Chapter 30
Gabby marched over to Phil’s room. Maybe he’d made some progress on the finances. Probably not, but she might as well check while she was right there.
Before she knocked, Genesis burst through the stairwell door, looking absolutely frazzled. His eyes were wild, and his man bun in disarray.
“G, are you okay?” Gabby asked.
He stopped short and ran his hands over his hair. Gabby had never seen G anxious, not even when he was arguing with Jasmine, but right now he looked freaked-the-F out.
“I need to find Sheridan.” He peered down the hallway over Gabby. “Who are you visiting?” he asked, sounding suspicious.
“Phil, my ex.”
“Really?”
Genesis squeezed in next to her and knocked on the door before she could.
Phil opened the door in swim trunks and no shirt, like he was about to hit the beach. She had to admit that he’d been working out.
“Hey, Phil,” she said, “how’re you this morning?”
He opened the door wide. “Hey, Gia, and… hey, Genesis.” Phil dropped Genesis’s name from his mouth with all the grace of someone delivering a ten-pound baby. “I’m surprised to see you.”
“Mind if I come in?” Genesis asked, but not really.
Phil opened the door wide looking slightly more excited than confused.
After a cursory glance around the apartment, G said, “My apologies. I’m desperate to find Sheridan.”
“I’ll let you know if I see her,” Gabby said.
And with a quick apology, Genesis was off again. “Sorry again. I’ll see you both later.”
“Well, that was weird,” Phil said. “Also, he’s going to find Sheridan if he searches your mom’s room.”
“Let’s hope not,” Gabby said, feeling good about her choice to hide Sheridan. G was way too worried.
“Sit down,” Phil said. “Take a load off.”
“I didn’t come to stay. I was just wondering if you’d made any progress with Brad. Did you find out who’s behind that holding corp?”
“Want some coffee at least?”
She glanced over his shoulder to see if he was already making some.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” he said with a smile that would be cute if she wasn’t trying to get in and out. Phil looked like he was about to take advantage of the fact that she needed him. What she needed was to get hired back ASAP.
“Are you really getting married in two days?” he asked.
“Yes,” she answered with zero hesitation.
“That means no more spousal support,” he said.
Jesus. Phil was probably going to cut her off because she was getting fake married for her job that she was about to be fired from. At this point, she really needed him to kick it up a notch with the data analysis.
“Phil, do we have to talk about money right now?”
He slumped on a stool. “Is Markus a decent person? I think you should introduce me to someone who is going to live with my kids. I can’t believe you ran off to marry someone without even talking to me.”
“Phil, really?”
“Yeah, I’m worried. I still care about you… a lot. And the kids.”
Gabby couldn’t with this. She’d been trying to have a conversation with the man for fifteen years, and this was the time he chose to show up.
She needed him so many other times, when she had post-partum and was trying to figure out how to breastfeed, but Kyle wouldn’t latch, when the kids were little and she was trying to get back to work.
She could forgive him, but she couldn’t forget.
“Markus is a great guy. Very upstanding and reliable. And I don’t think you want to start this game. I’ve seen some of the women you’ve been with since we divorced. They don’t look like PTA members.”
Phil ignored her. “What does he do for a living?”
Here they went again. “He’s an inventor. Of children’s toys.”
Phil made a noise of discontent in the back of his throat. “Is that even a job?”
She stared down her nose at him like he had farted. It was easier than answering a question about Markus’s job. “Phil, it’s not like you get a vote in who I marry. This was a spontaneous decision. You weren’t the first person I thought to call. But you’re informed now.”
“I don’t think that’s proper notice.”
Gabby hadn’t read her divorce decree recently, no, make that ever—that’s what she overpaid a lawyer for. She certainly wasn’t aware of the legal requirements, but she didn’t think they were as serious as Phil was making them out to be.
“Phil. You left me. You moved out. Did you think I was going to stay single?”
“I didn’t think you’d get married this fast.” The railroad tracks formed between his eyes. “It’s too fast, Gabby, and it’s not like you. It took you a year to pick a paint color for the kitchen.”
Damn it. All she’d wanted was a little office romance.
“And if you’re signing up the kids for a weird religion, or whatever Inner-G is, then I think I get a vote in that.”
“Phil—” She bit her tongue. She wanted to tell him to take a long walk off a short pier, but not until after he helped her with the financial analysis. “I need you to take a step back.”
“A step back?” He raised his voice just enough to make her pulse jump. “Gabby, we were married. We have kids together. I still…”
Was he going to say he still loved her? If she asked, Geeves would probably drive Phil to the airport right now.
Gabby boxed up her emotions to refrain from screaming. This fool had endangered her whole mission with his meddling, not to mention her relationship with Markus. Actually, he might have wrecked that, or at least significantly contributed to its likely downfall.
“Gabby, I just want to say that I lo—”
“It’s Gia.” Gabby didn’t let him finish that sentence. “And I really need to know what you found out from your Cayman Island buddy.”
Like she’d flipped a switch, he changed his expression. “I think Brad might be fucking with me.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s too weird. I can’t even say it out loud.”
“Say it.”
“No. I need to double-check it. It’s too dumb.”
Too dumb meant it was the right answer.
“Let me talk to Brad, and I’ll get back to you.”
“Fine. I’ll be back in an hour.”