Loyalty Test

17. Chapter Seventeen

~Jennifer~

It took almost an hour to get all the information I needed. Allie searched through Celine’s social media accounts to find any links to Isaac while Gabe checked his work group chats and Googled for anything else he could find. As they fed me information, I built up a picture of the man and what would tempt him.

“Won’t he recognize you?” Gabe wondered as we worked. “Celine might have shared everything with him.”

“She could have, and he definitely saw me visit you in your office last week. I recognized him when we made eye contact.”

His eyebrows drew down in a look of concern. “How is this going to work, then? He’ll know who you are.”

“I won’t approach him under my regular account. I have a backup account for just this purpose.”

Allie looked up from her phone, her eyebrows raised skeptically. “How often does this exact scenario happen to you?”

Gabe and I both laughed, appreciating the moment of levity in the midst of so much stress. “Alright, maybe not for this specific purpose. I use the backup account when my first approach doesn’t go well, not because they pass but because I did something wrong. Even the best flirters in the world make mistakes.”

I gave Gabe a wink that made him grin.

“Sometimes, I’ll say something that’s a turn-off to them that I didn’t realize would be. If I think it’s worth trying again, I let a few days go by and I approach them from my back-up account instead. The profile pictures belong to a friend of mine who gave me permission to use them. It’s harder because I can’t video chat if they get suspicious, but often, it’s still enough to get through.”

As my methods became more honed with experience, I needed that account less and less, but I kept it updated anyway, just in case. Isaac definitely counted as a ‘just in case’.

Allie’s phone dinged after a few more minutes and she grimaced. “That’s Brad, I need to get home. Good luck, guys. And I’m sorry, Gabe, for the part I played in all of this.”

“Thank you for coming over tonight.” He stood to give her a quick hug, as forgiving and understanding as always. “We probably won’t see each other again.”

“Probably not,” she agreed with a regretful smile. “Take care of yourself. Bye, Jen.”

“Bye.” I waved through the screen and went back to my work while Gabe walked Allie to the door. I’d almost finalized my plan of action, but I wanted to suggest one more thing to Gabe first. When he returned to the living room on his own, I dove into my idea. “I think you should go to a hotel. I’ll get in touch with Sarah, the private investigator, and see if she can stake out there with a camera.”

Gabe didn’t need me to explain any further, already on the same page with me. “You’re going to invite him to meet you there.”

“Exactly. I’ll have records of the screenshots and we’ll have pictures of him arriving. You’ll need to give him the ultimatum when he gets there.”

Gabe let out a small huff. “That’s the same word Celine used tonight: ultimatum.”

“Well, she had one thing right: this has to end. The sooner, the better.”

He nodded, his jaw firmly set. “What options am I giving him?”

We still needed to talk about that. “Here’s how I see the situation based on what Allie said. Celine loves Isaac but Isaac is using her for the money they’re hoping to get from you. We’re going to bank on the fact that Celine cares more about Isaac than she does about the money. ”

Another breath left Gabe’s lips, slower and longer than before. “That’s a gamble. I’m not sure she’s ever loved anyone but herself.”

“That’s your bruised ego talking,” I suggested gently. “She said she loves him, so for now, let’s assume that’s true. We get Isaac to tell her to take the settlement you offer her or he’ll break up with her. If she really does love him, she’ll take the deal.”

“And Isaac will go along with that if he doesn’t want us to reveal to Celine that he almost cheated?”

“Exactly.” It felt like he read my mind sometimes, we were so in tune. “Now, we just need to decide what to offer her. It has to be significant enough to make Isaac want to stay on her good side. If he’s with her for the money, there has to be some money.”

“She might not accept the promise of a future payout,” he warned me. “She might not trust it, assuming that I’ll try to find a way out of it, and she has debts she wants to pay off now.”

I’d already reached the same conclusion. “I agree, and it would be much better for you to get it all taken care of for good rather than having it hanging over you.”

“I don’t have anything to offer her now, though.”

“No, but I do.”

Gabe’s eyes went wide as he stared down at me through the phone screen. “Jen, I can’t take your money. This isn’t your issue.”

“How is it not my issue? She’s threatening to expose my address and I’ll have to move if she does. Paying her off would spare me that hassle. I have some money invested from what Matt gave me. It’s not nearly as much as half your inheritance, but if it can end this madness tonight, I’d consider it money well spent.”

Gabe turned away, staring out his window at the setting sun as he considered my offer. My fingers twitched to get back to my work, knowing we didn’t have a lot of time, but I held back, waiting for him to make up his mind.

At last, he turned back to me. “I’ll pay you back. When I get my inheritance, I’ll repay every penny. ”

“Alright.” I had no intention of holding him to that, but it obviously made him feel better to make the offer, so I let it slide. “You find a hotel and book a room. I’ll get in touch with Sarah, and then we’ll go after Isaac.”

Another half-hour later, Gabe and Sarah were both on their way to the hotel and I typed out my first DM to Isaac. My heart beat so fast, it almost felt like my very first job.

Instagram looked like my best bet to make contact. His profile couldn’t be more textbook for the type of men I usually dealt with: shirtless pics, mostly in the gym, along with travel pictures showing him looking sophisticated and wealthy. Comments from friends about the fun they had on nights out. A few comments here and there from Isaac himself about liking a direct woman who made the first move. Showing off his car and his expensive clothes. More than enough for me to take an educated guess at what would hook him.

Just like I had with Gabe, I started with a shared interest in travel.

Hey. You don’t know me, but your travel pics are incredible! You’re so lucky to travel so much.

He didn’t reply right away. They never did. They always took a couple of minutes to check out my profile and decide if talking to me would be worth their time, based purely on the way I looked. In this case, he’d be looking at my friend who, from my point of view, had the advantage over me in the looks department anyway. Isaac stared at my chest when I went to the travel agency office, and a few of the first pics on my fake profile showed off my friend’s very shapely breasts in a way I knew deep in my gut would appeal to him.

I could have tried to distract myself while I waited, but it wouldn’t have been any use. All my attention remained focused on the phone in my hand. When the notification for a message popped up, I nearly jumped in my seat.

Thanks. I’m a travel agent, so I get paid to do it. Living the dream.

The message itself didn’t give much away, but the winky-face at the end opened the door to a more flirtatious tone, and I jumped straight through it.

Sounds amazing. Looking for an assistant? I don’t take up much room.

In my suitcase?

Or your bed.

I threw in a wink of my own as I cranked the heat a little higher.

Your profile says you live in SF. Are you here now or are you somewhere exotic?

I’m home. You in SF?

Just for tonight, leaving in the morning. I’m alone in my hotel and bored.

So you’re scrolling IG for a hook-up? Girl, you heard of Tinder?

I sent a few laughing emojis, as if it were the funniest thing I’d ever heard.

Not specifically looking, but your pics have me thinking all kinds of things I shouldn’t. If you like taking trips, maybe you should take one over to my hotel.

The phone went quiet for a minute and my stomach sank. Did I push too hard, too fast? Had we actually misjudged him? A dozen worst-case scenarios raced through my mind before another message eventually came through.

I’m in the middle of something but I could head out in about an hour. Send me a pic so I know what you’re wearing tonight.

He wanted to check my identity, but luckily, I’d anticipated that. From my cache of photos of my friend, I pulled out one of her in a teasing pose sitting on a hotel room bed, her chest pushed out and a wolfish grin on her face. Using an app built for that purpose, I adjusted the embedded info to make it look like the picture had been taken that night and sent it with a short message.

Don’t make me wait too long.

His reply came a lot faster that time.

What hotel are you at?

If this were a normal case, I’d screenshot that message and consider this a fail, but that night, I sent him the address before sending Gabe a separate message.

He says he’s coming. Over to you now.

~Gabriel~

Along with the investigator waiting with a camera outside, I set up my phone inside the hotel room to record our conversation, hidden behind my bag so it wouldn’t be seen. Doing anything undercover or underhanded or sneaky had never been in my comfort zone, but faced with Celine’s scheming, I didn’t hesitate. As soon as the message from Jen came through to say that Isaac took the bait, I set up my phone and sat back to wait for his arrival.

While I waited, my thoughts drifted over the past month of my life and the crazy turns it had taken. If someone had told me at the beginning of the year that my marriage would be over and I’d be happy about it, and that I’d be eagerly looking forward to building something with someone new, I would have suggested they get their head examined. Everything I knew about myself and my relationship had been flipped around, giving me an entirely new perspective, and even though the way it came about was hardly ideal, I would always be a little grateful to Celine for hiring Jen.

If she hadn’t, we might have never met.

The knock on the door came almost ninety minutes after Jen’s message, just after midnight. Had Isaac left Celine sleeping in his bed while he came over for a booty call with a stranger? He’d always seemed like a nice enough guy in the office, but now, I knew the truth. What a piece of shit.

I went over and pressed ‘record’ on my phone before going to the door.

Knowing he might try to bolt when he saw me standing there instead of the beautiful woman he expected to see, I didn’t give him the chance. In one fluid motion, I swung the door open wide, grabbed him by the shirt and yanked him inside the room, slamming the door shut behind us.

“What the fuck? Gabe?”

Wearing a baseball cap, he gaped at me, a mixture of confusion, guilt and fear dancing across his face.

“You remember I exist? That’s a good start.” I shoved him away from me but kept my back to the door, blocking his exit. “We need to talk.”

His dark eyes looked back over his shoulder, scanning the room to see if anyone else lingered in the dark recesses, but he missed the phone peering out from behind my bag, recording every word. A nervous hand ran over his beard while his brain caught up with the situation.

“You set me up?” he demanded when he seemed satisfied we were alone.

“Bingo. You were texting Jen, the same woman Celine hired to try to set me up. She used someone else’s account.”

His nostrils flared. “Fuck. ”

“Exactly: you’re fucked. We’ve got the screenshots of your conversation and someone outside who took pictures of you arriving here. Celine will get a copy of all of that first thing in the morning unless…”

I let the last word linger in the air, giving the implications of his actions a chance to set in before I made my demands.

“Unless what?” he eventually asked, his eyes still wary but curiosity getting the better of him.

“Unless Celine agrees to my settlement terms.”

He let out an unimpressed huff. “You should talk about that with her.”

“I tried. She refused. Now, I’m going to explain to you why you’re going to convince her otherwise. Take a seat.”

My hand waved at the two chairs I’d set up at a perfect angle for the phone to capture everything. Mistrust lingered in Isaac’s expression but he took a seat as I suggested and I did the same, now that I felt fairly certain he wouldn’t bolt before hearing me out.

“Since you’ve been having an affair with my wife for a while now, I’m going to assume you know about the money I’m due to inherit.”

Greed flashed through his eyes before he could rein it in. “Celine mentioned it.”

“Her having any right to that money hinges on her proving that I cheated on her, which is why she tried to set me up. Even after all the trouble she went to, she must know her case has holes in it or she wouldn’t be blackmailing me by threatening to release Jen’s personal information online. I’ve spoken to Jen and she’s prepared to deal with the consequences if Celine goes ahead. There’s a very good chance Celine will get nothing from my inheritance, and if my lawyer really wanted to play dirty, I could probably make a case for me keeping the house too, since I’ve been the only one paying for it and she cheated on me with you.”

His jaw tightened as I laid it all out. “Why are you telling me all of this? Why did you bring me here?”

“Because apparently, she cares about you, although I’m not sure why given that you ran over here to cheat on her tonight.” He didn’t bother to look guilty about that or show any degree of shame so I moved on. “I think you’re the only one who can convince her not to doxx Jen. If you tell her not to, she might actually listen. She sure as hell won’t listen to me.”

“And if I don’t stop her, you’ll tell her about this,” he guessed, gesturing at the room around us.

“Right. If she has any sense, she’ll dump you and you’ll get nothing.”

“You just said she won’t get anything anyway,” he reminded me grumpily.

“No, I said she won’t get my inheritance money. However, if she doesn’t expose Jen and she signs the agreement my lawyer will put together, I’m willing to give her the house and $250,000 right away, without needing to wait for the inheritance to come through.”

Jen had decided on the figure. She said it needed to be significant enough to make it worth Isaac’s while, and from his reaction, I could tell I had his full attention. It might not be fair to me given what Celine had put me through, but I still had my inheritance coming to me, and if it put this whole mess behind us, it would be worth it.

“The whole thing can be over tomorrow, you guys can move on with your life and I’ll move on with mine. But there will be a clause in the agreement that if Jen’s personal information ever comes out online, you have to repay every cent.”

“That’s not fair,” he immediately protested. “What if someone else releases it?”

“She’s been doing this job for years and Celine’s the only one who’s been crazy enough to stalk and threaten her. I’m not worried about anyone else. If it comes out, I’m blaming Celine.”

His lips pressed tightly together and he looked to the side, thinking it all over. “It’s a lot less than she expected to get.”

“It’s also a lot more than nothing. The inheritance isn’t an option. You just need to decide between the deal I’m offering or having your cheating ass exposed. ”

His jaw tightened, clenching hard as he ground his teeth, but eventually, he nodded. “Alright. I’ll talk to her and try to get her to agree.”

I should have let it go there but I couldn’t help asking one more question. “Did you ever love her?”

“Celine?” The fact that he even had to clarify would have answered my question enough, but he gave me a further explanation. “It’s nothing personal, Gabe. She came onto me first, when you were out of town. I thought it would be a one-time thing, but she kept coming back. Then she told me about the money and…”

He spread his hands, like that explained everything.

“You know the rest.”

I knew enough. “Go home, Isaac.”

He didn’t wait to be asked twice. He disappeared out the door and I went over to stop the recording, sending a copy to Jen as a backup before I packed up and headed back to my own house. One way or another, this would all be coming to a head the next day so I needed to try to get some rest while I could.

~Jennifer~

I hadn’t left my home so often in years, but early Monday morning, I sat on another plane, heading back to San Francisco. Gabe had an appointment with his lawyer at nine o’clock, before he headed to work, and I wanted to be there for it.

At almost one o’clock that morning, he sent me the recording from his meeting with Isaac, and though I usually maintained that nothing good happened over text after midnight, that might have been the exception. It provided everything we could have asked for: he didn’t deny that he’d been looking for a hook-up and he all but admitted he only wanted Celine for the payday she promised.

In spite of everything, I actually felt sorry for her. Men could be awful, and Isaac certainly fell in that category. To think that she threw away someone like Gabe to be with him filled me with pity.

Gabe met me outside the office building downtown, giving me a nod of greeting like he might give to any acquaintance. We couldn’t be sure if Celine still had a tail on him, so he didn’t touch me at all until we got in the elevator to go to his lawyer’s office and, finding ourselves alone, he leaned down to press a hard, needy kiss on my lips that stole my breath away.

“I missed you.”

“We were apart for one night,” I tried to tease, but my voice came out too breathy for it to have any sting.

“One night too long.” His hand fisted my hair, pulling my head back so he could kiss me again. “I’m going to give my notice today at the office and take the rest of my vacation time. I’m coming to Pasadena with you when you go back. I’ll find a cheap place to stay until I get a new job. I’ll sleep in the park if I have to, as long as I can see you every day.”

This possessive, dominant side of him never failed to weaken my knees, and I leaned into him, kissing him again until the elevator computer announced our floor. We broke apart just before the doors opened.

Victoria welcomed us into her office right on time. “It’s nice to meet you in person, Ms Bradshaw, though I’m curious about what made this meeting so urgent since we last spoke.”

I let Gabe handle the conversation as he brought her up-to-speed on his visit to Pasadena, Celine’s threats, and his covert operation the night before. I chimed in at the end only to bring up the ongoing damage being done by Celine’s posts about me online.

“I want to get something together for her to sign, quickly, that’ll be legally binding,” Gabe explained once we’d put everything on the table .

“Are you sure?” Victoria asked point-blank. “If she makes good on her threat, we could get the police involved. Even if she doesn’t, I feel pretty confident that we can win this and leave her with next to nothing. This kind of unhinged behaviour doesn’t go over well with the courts.”

“I don’t want to take the chance.” Gabe glanced over at me, his hand finding mine under the table. “I’d rather protect Jen and get Celine out of our lives as soon as possible, even if it costs me.”

“If that’s your decision, then we’ll put together an agreement.” She typed something into her phone before looking over at me. “If Celine agrees to the terms, there’ll be nothing stopping you from defending yourself online. You’ll just need to be careful not to post anything that could identify her.”

“I’ve actually drafted a response already, if you wouldn’t mind taking a look at it?”

I handed over my phone and she read through it, making a few suggestions before returning the device to me. “I have to say: this is one of the more interesting situations I’ve dealt with. Just when I thought I’d seen it all, I get loyalty tests, surveillance and gold-digging new boyfriends.”

“Trust me, none of it was my idea,” Gabe told her drily, and we all shared a smile before shaking hands and parting ways.

Outside, Gabe called a cab and we made the trip to his office together. The café on the corner I’d noticed the first time I visited him there seemed like a perfect place for me to spend the day, working from my phone while I waited for Gabe.

“Celine said she’d come to my office today to get my answer,” he reminded me. “I’m going to text her and ask her to meet me at the café instead. Hopefully, Isaac has spoken to her and I get the agreement from the lawyer in time, and we can get this all settled relatively easily.”

“I hope so.” Although I would have liked to give him a quick kiss to say goodbye, I settled for squeezing his hand instead, hoping it wouldn’t be much longer before we could show affection publicly without worrying someone might be watching. How did famous people deal with it? I would much rather enjoy my quiet life behind my phone than deal with that every day.

The rest of the morning passed quickly as I got into a rhythm with work. Most of my tests took place later in the evening, but that day, I had a job that involved a man whose wife worried he might be messing around on her while at work. I messaged him directly through his office number and he quickly moved from the professional to casual flirting, leading me to believe she had cause for concern.

We were in the middle of an exchange when the text from Gabe came through.

She’ll be here in ten minutes.

I kept up the exchange with the other man for five more minutes before telling him I had an appointment and turned on the recording app on my phone, placing it face-down on the table. It might not fool Celine, but at least we’d have a record of whatever happened.

With my eyes trained on the door, I saw them the moment they came in, Gabe holding the door for her like the gentleman he couldn’t help being.

After her playing such a large part in my life for the past few weeks, it felt strange to finally see her in person. Celine looked like I remembered her from Gabe’s social media posts: tanned and confident, blonde streaks running through her brown hair and big brown eyes behind false lashes. Her pretty dress showed off her long legs in her high heels, making me feel underdressed in the slacks and blouse I wore to be comfortable on the plane.

Gabe led her straight over to my table, and when her eyes landed on me, they widened for a second before narrowing, disdain and dislike settling into the purse of her lips and the set of her jaw. Apparently, she hadn’t had Gabe followed that morning after all. My presence came as a complete surprise, and it wouldn’t be the only one she got during this meeting .

“Hello, Celine.” I gave her a tight smile of my own, trying not to give anything away. “Thank you for joining us.”

Her gaze flickered between me and Gabe as she sank into the seat he pulled out for her. “Why are you here? What’s going on?”

Gabe sat down next to me, his shoulder brushing against mine in a clear demonstration of intimacy, and the flare of her nostrils intrigued me. She actually seemed jealous.

“I’ve had some time to think over your ultimatum,” Gabe started. “And I’m not going to sign the papers. Instead, you can accept my offer or we can let this all play out in court.”

Again, her gaze darted between the two of us, her mind obviously racing as she tried to figure out what she’d missed. “If you don’t sign, then I won’t hold up my end of the bargain either.”

Apparently, she didn’t plan to state her threat out loud again, not in public and not in front of me. Reckless, she might be, but not quite that foolish.

Neither was I.

“In all your scheming, you made one big miscalculation: you didn’t get to know anything about me. When I start working with a new client, I find out everything I can about them. I do research, I ask questions. But you pulled me into your game without knowing the first thing about me.”

She huffed, leaning back in her chair and crossing her long legs. “What’s there to know? You seduce men for a living. I’m pretty sure there’s a word for that.”

If she couldn’t do better than that for an insult, I felt even more sorry for her than before. Ignoring the comment, I continued my explanation. “If you’d checked into me, you might have figured out that, like Gabe, someone left me a large sum of money when they died. I don’t need to work. I enjoy what I do, but if I had to stop doing it today, I’d be okay. If I need to move because you leak my address, I’d survive. What I won’t put up with is you stealing from a man who would have never cheated on you if you hadn’t set up this ridiculous charade in the first place. ”

From the corner of my eye, I could see Gabe’s eyes on me. We hadn’t discussed that I would say any of this. I hadn’t planned to, but seeing her in person, seeing the consideration that he still showed to her thanks to his basic decency, snapped something inside of me.

“Gabe’s offer is incredibly generous, and if you actually care about the money and not just causing as much destruction as possible, you’ll take it and be grateful.”

With that, I turned back to him, giving him a nod to tell him to go ahead. A smile played on the corners of his lips as he cleared his throat.

“Here’s the offer: I’ll give you the house and $250,000 if you agree today. You’ll promise not to release any of Jen’s information and to delete and retract everything you posted about her online. If her details ever come out, I’m holding you responsible and you would owe me the entire amount back. It’s legally binding.”

He pulled the papers out of his courier bag and pushed them across the table to her.

“This is only 10% of what I’m entitled to,” she sniffed, and my hands clenched into fists under the table. Gabe took my hand in his to help calm me.

“If you include my half of the house, it’s almost 20%,” Gabe pointed out. “And you’re not entitled to anything after cheating on me. It’s a hell of a lot more than you deserve.”

Although I hadn’t said anything that time, her eyes flashed up at me, full of anger, before returning to the papers. “I can’t sign anything without having my lawyer look at it.”

“But you wanted me to sign your papers last night. Seems like a double standard to me.”

Pride flowed through my veins as he stood up for himself, his hand never leaving mine. Celine grumbled a little more under her breath, but I could tell the offer tempted her. It seemed Isaac had done his job of convincing her to take the money and run.

When she pulled out a pen and signed the agreement, it almost felt anticlimactic. After everything she’d put Gabe through, it felt like there should have been a fanfare, something to mark the moment that she agreed to the divorce and removed herself from his life.

No trumpets blared, though. Only Gabe’s hand squeezing mine marked the moment.

I’d take it.

When she stood up to go, however, I stopped her. “There’s one more thing you should know.”

Again, Gabe and I hadn’t discussed what I would say, but in spite of everything, I still didn’t think that anyone deserved to be cheated on.

Not even Celine.

“I did a loyalty test on Isaac. Do you want to know how he did?”

A spark of fear and doubt bloomed in her eyes, but she shook her head. “You’re lying. I don’t believe you.”

Turning on her heel, she walked away, and Gabe and I both exhaled in unison.

“Would you really have told her?” he asked me. “We told Isaac we wouldn’t.”

“I’ll always stick up for the person who’s been wronged, so yeah, I would have told her. But I didn’t have to. She knows, she just wants to pretend for a while. Maybe she thinks once she has the money, she’ll be able to keep him. You can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped.”

With that sobering thought, Gabe gave me a gentle kiss. “I have to get back to the office and finish wrapping things up. Do you have your return flight booked?”

“Not yet.”

I had an idea why he asked, and when he confirmed it, I couldn’t stop the grin that spread across my face. “Make it for two. I’m coming with you.”

It would be our first flight together, but not our last. We were just getting started.

~Gabriel~

When I left the café with Celine’s signature on the agreement, it felt like everything had fallen into place.

In reality, it didn’t turn out to be quite that simple.

Two days after leaving San Francisco, two days in which I stayed at Jen’s house, enjoying her company while I began applying for new jobs, we spent the afternoon at the kitchen table, both of us focused on our respective computers. I’d applied to several jobs and just opened an email from Manuel at the Four Winds hotel, telling me they’d figured out who Celine had bribed to access their records and security footage, when Jen let out a long breath from the other side of the table.

“Shit.”

My head raised from my laptop, shooting her a concerned look. “What is it?”

“She posted it. My address. One of my clients just forwarded it to me.”

My stomach sank as I leapt to my feet, taking the few steps over to her to see it for myself. Posted anonymously, it repeated the previous claims made about Jen stealing me for herself and, clear as day, listed her home address, the house we were sitting in at that very moment.

“Fuck,” I muttered, smacking my hand against the table top in frustration. “Why would she do that?”

“I’m not sure, but people don’t always act in their best interests. At least the money hasn’t left my account yet.”

My lawyer had been finalizing things with Celine’s lawyer and I planned to sign over the house to her and send the payment next week. At that point, nothing had actually been completed. The whole process could be stopped, so Celine completely shot herself in the foot. For what? Revenge on Jen? To spite me? It didn’t make any sense.

While I got on the phone to my lawyer, Jen made some calls of her own, making temporary arrangements for somewhere else to stay while she decided what to do in the long run.

By the time I hung up, I had several messages from Celine, asking me to call her urgently.

Gritting my teeth, I dialled. “I’ve got nothing to say to you,” I spit out as soon as she answered. “You know what you did and you know what the consequences are.”

“Gabe, please.” She sounded close to tears if not actually crying already. “I didn’t do it.”

“ That’s what you’re going with? Really?”

“It’s the truth,” she sniffled. “Isaac posted it.”

That made even less sense. “Why would he do that?”

“Because I broke up with him after I searched his phone and found out he’s been screwing around on me.” Bitterness joined the despair in her voice, and I closed my eyes, shaking my head. It seemed Jen had been right: she didn’t need to show Celine the results of her loyalty test. Planting the thought in her head had been enough, and when curiosity got the better of her, Celine figured out the truth for herself. “He got so angry, he posted the draft I’d saved out of spite.”

Normally, I wouldn’t take any pleasure in someone else’s misfortune, but when that misfortune had been caused by the consequences of her own actions, I couldn’t muster up a lot of sympathy. “You know what the agreement says: if the address gets out in any way, you’re responsible for it.”

“That’s not fair, I didn’t…”

I had no interest in hearing the rest of that sentence. “Are you really going to whine to me about what’s fair? He never would have had access to the address if not for you, and he wouldn’t have had access to your phone if you hadn’t cheated on me with him. I’d say you reaped what you sowed here, Celine. My lawyer will be in touch. Don’t call me again. ”

With that, I hung up and blocked her number, feeling a weight lift off me for just a moment before the reality of the situation crept back in.

“Any luck?” I asked Jen, who had finished her own call and caught at least the tail end of my conversation.

Her eyebrows were raised in curiosity but she answered my question. “One of Matt’s sisters has an AirBnB that’s empty at the moment. She says we can stay there for a while.”

“I thought you weren’t in touch with his family anymore.” It had been clear when she told me the story how much she regretted that fact.

“I haven’t been, but I thought it might be time to reach out. She sounded happy to hear from me. What did Celine have to say?”

I filled her in on our conversation while we both packed up our things for an extended stay in another house. My things were easy enough, since I only had the two suitcases I brought with me from San Francisco.

Jen sighed when I finished my explanation. “Usually, I say that men who cheat are the worst, but in this case, I think they’re equally as bad as each other. I almost wish that they’d stay paired off so no one else has to put up with them.”

My laugh came out as a snort as I pressed my lips together. “At least I won’t have to borrow money from you anymore, but it means so much to me that you were willing to do it. I’m so sorry that your information got leaked.”

“It’s okay.” When I cocked an eyebrow in disbelief, Jen smiled. “Honestly, it is. This house, this neighbourhood… this is the life Matt and I wanted. Maybe it’s time to think about what makes sense for me without him. We could look at new places together if you want.”

My body froze in place as I tried to interpret her words, wondering if I’d misunderstood or taken them a leap too far. “You want to get a place together?”

“It makes sense since we’re both looking at the same time.” She shrugged as she folded another shirt into her suitcase. “I’m not playing games here, Gabe, and I don’t think you are either. They say that you see a person’s true character under pressure. Over the past month, I’ve seen you under a hell of a lot of pressure, and I like the man I’ve seen. It seems silly to put off something we both want because of anyone else’s expectations. I can buy it and you can be my tenant, or we can buy it together, whatever makes you comfortable. I only have one condition.”

“What’s that?” I asked, even though I couldn’t think of much that she would say that would make me not want to move in with her.

“If you realize it’s not working for you anymore, you have to be honest with me. Tell me the truth up front.”

“I can definitely do that.” Stepping up behind her as she folded more clothes for her bag, I wrapped my arms around her waist and pressed a soft kiss to her cheek before resting my head on her shoulder. “I want the same from you. Obviously, I’m clueless when someone isn’t into me anymore, so if you don’t tell me directly, I’ll never figure it out.”

Her giggle filled the room with warmth and I spun her around, grabbing the clothes from her hands and tossing them aside as I lowered my mouth to hers in a deep, hungry kiss.

I couldn’t imagine ever getting tired of this.