Chapter 14 #2
His mouth slams shut when he realizes what he just said, and I run my suddenly sweaty palms down the sides of my dress. Not thirty feet away from where we’re standing, a younger Wyatt once touched way more than the kneecaps of a younger CJ.
I can’t believe he brought it up.
“That…” I stammer, and then I shake my head sharply. “That didn’t happen, remember? That was a mistake.”
“Was it?” His tongue darts out to wet his lower lip. “I asked her.”
I’m so rattled by the past ten seconds that I’m slow to pick up his meaning. “Asked who?”
“Reese.” The tension in his shoulders is different now. It’s not the defensive, guarded posture from before, but alertness. Despite the pale, thin version of Wyatt in front of me, he looks more like the man I first met. “I asked her about the scoring matrix.”
I’m so shocked that my entire body fades out of existence before snapping back to the sharp, bright present. “You did?”
“Yeah.”
“And?”
“She got mad. Then she said she couldn’t remember.”
My pulse throbs in my ears. “She couldn’t remember which factors she included in the evaluation framework, or how she weighted them to calculate the composite divisional value score?”
“None of it.” He shifts from foot to foot, looking troubled. “She said it was all in her files, and she’d have to look it up to remember the details.”
I snort. “Right. I can’t tell you how often I forget the details of the matrix I built myself. It’s only the foundation of the entire analysis and the driver of every recommendation that follows.”
His gaze holds me in place as he steps closer.
“You wrote that audit, didn’t you?”
Is this… is it finally happening? I nod, too buffeted by emotions to speak. Then I choke out, “There was a note too.”
His brown eyes are liquid in the light of the setting sun. “What did it say?”
I can’t. I can’t share this with him after all this time and all this hurt.
“Ask your girlfriend.” I cut my eyes away. “She’s the one who stole it.”
“She’s not my girlfriend anymore.”
“Oh, right.” Bitterness coats my tongue. “Your fiancée.”
Those awful brackets around his mouth are back. “She’s not that either.”
This shuts me up.
“Does that mean—” I ask hesitantly.
“We broke up.”
The words hang there, and my whole body goes hot, then cold, then hot again.
They broke up. Wyatt’s single. The man I hate is single. The man I’ve hated for years, who’s hated me for years, is single, and he knows I wrote that third audit.
“I’m sorry?” It comes out as a question, and Wyatt laughs.
“No, you’re not.”
“No,” I say breathlessly. “I’m not. Was it because…”
“She stole your audit, passed it off as her own, and lied to me for years about it?” He breathes hard out of his nose. “It was a lot of things, but that was definitely a big one.”
“Good.” It’s out before I can stop it, and I slap my hand over my mouth. It’s not like I want him back. There’s no unwinding our whole, awful history.
“Why is that good?” He turns the intensity up to eleven.
“Sorry. Not good. It’s just… she lied about me for so long, but setting that aside—”
“Oh, setting that aside?”
I level a look at him. “You know what I mean. You loved her. Love her. I don’t know. So it’s not going to be an easy thing to get over.”
She was never right for you! I want to scream it even though it’s not my place. But even by observing them occasionally and from a distance, it was so obvious.
He doesn’t respond right away, instead rubbing his fingers over his mouth.
“Are you and that paramedic together?”
“Who, Omar?” Wyatt recognized the guy who took care of me after the 5K in December? Interesting. My first instinct is to mess with him about it, string out my answer in some way guaranteed to piss him off. But that doesn’t feel right in this moment.
“We were,” I say. “For a bit. It ended a while ago, though.”
He reaches for my hand. It’s hesitant, almost a question, and he says, “Charlotte Jane” in his lovely, low voice.
I’m still deciding if I’ll let him touch me or if I’ll slap his fingers away when the door to the building flies open.
It’s Reese. Wyatt and I spring apart, no doubt looking guilty as sin.
“I knew it.” She advances on him. “You goddamn liar.”
It’s her face contorted in fury for a change, not mine. And also, hell no. I am done letting this bitch trample all over my life.
“You’re calling him the liar?” I laugh. “That’s rich.”
Reese whips toward me. “I’m not talking to you. I’m talking to my fiancé.”
My body phases out of existence again, and when I’m back, I’m in the middle of a reality I recognize all too well.
“That’s weird.” It feels like I’m moving in slow motion as I pivot to Wyatt. ”Because he told me you broke up.”
“Is that what he told you?” Her face twists into a mocking pout. “Oh, sweetie. I know you’ve never been in a serious relationship, but sometimes couples fight. That doesn’t mean it’s over.”
She acts like she’s explaining the rules of a complicated game to a child.
And maybe she is. When Wyatt speaks again, it’s clear that I don’t understand this game at all.
“She and I were having a work conversation,” Wyatt says. “And you and I broke up.”
“Bullshit.” She stalks toward Wyatt, her eyes burning. “You swore there was nothing between you two, but I fucking knew you were lying.”
“What are you—” He straightens, disgust crawling over his face. “Reese, no. This isn’t what it looks like. I’m not a cheater.”
“Excuse me?” I say sharply. “What does this look like, Wyatt?”
“Nothing.” He glances at me, then back to Reese just as quickly. “It’s not like that with her and me. Never has been.”
“Bullshit!” Reese says louder. “You’re meeting her in an alley behind a bar on a Friday night, you fucking cheater.”
“We’ve been over this, Reese!” he explodes. “It was one night six years ago. One night. I didn’t even take her home. And then you and I fell in love, and that was it.” He waves an arm in my direction but doesn’t bother to look at me. “There’s nothing here.”
I press my hands to my ears to block out how fucking dismissive he sounds at the idea. How he’s rewriting our history and erasing that night because he’s still tangled up with this horrible woman.
Well, fuck him. I’d rather be pissed than sad. I let my hands drop as I welcome in the reckless fury that ended with Wyatt taking an ice bath and with me limping around on a crutch last New Year’s Eve.
“Nothing at all, Wyatt?” I nibble coyly on my thumb and run my eyes down his body. “Not even once or twice?”
He barely spares me a glance to say, “I need you to stay out of this. You’re not helping.”
“Helping?” My laugh is so wild it almost covers the waves of unwelcome grief.
He finally confronted Reese about her theft and character assassination.
He cracked open the door that had slammed shut between us, letting in a sliver of light that I can now admit I’d been craving for years.
But he’s still with her, or at least not as cleanly separated as he claimed, and he’s still saying that our night meant nothing at all?
Fuck. Him.
“Baby, why would I want to help?” I swing my hips on my way over to him and rest a proprietary hand on his chest while I smile at Reese.
She’s been lying to his face for their entire relationship; now it’s my turn.
“Broken up, not broken up. What difference does it make? I’ve been fucking your boyfriend for years. ”
“No.” Wyatt looks at me in utter shock, then snaps his head toward Reese. “God, no.”
The true horror in his voice pisses me off even more, so I trail my fingers down his abdomen. “You’re not very observant, are you, sweetie?” I ask Reese. “He told me I’m the best he’s ever had.“
Wyatt catches my wrist and drags it off him with a hiss. “What are you doing?”
“Or maybe,” I say, ignoring him to continue taunting Reese, “he and I have never fucked. Never even kissed. Maybe I’m just as much a liar as you are. Who can say?”
Reese is still, except for her trembling hands, which she clasps in front of her.
“I’m not going to stand here and watch this. We’re done.” She swings her glittering eyes to me. “Enjoy your whore, CJ. I hope he’s worth it.”
Once she’s gone, Wyatt turns to me, his face twisted in outrage. “Fucking why?”
I’m starting to feel the first stirrings of guilt about my outburst, but when I look at him again, all I can see are the times he refused to listen to me, called me a liar, thought the worst of me.
But here we are, caught up in his lies and Reese’s lies, and you know what? I’m fine seeing red and going with it.
“Why? To ruin your life, obviously.” I pat his too-thin cheek, then spin away to call over my shoulder, “That’s what I do, right?”
The pounding of my heart is almost as loud as his ragged breathing as I pull open the door and slam it shut behind me. I thought I could have a conversation with Wyatt that didn’t end in disaster? Who was I kidding?
Leaning against the wall, I crouch and drop my head between my knees until I don’t feel like I’m going to hyperventilate or maybe die. Then I plaster on a smile and go to rejoin my true friends.
Because the guy in the alley is nothing to me. He said so himself.