Chapter Thirty-Two
“Heather,” Parker stands up, and she pulls him into a tight hug. “I didn’t know you were in New York.”
“I missed you so much I had to fly over!” She grins at him, a megawatt smile that could probably power this loft. I can’t believe this stunning bombshell isn’t Parker’s type. If the stares from all the men around us are any indication, I think Heather might be everyone’s type.
“It’s good to see you again,” Isaac says to me, alerting Heather to my presence. Her gaze flits over me, and I instinctively draw into myself.
“Is this . . .?” She trails off, giving Parker a pointed look. He clears his throat but doesn’t answer.
“Dani Tsai,” Isaac answers for him. “Dani, this is Heather from Venture San Francisco.”
“Dani Tsai,” she echoes, but it doesn’t sound like an acknowledgment. The venue is dark but not dark enough, and I see her nudge Parker in the side. He elbows her back.
“Sit. Drink,” Reggie orders, pulling up an extra chair. Isaac slides into the booth on my left while Parker slides in on my right. Heather takes the seat next to him.
“You look great,” Isaac says, eyes falling to my exposed lap.
I have exactly two party-appropriate outfits, and between the bedazzled two-piece Savannah once talked me into buying and the red minidress with the cut-out waist, I chose the one that didn’t turn me into a disco ball—even if it means tugging at the hemline all night.
“Are you cold?” Parker hovers. He looks at my bare legs, too, then over at Isaac. “I can get my jacket for you.”
“I’m okay,” I tell him.
“Isaac, how do you know Dani?” Heather asks.
“We met at a Monosphere event. And since Dani knows I’m a big fan of the paranormal, she just had to ghost me.”
I wince. “I was supposed to get back to you.”
He waves a hand. “Take a shot with me, and we’ll call it even.”
Reggie wastes no time filling three more glasses with vodka. “Why don’t we give Heather a warm New York welcome?”
“No, thank you.” Heather lifts the shot glass and sets it back down in front of him.
“She doesn’t drink,” Parker explains, and Reggie throws up his hands in defeat.
“Juice cleanse.”
“You’ve been on a juice cleanse since I met you.” Parker laughs, and Heather sticks her tongue out at him before breaking into her own giggle, and now the two are in their own world.
I finish off my gin and tonic in one fell swoop. Of course Heather doesn’t drink. Unlike me, she doesn’t require liquid courage. Why am I not surprised that Parker’s work wife is perfect in every conceivable way?
“Dani, I hear you and Parker are good friends,” Heather remarks.
What is it about hearing the word friends that is particularly grating tonight? Even at the Nets game, that’s how Parker introduced me to everyone. It makes me wonder if he’s ever mentioned me to anyone without that classification.
“We were neighbors back in our hometown.”
“Acquaintances who grew up together,” Isaac says wryly, and Parker lifts a brow at him.
I try to sound flippant. Unbothered. “Parker says you’ve been looking after his boat.”
“Oh, he’s been such a sweetheart, lending it to me all this time,” she gushes, squeezing his shoulder. “Most guys get so uptight about these things, but not him. Just ask, and he’ll let you take his Aston Martin for a weekend to Lake Tahoe, no questions asked.”
“That’s your car?” I gape at Parker, then double down. “You drive a convertible?”
“Before you judge me,” he says, giving me an all-knowing look, “being in a profession with my kind of clientele means I have to drive cars they want to talk about.”
“I think I prefer the Jeep,” I mumble back.
Isaac drapes his arm along the back of the booth. “Are you into cars, Dani?”
“She isn’t,” Parker cuts in. “Dani would rather take the subway than sit in traffic.”
“That’s what I thought until I got the Porsche. Man, those German engines are so clean.”
“Oh, boo.” Reggie blows a raspberry. “I’m so over driving in the city. You all look like morons sitting in gridlock. This is why we have a traffic problem.”
“Please, Reginald, get off your high horse. You fly BLADE to the Hamptons.” Heather purses her lips. “And I don’t know how you can afford it, so either it’s Daddy’s money, or you’ve got a sugar mama.”
The booth bursts into laughter as Reggie flips them off. I try to find the humor myself, but I can’t fake a laugh without looking painfully out of place. Just then, Heather leans in to whisper something to Parker. Her eyes meet mine, but I look away.
“When are you taking this guy back to San Francisco?” Isaac tilts his head at the pair.
“That depends on if he ever wants to leave New York.”
“The Rangers campaign is still going on,” Parker says.
“Did they ask you to stay for the whole season?”
“Well, no. Reggie is taking over starting All-Star Weekend.”
I look at him. “When is that?”
“Next month,” he answers. Our eyes lock, and I feel the silent thread stretch between us—a countdown I hadn’t realized had already started.
“I don’t have to leave right away,” he adds, with reassurance in his voice. “Venture hasn’t assigned me to anything back home yet.”
My insides clench with familiar dread. Dropping my volume, I say to him, “I feel like we should’ve talked about this.”
“It’ll be fine.”
“Will it?”
“Yes, Dani. It will.” And just like that he’s back to breezy, unaffected Parker. He reaches for the bottle. “Another round?”
“It’s the Venture squad! Aww, you guys are so cute!”
A petite woman in a satin cami dress swoops in between Parker and Heather, forcing herself into the booth. She’s wearing those New Year’s glasses where the frame forms the shape of the year. I really wish they’d stop trying to make every number work, because I can’t locate her eyes.
“Hey, Min,” Isaac greets her first. “Thought you’d be back in Singapore by now.”
“Are you kidding? I’m booked here for the next six months. Going viral on TikTok was the best thing to happen to my modeling career.” She helps herself to a shot and loops an arm with Parker’s. “Happy New Year, handsome.”
Then she removes her glasses, revealing dramatic white eyeliner and a splatter of rhinestones. As she flutters her long lashes, the dread inside me takes another form—something heavy and cold, like a stone dropped into water. A sudden awareness creeps up my spine.
I’ve seen her before: at the St. Regis, the night of the Monosphere event.
She had the key card to Parker’s suite.
The music that was ear-splitting moments ago fades out, the timing so precise it almost feels like a kick in the shin. I hear her clear as day as she whispers in his ear, “You’re still staying at the St. Regis, right?”
Next to me, Parker goes tense, shifting in his seat. He slips his arm out of Min’s grasp just as Heather’s brows shoot skyward, and for a split second, her eyes flick to me again.
“Damn, Parker,” Reggie whistles. “In front of Dani is just cold.”
“I’m confused.” Isaac points between Parker and me. “Aren’t you two seeing each other?”
Min looks at me like she’s just realized I’ve been here the whole time. She straightens up, horror registering on her face.
“What exactly is your relationship?” Heather implores, crossing her arms.
The table waits for Parker to say something, each second ticking by as if in slow motion. He’s searching my eyes like he’ll find the answer there, but all I can do is blink back my uncertainty.
We were best friends once. There was a time when I couldn’t imagine my life without you. Then you disappeared. But now you’re back, and we’re figuring out how to be friends again. But also, we’re fucking.
The longer I wait for his response, the tighter my chest gets. It’s like my heart is shrinking to make room for the ache.
Deciding that I can put us both out of our misery, I rally my nerves long enough to say what he won’t. “We’re friends.”
Min breathes a sigh of relief, while Heather squints at us like she’s entirely unconvinced.
My explanation seems to diffuse some of the tension anyway, and the table moves on to talking about an exciting Venture deal.
It all sounds like faraway murmurs to me, and the music in my ears is a garbled hum.
But when Min leaves the booth with a final word for Parker, I hear it with excruciating clarity.
“Stay next to me when the ball drops so I can steal your New Year’s kiss.”
I reach for one of the abandoned glasses and down the shot. Then I throw back another one.
“Slow down,” Parker whispers to me. “Do you want water?”
I wish he wasn’t so nice to me. Then I wouldn’t be wondering if he’s like this with all the other girls.
“Bathroom,” is all I say, and I flee to the back of the loft.
Locking myself in the single-stall room, I turn on the tap and take a series of deep, controlled breaths. I frown at the chunky platform heels that I’d dug out specifically for tonight. How long have my feet been numb? I stopped feeling my legs around the time Heather joined us.
Then it hits me like an anvil falling on my head: Has Parker been bringing Min back to the St. Regis this whole time? Has he been with her in the very same bed where he undressed me for the first time?
I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but because I apparently love to suffer, I’m already conjuring the mental image of the two of them together. It shakes me like having my heart punted the full hundred yards.
Dani, you colossal idiot. Why did you assume you’d be different from the other girls? Because you used to share toys as kids? Idiot. Idiot. Idiot.
Sweat beads on my forehead, and the Belvedere surges like a wave from the pit of my stomach. I swallow a handful of water to keep from throwing up. I need to get out of here before anyone can see me like this.
When I shove the door open, Heather is standing against the wall across from me.
“You okay?”
“Did Parker send you?”
She shakes her head. “I wanted to check on you. I feel like we kind of ambushed you back there. I would’ve freaked out too.”
Is that what it looked like to everyone? Heat creeps up my neck, and maybe it’s the alcohol in my bloodstream, but the words come tumbling out before my thoughts can fully form. “Are you Parker’s work wife?”
“Oh, god. Who said that? Was it Reginald?” Her eyes widen, then she lifts a hand to rub her temple.
“It’s just dumb water cooler talk. Unfortunately, being a woman in this field means I’m apparently banging everyone I work with.
” She sighs, then adds, “Trust me, Parker is, like, everyone’s little brother at the San Francisco office. ”
“But you have his boat. He lets you borrow his car too.”
“Okay, favorite little brother,” she amends.
“He takes all your calls too.”
“Who do you think got dumped with his San Francisco clients when he came to New York? That’s why he’s been so gracious about the boat. But I’m not special. Parker would do that for any of his friends.”
I look down at my feet, feeling warm all over my face. “When we were in high school, Parker got his dream car, a black Jeep Wrangler. He would’ve never let anyone else behind the wheel.”
“I think they call that a sign of maturing.”
So, it’s possible Parker and Heather have a genuinely platonic relationship, and he wasn’t lying when he said she wasn’t his type. I’d been hyperaware of every whisper and small touch, but could it all just have been innocent gestures between friends?
Parker and I are friends, and we’ve been far more intimate.
“But, even if that’s all true,” I start slowly, “Parker is still going to go back home to San Francisco with you, where he won’t think of me anymore, because he’ll just find another Min to entertain him—”
A hand flies to my mouth, and I hold back the urge to throw up again.
“Honey,” Heather says gently, and she places a hand on my arm. “Have you talked to Parker about any of this?”
How can I? I was the one who suggested we keep things casual.
He’d even checked with me—asked if I was okay with the arrangement.
I thought I was. But that was back when I was guarding my heart from the possibility of his seeing other women.
Of course, the fear was always there in the backroom of my mind, but I locked it away and distracted myself with the happier thought of our rebuilding our friendship.
But how am I supposed to be casual when the truth is, the idea of him with another woman is making me sick to my stomach?
He’s been clear from the beginning: He doesn’t do relationships. We established the ground rules early on, and he’s free to see whomever he wants. If there wasn’t a Heather, there was going to be a Min.
In other words, this has all been a setup to get hurt, and I laid the trap myself.
“I’m sorry. I need to leave,” I tell her. “Can you please let Parker know?”
Heather studies me for a long moment, lips parting like she’s about to say something, then pressing shut again. Finally, she gives a reluctant nod and steps aside.