Page 108 of Stirring Up Love
“What about getting mauled by a regular bear?”
“Also worse. See, you’re proving my point.”
“No, what I’m doing is letting you deflect. C’mon, Sim. What happened?”
Ugh, talking about her feelings was even worse than sitting here stewing in them, but her sister cared enough to call from Paris, and that mattered. A lot. “What happened is he thought I was keeping him on the line while I worked out a way to get the deal without him.”
“Which, to be clear, you were.”
“I was not!”
Her sister leaned closer to the screen, and the neck of her tee slipped off one shoulder. Was she wearing Quentin’s shirt? Ew, TMI. “A week ago you told me you’d ruin him before you let him touch Honey and Hickory.”
“Fair point. But things changed,” she said.
“And he knew this?”
Simone blinked. “I mean, we kissed.”
“So he knew you were attracted to him. That doesn’t mean you liked him.”
She hated having her own reasoning thrown in her face. “I told him he was a good person.”
“Well, in that case...”Alisha rolled her eyes.
“What?”
“Sim, really? A good person is the bare minimum. You expect him to be reassured because you don’t think he’s the devil?”
“Considering I used to think hewasthe devil? Yeah.” No. But she needed to hold on to her dwindling anger or she might break down in front of two billionaires in...she checked the clock. Shoot, less than half an hour.
“Anyway, I fail to see the problem. You didn’t want the deal. Finn bowed out. Ergo, no deal, and you don’t have the stigma of turningdown a coveted offer fromThe Executives.” A couple of days of being married to a professor, and Alisha thought she could claim the logical high ground. “The way I see it, he did you a favor.”
“But he thinks I don’t care about him.” How did Alisha not understand the enormity of this?
“So?” Her sister leaned out of the camera and came back with a croissant. A predinner pastry snack? Simone wholeheartedly approved. Alisha took a bite, cupping her hand under the shower of flaky crumbs. “It sucks his feelings got hurt, but at the end of the day, you’re better off.”
This was infuriating. If she were there, she’d tear the croissant out of her sister’s hands and throw it in the nearest trash. After she’d eaten half, of course. “I am not ‘better off.’” She made air quotes and nearly dropped the phone.
“Why not?”
“Because I love him!”
Alisha grinned into the camera. Oh, crap.
“I hate you. I loathe you. I utterly despise you,” Simone said, weighing the merits of crawling under the table. Who had closed last night? Brent, whose mopping skills left something to be desired. Slumping to the floor in humiliation was out, then.
Her sister was chuckling now. “I know I shouldn’t laugh, because you’re heartbroken—”
“Not heartbroken.” Heartsick, maybe. Sounded less dire. Something that could be cured with an antacid, not surgery.
“Too late for that. But your face,” Alisha said. “You should see your face. I’m surprised I haven’t burst into flames from your laser-beam eyes.”
She’d never wanted a superpower, but laser eyes? Sounded useful.
Alisha had stopped laughing, wore the serious big-sister face again. “I know this past week has been a roller coaster for you. But I honestly think this crappy deal is the best thing that could’ve happened to you. You two were content to keep living in this bubble of banter and bickering, but then you got tossed into the frying pan of six days of intensive couples therapy.”Alisha paused for breath, and Simone’s frown turned into a glower. “And fell in love. So don’t let a little miscommunication come between you.”
Nothing “little” about him walking away from $200,000 just to get away from her. “He hurt me too. He imploded this whole deal without giving me a chance to explain myself.”
