Chapter 51
The words cooking dinner for me came through the phone loud and clear.
Something inside Lawrence finally snapped.
He had spent the entire day waiting for Emma to contact him, and meanwhile, she was at home cooking dinner for another man.
"Emma!" He practically bit out her name, his shoulders trembling with anger.
The housekeeper stood beside him, genuinely alarmed.
He glanced nervously at his phone in Lawrence's hand and wondered if it was about to be crushed.
What exactly had happened between these two?
Whatever Emma was angry about, bringing another man into their argument seemed like a dangerous way to make her point.
At this rate, she was going to have a hard time calming Lawrence down.
Then Emma's voice came clearly through the phone.
"What boyfriend? He's not my boyfriend."
Lawrence went silent.
So did the housekeeper.
That was not the answer either of them had expected.
If anything, Emma had just thrown gasoline on the fire.
Across town, Adrian's eyes went wide.
Then his entire face lit up.
"You broke up?"
He couldn't hold it in.
"You two broke up?"
Adrian burst out laughing.
Fantastic.
He wasn't the other man anymore.
Lawrence's breathing turned heavy.
"Emma!" he snapped. "I never agreed to break up!"
They had only made their relationship official last night. How had they somehow reached a breakup less than twenty-four hours later?
His voice was so loud that Emma pulled the phone away from her ear.
Then she glared at Adrian.
This little bastard was doing it on purpose, wasn't he?
She pointed at him, then at the door.
Out.
Adrian immediately stopped laughing.
His big eyes turned pitiful beneath the messy fringe of his styled blue hair. If he'd had a tail, it would've been wagging desperately.
Emma's resolve weakened.
Fine.
She settled for a warning look instead.
Adrian instantly smiled, dragged two fingers across his lips like a zipper, and blinked innocently.
He'd be quiet.
Probably.
Once he finally settled down, Emma returned her attention to the call.
"Mr. Vance, I honestly don't understand what you're talking about."
They'd never been together.
How could they break up?
Besides, she'd only ever been Isabelle's stand-in. Now that Isabelle wanted him back, wasn't Lawrence supposed to be dealing with that?
Lawrence forced some of his anger down.
"What don't you understand?"
"You said you never agreed to break up," Emma replied. "But we were never dating in the first place."
Adrian's eyes lit up again.
Then confusion followed.
Never dating?
Then what had all that been before?
Lawrence felt as though his thoughts had been tied into a knot.
He drew a slow breath.
"Are you angry because I didn't formally ask you?"
Suddenly, it made sense.
That had to be the problem.
"I introduced you to Nathan as my girlfriend. I thought that made my intentions clear."
His voice steadied as his confidence returned.
"You know what Nathan means to my family. I wouldn't introduce someone that way casually."
Lawrence relaxed slightly.
So that was it.
Emma simply thought he hadn't made things official properly enough.
At the mention of Nathan, Emma wanted to put even more distance between herself and Lawrence.
Nathan was her biggest client, and there was still a substantial amount of money tied to that arrangement.
The last thing she needed was another misunderstanding.
"No."
Emma got up from the table and headed toward the balcony.
She glanced back before stepping outside.
Adrian had already started to rise.
Emma narrowed her eyes.
Don't.
His butt immediately dropped back into the chair.
Adrian swept a hand through his blue hair and gave her a crooked, shamelessly charming smile.
Emma ignored him and stepped onto the balcony.
"Mr. Vance, didn't we end our agreement?"
Lawrence's tone softened.
"Yes. The agreement is over. You're not Isabelle's stand-in anymore."
A pause.
"You're my real girlfriend now."
Emma's eyelid twitched.
"What?"
Lawrence rubbed his forehead with a faint, helpless laugh.
"You really didn't understand what I meant last night?"
She was usually so sharp. He hadn't expected her to miss something this obvious.
Emma pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Mr. Vance, Isabelle wants you back. What exactly are you doing?"
Was he having some kind of breakdown?
Lawrence heard no happiness in her voice.
Even after he'd made himself perfectly clear.
His expression slowly hardened again.
"What are you saying?" he asked. "You don't want to be my real girlfriend?"
Emma didn't hesitate.
"Of course I don't."
Silence.
Then Lawrence answered almost immediately.
"Impossible."
Emma frowned.
"Emma, you like me. How could you not want to be my girlfriend?"
Her expression cooled.
"Mr. Vance, I don't like you."
How could she fall for a client?
That would be wildly unprofessional.
On the other end of the call, Lawrence went completely still.
"You... don't like me?"
His voice had gone hoarse.
Then why had she taken care of him so carefully in the middle of the night?
Why had she always looked at him as though he were the only person in the room?
Why had every smile, every touch, every quiet moment between them felt so real?
Did she even understand what she was saying?
"Yes," Emma said. "We had a business arrangement. Now it's over, so whatever relationship we had is over too."
Over.
The word landed harder than Lawrence expected.
His throat moved.
"Is that why you blocked me?"
"Of course."
Emma sounded almost surprised that he had to ask.
"The job was over. Our lives don't overlap. We probably would've never seen each other again, so why would I keep your number?"
Lawrence had spent the entire day imagining reasons she'd blocked him.
Not once had this occurred to him.
She hadn't blocked him because she was angry. She hadn't been waiting for him to apologize or playing some game to make him chase her.
She had simply finished the job and walked away.
"You only ever saw me as a client?"
Emma stood on the balcony and looked up at the night sky.
The weather was clear tonight, and stars dotted the darkness overhead.
The question almost made her laugh.
What else was she supposed to see him as?
Maybe men like Lawrence were a little like those stars.
They stood so high above everyone else that they were used to being admired. Maybe that was why they assumed anyone who looked up would eventually want to reach for them.
Emma never had.
"Only a client," she said.
There was no softness in her voice now. No carefully measured warmth or gentle patience.
Just distance.
Lawrence clenched his jaw, his chest rising and falling.
"No."
His voice came out rough.
"Emma, you liked me. The way you looked at me, the way you treated me—you can't fake that."
A warm night breeze drifted across the balcony.
Emma lifted one hand and let it slip between her fingers.
Then she answered calmly.
"Mr. Vance, I was acting."