Page 108 of Business Casual

“I’ll have to hope the fact that I’m protecting them from a lawsuit will be enough to buy me some leniency.”

“No.” I shook my head harder. “I’m not signing this if you aren’t protected, too. Get your lawyer or whoever on the phone and have them redo this so that it protects you, too. Call”—I glanced at the bottom of the page— “Sydney… Graham? Sydney, your ex Sydney, drafted this?”

“Yes. She’s a lawyer.”

I was so confused. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “So… she knew about us the whole time?”

“Syd and I are cool, but when I asked her to be my date and draft these documents, I needed to explain why. She drafted it Saturday. And after the event was over, she explained what I could and couldn’t do, how I should and shouldn’t move forward with this. She looked out.”

I closed my eyes. Seeing him with another woman hurt me and made me jealous. I would’ve saved myself from a lot of heartache if I’d known.

Oh God, no wonder he hasn’t even touched me. He thinks I overreacted.

“I didn’t know about any of this,” I mumbled, my head in my hands. “I’m so sorry. I was just…jealous seeing you on a date and I reacted. I…” My sentence trailed off.

“You what?”

I lifted my head. “I didn’t know you were doing this to make sure everything would be okay. I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have any reason to be sorry. I told you I would protect you so let me do that,” he uttered.

Gaping at him, I didn’t understand why he didn’t understand where I was coming from.

“I want you protected, too. Can’t you ask her to add you to this?”

“Imani…” He exhaled. “You signing this is the closest thing I have to getting protected.”

“Are you going to lose your job?”

“Please sign it.” He handed me a pen. “Please.”

The pen was poised over the paper, but I couldn’t make my hand move. I stared at the words in front of me until they were blurry.

“Imani?” He said my name softly, forcing my head up. “What’s wrong?”

I blinked until the tears retreated. “Why did you say had?”

His brows crinkled. “What?”

“You said this form indicates that wehada relationship. Had. Past tense,” I pointed out.

“Because I have to go in there with something and there were only two options.”

“So why did you choose this option?”

He searched my face. “I didn’t choose this. You did.”

There was so much I wanted to say. I wasn’t one to bite my tongue, but there were so many thoughts and feelings swirling inside me.

“When did I choose this?” I asked through gritted teeth. I rose to my feet and held the paper in front of him. “You said wehadaprevious relationship.” I pointed to the phrase on the paper before tossing it on the coffee table. “So just like that, it’s done?”

He stood, silently watching me pace his living room.

I felt like I was going to explode. “Aren’t you going to say anything?”

“No.”

I put my hands on my hips and glared at him. “Why not?”

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