Page 5 of The Player + The Pact = I Do

“What’s that?” Byron calls from the other side of the table, where he’s been engrossed in his phone. “I feel like I missed something.”

“Leo is being awarded Developer of the Decade at theProperty InternationalAwards,” Bennett says.

“Leo,” he says in a chastising tone. “Did you create these awards?”

“You’re a bloody comedian, Byron,” I answer. “You should actually give up your day job and start touring with that act.”

“Looks legit,” Jack says, holding out his phone to the table. It’s the awards web page. “Wow, the sponsor is Hammonds.” He shoots me a glance. I try to ignore the shiver that passes through my body every time I hear that name.

Hammonds is the new sponsor?

Why would they sponsor the awards? Frank Hammond never spends money on stuff like that. He’s an archetypal Scrooge. I unclench my jaw and shrug. “They try to win my business from time to time,” I say.

“Do you laugh in their face?” Jack asks.

I shake my head. “I enjoy their wasted efforts.”

Bennett chuckles.

“Have I missed something?” Fisher asks. “I feel like I’m not in on the joke.”

“Well, first, it wouldn’t be the first time,” Bennett says. “And second, it’s not a joke.”

I see Jack nudge Fisher, but he doesn’t get the hint that he’s meant to be shutting up to spare my feelings. But it’s fine. I think. It’s been a long time. I don’t need my feelings spared.

“Hammonds is Caroline Hammond’s father’s real estate agency,” I say to Fisher.

“Ohhh,” Fisher says. “Sorry, mate. I didn’t do the math.”

“It’s fine.”

“You won’t have to deal with them, will you?” Bennett asks.

I shake my head. “No, they’re just the sponsor. And anyway, I run into Mr. Hammond every now and then. He has no clue who I am.” Or maybe he does and he likes to pretend he doesn’t. I might have dated his daughter for two years but we were never officially introduced.

“Really?” Bennett asks. “You ever want to tell him?”

I think about it for a second. “No. I’d much prefer he thought I was a developer he or his firm might do business with at some point. I quite like the way he sucks up. It’s not subtle.”

“The ultimate revenge,” Fisher says, grinning.

But it doesn’t feel like revenge. There’s no satisfactionin seeing the man who made me feel two inches tall from my current vantage point. Despite dating his daughter for nearly two years, I never met him when I was younger. The closest we ever came to a face-to-face meeting was when I told his minion to fuck off after he offered me money—on Frank’s behalf—to get out of his daughter’s life.

Now, whenever I run into him, I still get a physical urge to punch the man. But it wouldn’t achieve anything. All I’d prove to him is that I’m still the boy hethoughtI was at eighteen. And I’m not that boy. I never was. I was better than Frank Hammond then, and I’m better than him now.

And his daughter never deserved me.

TWO

Jules

If I were a betting woman, I’d wager that for most people reeling off their top ten most life-changing films,Pretty Womandoesn’t make the cut.

In my personal top ten, it’s the only entry.

I’ve replayed the scene when Vivian describes herself as a bum magnet a thousand times. Nothing had ever resonated so hard with me. I watched that film at twenty-five and immediately ditched my on-again-off-again boyfriend/late-night booty call.

Of course, the difference between me and Vivian is that I’m not a bum magnet, I’m anassholemagnet. Show me a guy who’s too handsome for his own good, has serious commitment issues and an inability to be faithful, and there I’ll be, pawing at him like a dog desperate for a scratch behind the ears.

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