Page 79 of Collide
“Andrew…I thought it was justus?” I frown.
She claps her hands like she’s hosting a damn talk show. “Oh, didn’t you check the calendar invite? This is themaid of honor meets the best manbrunch!”
I freeze.
No.
No, no.
“Wait.” I turn to Broderick. “You’rethe best man?”
He flashes a megawatt smile, his dimples on full display, smug and sparkling. “Surprise, sweetheart.”
Fuck.
I close my eyes as they roll to the back of my head. I won’t give him the satisfaction.
I press my fingers to my temples. If I concentrate hard enough, maybe I can will my body into another dimension.
Well. Shit.
Andrew’s voice booms from the hallway.
“Broderick Schwartz, myman!”
They meet in a back-slapping, chest-thumping embrace—two perfectly sculpted Ken dolls, reunited.
Schwartz.
I wonder, absentmindedly, if he’s fromthatSchwartz family—the diamond dealers. The backbone of New York jewelry. Loaded to the gills. Old money. Montgomery-level old.
Doesn’t matter.
What matters is he’s sticking around.
Which means I have to keep my cool.
And rein in my thoughts.
Hard.
If I had knownmy morning would come to this, I would have prepared accordingly. And byprepared, I mean feigned illness, overslept, or mysteriously disappeared to Paris.
Instead, now I’m here, seated at a nauseatingly chic café, sipping an aggressively overpriced mimosa while Philippa glows as she retells the story of how she and Andrew met.
“You know,” she says quietly, leaning in, “after that…situation in the meeting room, Andrew wouldn’t shut up about me. He was obsessed. Wanted to know everything.”
“So, you stalked her?” I deadpan to Andrew, who looks positively wistful, like he’s reliving a Renaissance painting.
“Can you blame me? She’s stunning.” He shrugs, utterly unbothered.
“Smooth,” I mutter, shoving an entire strip of bacon into my mouth.No regrets. Bacon fixes everything.
“So what happened next?” I ask, mouth full.
“Well, Andrew wasn’t sure how to ask the company owner’s daughter out, or if he even should, so…he roped Broderick into helping,” Philippa says with a shrug. “They came up with this whole plan to get me to that Columbia alumni mixer. Broderick had his assistant contact my office about a potential property we might be interested in.”
“How romantic. Nothing gets you going like the threat of a property acquisition, huh, Pip? A love story for the ages.”
