Page 28 of Best Served Hot
Ethan ignored the nod to his cowardice. ‘Well, I don’t know how the hell you managed to insert yourself into my wife’s life, but it was pointless.’
‘Yeah?’ Alex asked casually.
‘Yes. Because it’s already over. We’re getting a divorce. She’s been seeing other men for months. You’ve got nothing over me.’
Alex had a feeling that Nicole was in the next room, trying not to lose her shit right now.
‘Oh, so… I can tell her?’ Alex asked brightly.
Ethan shrugged like he didn’t much care. ‘You can. But you don’t know her.You’rethe one that will suffer if you do. She’d have you blackballed in this industry. I mean, I know I had to let you go, but I wouldn’t havebadmouthedyou. Nicole though? When she finds out what you’re trying to do? I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes. Put it that way. She’s got a vengeful streak like you wouldn’t believe.’
Alex thought it was hilarious how he’d wandered into the truth while lying his ass off. But she had to hand it to him. His plan to make Nicole the bad guy wasn’t half bad. Not perfect, though.
‘Why would she care if you’re getting a divorce? And why doyoucare if I get on her bad side?’
‘I’m warning you for your own good,’ he said, jabbing a finger at her darkly.
A giggle escaped from Alex. ‘That’s why you came over here? Formyown good?’
‘Yes. Just… Just go. Cut your losses. Make up an excuse. Kill off another grandparent if you have to but make itquick. I don’t need drama on the show.’ He realised what he’d said. ‘Not this kind, I mean.’
Alex wished right then that she was one of the characters from her noir movies with a bar in the room. She’d go over to it, pour herself a neat scotch, swill it around and take a thoughtful sip while pretending to think it over.
Instead, she just shrugged and said, ‘Nah.’
He stared at her, stunned. ‘You don’t know what you’re doing. I know what your career means to you.’
Alex heard the threat. But she wasn’t going to blink first. ‘And I know what yours means to you,’ she said.
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ he asked, agitated.
‘That I think you’re full of shit. And I think you haveeverythingto lose. And I think this is a desperate tactic to wriggle out of a very messy, expensive, public divorce that was certainly not in the cards as far as your wife knows.’
Ethan stared at her angrily. He’d thought this would work, but Alex wasn’t playing along, and it was pissing him off. ‘Look. I don’t know what you want here, but…’
‘I want you to quit the show,’ Alex said. She hoped it would be like the money. Too big of an ask. But the start of negotiations.
He laughed without humour. ‘Not a chance. I’ve worked my whole life for this. I’m not leaving because you threaten me. No way.’
‘That’s your final answer?’ Alex asked.
He nodded. ‘Yeah. I’d lose everything else. But not this. This is mine.’
Alex sniffed. ‘OK. Thanks for coming. See yourself out.’ She got her phone out, sat down, and opened Twitter.
Eventually, after a few uncertain seconds, he walked out. He left her door wide open, the prick. After Alex heard him jog down the stairwell and out the main door, she got up and shut it. She went to the bedroom and opened the door.
Nicole had hold of one of her pillows, and she was smashing it on the bed. She turned, caught. ‘Oh. Sorry. I just needed to work out some feelings.’
Alex cocked her head. ‘Can I have it when you’re done?’
Nineteen
Nicole was seeing other men, was she?! The bloody cheek of Ethan. It shouldn’t have been shocking to hear him lie like this. She knew he’d been doing it for years. But to hear the words out loud, to hear him trying to paint her as some monster to Alex?
She nearly burst through the door and blew everything. But the thought of his face when he realised how fucked he was about to be? It was nearly worth it. But the punishment would have been over too quickly. He wasn’t getting off so easy.
Instead, Nicole grabbed a pillow from Alex’s bed and twisted it up like a giant stress ball. She kept twisting the whole time she listened to him trying to dig himself out of the hole. She was pretty sure the pillow was not fit for its original purpose anymore. She would buy Alex another.
