Page 46 of Say You Remember Me
As soon as she was gone, I loosened my grip on Maddie’s hand and was almost weak with relief as I exhaled, “Sorry about that. I panicked.”
“It’s fine,” she said softly. Then seeming to notice Margot glancing back at us, she slipped her hand into the crook of my arm, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “Exes are complicated.”
“That they are.”
15
MADDIE
“That was a good meal,”Ian said, his hand brushing lightly against mine as we left the restaurant after our dinner with Mr. Kwan and his wife, Mei.
“It really was,” I said. Good companyanddelicious food.
I’d ordered the buttermilk roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and green beans, and the chicken was so juicy and tender, I’d savored every bite.
“I hope you didn’t get too bored with all the tech talk.” Ian glanced back at me as he pushed open the restaurant doors and waited for me to walk through. “I know it was probably a lot.”
“Not at all.” I shook my head, smiling. “It’s actually interesting, hearing about everything that’s coming next. Makes the future feel a little closer.”
“Glad to hear it wasn’t too boring,” Ian said. “And yes, it was fun to hear what Mr. Kwan and his company are working on.”
Another couple exited the restaurant behind me, so Ian held the door open for them. Once they had gone ahead, we continued down the walkway toward the elevators.
“And sorry again about the whole ‘calling you my fiancée’ thing in front of Margot,” Ian said, an apologetic expression onhis face. “I think my brain jumped ship for a minute and it would seem that having my ex-fiancée in front of me caused the word to blurt out.”
“I figured it was something like that,” I said. Had I been surprised to suddenly be referred to as my boss’s fiancée? Of course! But I could definitely think of worse things than having someone think I had caught the attention of such a handsome and powerful man.
And as long as we didn’t bump into Margot again, and she kept our meeting to herself, there really shouldn’t be an issue with one person thinking I was engaged to my billionaire boss.
“I’m guessing you must know all about my past with her, then?” Ian asked, his brown eyes studying me.
“Just a little,” I admitted, feeling my cheeks heat at being caught, once again, in my curiosity about him. “I didn’t know you two were connected until her email came through. But…” I bit my lip. “I will admit that I did a quick search after seeing her email and saw a few news articles that mentioned you two had been engaged during college.”
“You really didn’t know about it until last week?” Ian’s gaze narrowed, like he’d expected his history to have been common knowledge to everyone. “It was all over the tabloids back then.”
But I shrugged and said, “I think I was in high school when it happened. And since my dad didn’t allow me to have social media until I was eighteen, I pretty much lived in a cave.”
Though, if Ian really was that same guy I’d met on the beach back then, I guess Ipossiblyhadknown about it. I just hadn’t known it was him or that he and his ex were famous enough to have their breakup all over the entertainment news media.
No wonder he’d wanted to avoid her calls.
“Well, in case you’re wondering, it was a messy breakup,” Ian said. “And in the midst of it, I basically did the girl equivalent ofcutting bangs and ended up bleaching my hair before buzzing it off.”
He’d bleached and buzzed his hair after his breakup?My heart stuttered as his words hit me and the photo I’d seen earlier at his house flashed through my mind. Because there was no way that that photo being taken right after his breakup could be a coincidence, right?
That the guy on the beach, who had the same hairstyle that Ian had just described and was also going through a breakup with a girl who had cheated on him, would look so similar to Ian at that time.
“Trying to picture me with blond hair?” Ian asked, apparently assuming I was suddenly speechless at the idea of him with light hair.
“Um,” I said, my mind scrambling as I tried to decide if I should tell him that I was pretty sure I may have actually seen his bleached hair in person.
But before I could decide how to say it, we rounded the corner—and there she was.
Margot.Standing by the elevator doors.
My stomach dipped.
“Hello,” she said when she noticed us, her voice syrupy sweet. “Fancy seeing you two again.”
