Page 17 of Chance of Romance
“Okay,” she said quietly. “I’ll make a reservation.”
“All right, I have to get back to work.”
He said bye and disconnected, troubled by Olivia’s temper. It was more than jealousy. It was like she didn’t trust him, and he couldn’t remember ever giving her a reason to feel that way. He’d been faithful in the year they’d been together. He’d proposed, for crying out loud. She was twenty-eight now, the director of an important foundation, but she sounded like an immature college girl. She could be smooth and looked sophisticated with her sleek black hair and stunning blue eyes, her curvy body in designer clothes, but was that all just surface? Maybe he didn’t know her as well as he thought he did.
His phone buzzed with a text. Olivia:I don’t want you to see Sabrina anymore.
He blew out an exasperated breath. They worked in the same office building, Sabrina was friends with his sister, and they knew a lot of the same people. He texted back.We’re just friends.
If you were just friends, you would’ve told me about her from the beginning.
I don’t care if you have guy friends.
I don’t.
He went for the quickest way to reassure her.I care about you.
Doesn’t feel like it.
I do. I’m not cheating on you, I swear.
I wish I could believe you.Frowning face emoticon.
Seriously? They were fighting by text with emoticons? He shoved his phone in his desk drawer.
He suddenly wanted Sabrina’s opinion on this mess. He went downstairs to her office. It wasn’t quite lunchtime yet. There were a couple of chairs in the hallway just outside her office for clients, but they were empty. He listened at the door in case she was with someone, but it was quiet. He knocked.
“Come in,” she called in her professional counselor voice.
He opened the door. “Hey, you got a minute?”
“Sure!” she exclaimed from where she was sitting at her desk. She gestured him in enthusiastically. “Come on in!”
She must still be hyped up from her TV interview this morning. She didn’t get up, so he went to her desk and sat on the edge of it next to her chair. The only other place to sit was across the room, and he didn’t want to stand and tower over her.
Her cheeks flushed pink, and she crossed her legs and then uncrossed them.
“Does it bother you I’m sitting on your desk?” he asked. She probably preferred he sit properly on a chair, but he didn’t want to holler to her from across the room. She didn’t protest, so he leaned close to confide in her, catching the sweet scent of honey and flowers. “It didn’t go well with Olivia.”
“Oh no, I’m so sorry.” Her big brown eyes were pure compassion. “I’m afraid this article might’ve made things worse.” She handed over her phone, where there was a picture of him and Sabrina from this morning. Why was this news? The article implied Sabrina wasn’t good at relationships. It did look like they were a fighting couple. He’d been mad and she’d gotten mad. Maybe they had been fighting. Had Sabrina gone toe-to-toe with him and they were still on good terms? That was the give-and-take he wanted in a relationship. Not pouting and accusations. On the other hand, maybe he shouldn’t be so hard on Olivia. When you were long distance, it was hard to know what was true or not. Maybe she just needed time to learn to trust him again.
He realized Sabrina was talking. “What?”
“Which part didn’t you hear?”
“I got distracted when you showed me the article.”
“I said I think that psycho relationship counselor is behind this.” Her eyes flashed, giving him a jolt. “She wants to discredit me.”
“It’ll blow over. Once the buzz dies down over your article, she’ll forget about you.”
“God, Logan, you really did space out on me. I also said there’s a celebrity gossip piece linking me to Claire. They’re calling me the Hollywood Love Guru!” Her voice rose in volume and she gestured wildly. “And Claire’s cool with it! She’s claimed me as her close friend and said the details of my relationship counseling are confidential. She wants me to run with it and see how far I can build my platform for this book I’m supposed to write and…and…it’s insane!”
“Holy shit.” It was the only possible response.
She pointed at him. “Exactly! I want the book to be big and help a lot of women, and that is theonlyreason I’m going along with all this, but it’s bonkers!” She threw her hands in the air like she was tossing the whole bonkers thing away.
“All of what exactly?”
