Page 15 of Bleeding Hearts Duet

“Alright Brayden, I love you.”

“Love you too, sis. Take care.”

***

By the time Thursday rolled around, I was a loose cannon. I’d spent the entirety of the week googling random bits of information about Ryland Bennett during my breaks, and I was starting to think I had a problem.

Why was I so curious about this man? There were so many unanswered questions. Like how he fit into Brayden’s life, or how he was a billionaire and I didn’t even know it. How the universe had conspired to bring me to the very company he founded and the city that he lived in. Of course, these weren’t exactly office appropriate questions, so I had to resort to google.

According to public record, he used his inheritance to fund the startup of the Bennett Corporation four years ago, and since then he’d never looked back. Every article I found about him was business related, with some generic biographies thrown in. There was no mention of him in Chicago at all, so I didn’t understand why Brayden thought he lived there. The articles said he was a California native and that his uncle was another notable real estate tycoon. There was also a mention that the billionaire was fiercely protective of his privacy, and the rest of his life was a complete mystery. Of course, it only made me more curious.

After the incident at the bar, I hadn’t seen Tom come back to work, and I could only assume Ryland had fired him. I asked Nicole about it, but she said she didn’t know. I didn’t really believe that because she was very reluctant to talk about the situation at all. There had been no mention of what she’d said that night at the bar, but I noticed that things between her and Matt were even more strained than usual. Neither one of them were speaking much at all, and I was starting to get paranoid about the whole thing.

When the opportunity arose on Wednesday, I cornered Matt in the break room at lunch.

“What’s up with you?” I asked, planting myself against the counter while he unwrapped a sandwich.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean you’ve been avoiding me all week. Does this have anything to do with what happened at the bar last weekend? Did Mr. Bennett say something to you?”

He gave me a disapproving glance as he took a big bite of his sandwich.

“I’m not avoiding you, Brighton,” he said. “I’ve just been busy.”

“Oh.” I blinked.

The room was stuffy, and Matt wouldn’t take his eyes off his sandwich. I couldn’t stand the silence or the feeling that I was the only one who didn’t know what was going on, so I turned to leave.

“Wait.” Matt sighed.

I turned back to him, and his eyes darted around before he leaned a little closer, gesturing for me to sit down. I did.

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on,” he said in a quiet voice. “Ryland told Nicole that he was there because she forgot to turn in some paperwork when she left work.”

I studied his face and tried to decipher what he wasn’t saying. It wasn’t too hard to guess.

“You don’t believe that.”

His eyes shot up to mine, and he ran an anxious hand through his hair.

“I don’t know what I believe anymore. But Nicole doesn’t do drugs. Ever. So whatever was going on that night, it wasn’t her.”

“Of course.” I gave him a tight smile.

Over the past few weeks, I’d realized myself that things with Nicole were never black and white. The girl had a lot of secrets, and a darkness I was only just beginning to see. I would have liked to say she was my friend, but at the end of the day, I hardly knew anything about her. She seemed to prefer it that way.

But to put Matt’s mind at ease, I told him what he needed to hear at the moment, whether it was wrong or right.

“I’m sure she was just stressed,” I assured him. “And after what happened to Tom, I doubt she’d ever consider it again.”

“You’re probably right.” Matt frowned. “But I’d still like you to look out for her… if you don’t mind.”

“She doesn’t have a choice in the matter.” I grinned. “She’s stuck with me now.”

***

Nicole had a meeting that night, so I was left to my own devices when I came home from work. The apartment was lonely without her in it, and it made me realize how much I’d grown used to her presence.

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