Page 64 of My Super Sexy Spy
“Two seconds ago. What an idiot I’ve been,” she said. Only this time, the sarcasm was gone from her voice, replaced by sadness.
“No,” I said, reaching out for her hand, but she pulled away. “You’re not an idiot. I’m good at what I do.”
“You mean impersonating a woman? I’ll give you that. A gay woman at that…which, of course, you’re not. You’re really a straight man. Which now makes total sense. I don’t know what I’m doing here still talking to you. Go away, Liam.”
“You need to let me explain.”
She shook her head. “You did that. In Paris. I read back our conversation. You basically told me what you were doing through Leigh.”
“Yeah, and I admitted it was because I was stupid. And I was right. Beth, you need to understand you were a job—”
“I know that!” she screeched. “But that job is finished. So why didn’t you just tell me you were Leigh and let it drop? Or at the very least, stop responding and just ghost me? We’ve talked every day since I’ve been back. That makes no sense!”
It did to me. “I didn’t want to let you go,” I admitted.
“You mean the job. You didn’t want to let the job go.”
“No. I said youwerea job. But that changed and you know it did. It’s why I quit. It’s why I’ve been living across the street. It’s whyIreached out toyouas Leigh. Because while I thought I couldn’t handle what being in your life meant, it turns out you not being in my life is worse!”
But again, she shook her head. “I can’t. You were Ted, and then you were Liam and then you were this guy who I could lean on in Paris, and then you were just a government agent doing his job. Now you’re Leigh, only Leigh was nothing more than a way for you to keep tabs on me.I have my ways…fuck that! I told you everything you needed to know. So, this is me officially acknowledging…I don’t trust you anymore. Goodbye, Liam.”
“Beth, wait—”
My words were cut off by the door slamming in my face. I pushed against the door, but it was locked. I could pick the lock, but I wasn’t sure she was in a state to hear anything I said right now. I needed to wait until she got over being pissed about the Leigh thing.
And there was probably the embarrassment thing happening, too.
At least it was behind us now. She knew I hadn’t been able to let go, and she knew I quit my job.
Which meant she was going to learn exactly how much time I had on my hands.
“I’ll be back!” I shouted through the door.
“Stupider line thanI have my ways!” she shouted back.
I took this as a good sign. At least we were talking.
15
Three Days Later
Beth
Oh my God!I was going to kill him. To think he’d ever been good at spying on people because he was pretty sucky at it now. I always knew where he was. Which was typically just a few yards behind me.
When I went grocery shopping, he was there. When I took my laptop to the Starbucks to work, which I was doing just to get out of my freaking condo, he was there. When I went to yoga, because that was a new excuse I had to leave my freaking condo…there!
Where I was, he was. And when the asshole wasn’t stalking me, he was breaking into my condo to leave stuff.
A signed baseball by some player on the Phillies I didn’t know.
A framed picture of the selfie we took in Venice by the bridge.
The lock with our names written on it.
Every day it was something else, and the worst part about it was that I couldn’t share any of this with Leigh! My sounding board was gone. He’d changed his name to Liam on Messenger and was still sending me messages, mostly apologies, but it wasn’t the same.
I had no one to bitch with about Liam.
