down from the entrance, my steps again abruptly came to a halt.
This time, to watch a man open the door for a woman.
Jagger put his hand on the tall blonde’s back—the small of her back—and guided her inside.
My heart sank. They walked side by side to an elevator bank where they waited, then disappeared, all smiles.
My heart twisted in my chest, and I felt tears threatening.
Which was absolutely ridiculous—seeing a man I’d met less than two weeks ago with another woman should not hurt more than seeing that my ex was having a baby with my stepsister.
Especially since Jagger and I had never done more than a little flirting.
Yet I couldn’t help what I felt. Disappointment left a deep pain in my chest, and I wasn’t sure what to do next.
As if on cue, my phone buzzed from my pocket. Needing a distraction, I pulled it out.
Miles: Just wanted to say how proud of you I am for not letting the jackrabbit ruin your night.
Also, I hate my homophobic father more than ever because he wouldn’t let me try out for the cheerleading squad like I wanted to in fifth grade.
Otherwise, I’d have pom-poms and would be waving them around right now because I’m your biggest cheerleader. Love you! XO
Damn him. I sniffled back the stupid tears that threatened. Now I couldn’t skip the bar, pick up a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Half Baked, and go home and eat the entire thing in bed like I was three seconds away from doing. I had to suck it up and do better. And I didn’t want to. Grrr.
Taking a deep breath, I managed to make myself walk the rest of the way to the bar on the ground floor of what’s his name’s building.
The last time I was at the Copa it was busy, but tonight it was packed.
And I was pretty sure it was mostly Apex employees.
I recognized a few faces as I made my way to the bar.
Even if the last ten minutes hadn’t packed a one-two punch, I usually needed a little alcohol to take the edge off of mingling with strangers.
A glass of wine made my inherent awkwardness feel slightly less clumsy.
Eyeing an empty spot at the far end of the bar, I made my way over. The same bartender who’d been working the last time I was here approached and put down a coaster. “How you doing? What can I get you tonight?”
“I’ll take a merlot, please.” The image of Jagger touching the tall blonde’s back flashed in my head, and I lifted my hand just as the bartender went to walk away. “On second thought, I need something stronger. How about a cosmo instead, please?”
He nodded. “Coming right up.”
I surveyed the crowd as I waited. A few minutes later, the bartender came back with a frosty silver shaker and martini glass. He shook before pouring red liquid to the brim.
“You here for the Apex happy hour?”
“I am, actually.”
“What’s the password?”
“The password?”
He nodded. “They give out a new one each month so we know who we should put on the running tab and who we shouldn’t.”
“Oh. I didn’t realize that. I just started at Apex this week.” I lifted my purse. “No big deal. I’ll just pay for it.”
I was still digging for my wallet when a hand touched the middle of my back.
I knew it wasn’t Jagger because I didn’t have goosebumps and the little hairs on my arms weren’t standing up.
But also because this hand placement was more innocent and not on my lower back—where Jagger’s had also been with his date earlier.
“Hey there.” Jack smiled. “Glad you decided to come.”
I forced a smile back. “Yeah, me too. Thanks for telling me about it.” I finally produced my credit card.
Jack pointed his eyes down to it. “The drinks are free.”
“I didn’t know the password.”
“Oh, shit. Sorry about that. It’s Hercules tonight.” He looked to the waiting bartender. “She’s with Apex.”
He nodded. “I’ll add it to the tab.”
“Thanks.” Jack leaned an elbow casually on the bar, facing me. “So what did you think of your first week?”
“It was a little overwhelming. Loads of meetings, but I learned a lot.”
“The data-science department is pretty big. Do you want to be a financial analyst?”
I shook my head. “I like the backend side of finance. My master’s is in mathematical and computational finance with an emphasis in quantitative algorithms.”
Jack sipped his drink and grinned. “I don’t even know what that means.”
“It’s just a fancy way of saying I’m a math geek who’s good at building computer models that help simplify quantum trading.”
Two guys I hadn’t met before walked over. One slung an arm around Jack’s neck. “Are you hiding in the corner trying to hog the pretty intern all to yourself?”
Jack rolled his eyes. “I’m going to apologize in advance for these two boneheads.
They lost a bet at the office and have to do shots every half hour.
” He sighed and gestured between us. “Mo and Larry, this is Sutton Holland. The three of us work together in the legal department,” he explained.
“Mo is in compliance, and Larry handles employment issues.”
The taller of the two held out his hand. “Ryan Seeling, and I’m actually the senior director of compliance, which is more superior than Jack’s mere director position. I’m also single, have no children, own my own apartment, and have an eight-ten credit score.”
I laughed. “What, no credit report for me to review?”
The other guy held up his hand. “Please. He has that and the results of his last physical saved in his phone. But I warn you, it’s in the same folder with his dick pics, and I’m going to poke my eyes out if I accidentally see that little thing again.”
Jack shook his head. “I work with idiots.”