Page 139 of Power Play Rivals

Piper doesn’t even look at me, brushing my hand off her and glancing at her watch instead.

“I’m sorry to cut this dinner short, but I really should get back to ESA for the annual Christmas party,” she rushes to explain.

She swiftly gets up from her seat, surprise edged on her face when she sees me standing up, too.

“I can find my own way to the door, Trent. You don’t have to follow me like some lost puppy.”

I let the ‘lost puppy’ remark slide due to her being upset.

“I’m very aware of that, love. However, how else am I supposed to be by your side at your agency’s Christmas party if I don’t accompany you there?”

Piper’s teeth clench up into a forced smile, a telltale sign of her imagining cutting me up into tiny little pieces and throwing my remains into the Charles River.

But instead of saying anything to the contrary, she turns to a now concerned-looking Rex and gives him one of her earnest smiles.

“Rex, thank you for dinner. It was lovely getting to know you better.”

“The pleasure was all mine, sweet girl,” Rex says, getting up from his seat and giving her a friendly hug.

He looks at me with confusion, but I just shake my head, not wanting to discuss Piper’s sudden sour mood with him. After they break away from their hug, I pay my farewells to my dear friend and follow Piper out of the restaurant, handing the car keys to the valet to bring my car around.

“You’re upset,” I state matter-of-factly since she refuses to even look at me.

Not that she threw more than a few glaring looks back inside the restaurant all night.

“How perceptive of you,” she snarls.

“Do you not want me to go?”

“If I did, I would have invited you.”

“I was under the impression youhadinvited me, Piper. Not two weeks ago, you were saying how you would have preferred to stay home with me, just vegging out on the couch rather than having to go to the stupid office party. I apologize if I mistook you for preferring my company to that of your colleagues. I assumed you wanted me to come along.”

“Well, you assumed wrong,” she counters, her nostrils flaring.

“Piper,” I start, needing to understand where all this hostility has come from, but then the valet returns with my car, interrupting me from getting any answers.

“Let’s just go and get this over with,” she mutters, getting into the passenger seat.

Frustrated, I hand the valet his tip and walk to the other side of the car. But before my ass is resting on the seat, Piper is already scrolling through her phone, preferring to deal with important emails rather than talk to me.

By the time we arrive at ESA, my mood has worsened while her temper tantrum has not subsided one bit.

“Piper,” I call out when she gets out of the car, not even waiting for me to open the door for her.

I rush out of my seat and throw the keys to someone—who I hope is the fucking valet on duty for this party—and rush behind her. I manage to catch up with her when the elevator doors are just about to close on me.

“Fuck, Piper. What has gotten into you tonight?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it’s because you insisted on tagging along to a work event. People talk, Trent. They see me with you, and they’ll assume that we’re together.”

“But we are together!”

“No, we’re not!” She points a finger at my face. “And no amount of you saying that we are or tricking me into moving your stuff into my place will make it so.”

“Is this what this is? You’re all hot and bothered because I moved a few personal things of mine into our home?”

“Myhome!” she shouts. “And it wasn’t just a few things. You moved in, and I, like an idiot, didn’t even realize you had until it was already too late.”

---