Page 76 of Overtime
“Fine.”
“And then after, you’re going to tell him, you love him.”
“Not fine.”
“Joss.”
“Violet.”
“I don’t ask you for much. But I’m asking you to please do this.”
“Maybe.” I take a deep breath, despite the fact I don’t want to. I know she’s right. That I have to tell him. I need to be honest and let him know the truth. Give him the chance to react to it how he wants. Even if that means ending our arrangement early.
FORTY
Colt
That night after I shower,shave, and get dressed, I drive to Ben’s to pick Joss up and take her to dinner. Violet’s going to distract Joss for a few minutes so Ben can hand me back the deed to the building, and I’m going to take her to dinner and tell her I bought it for her. Or at least I think I am. Right now I feel like I’m going to throw up as I climb out of the car.
I know Violet’s right. The right thing to do is tell Joss the truth about the building, even if it means I blow things up in the process. And in all honesty, I’m glad that she forced my hand because I hate the idea of lying to Joss. Even if it’s just a lie of omission. I can’t stand the idea of anything like that between us. Not after everything we’ve worked through so far.
Which means I also have to make sure she knows about the tabloid photos. The ones my publicist has been hounding me about. Because when we were at the restaurant with the donors and Harper and Alex, we’d been spotted leaving the restaurant. Partly because Harper and Alex are the new it couple in the city. I hadn’t thought about it when I’d grabbed her hand on the way out. I’d just been thinking she had a rough time dealing with their bullshit, and I desperately wanted to get her home.
But now the tabloids are speculating who we are to each other, and the posts I’ve made on social media that link back to their foundation have people online starting to ask the same questions. And I’ve been avoiding my publicist because I honestly don’t know how to answer this. I don’t want to say anything that’s going to jeopardize my situation with Joss, no matter how little time I have left with her.
* * *
The restaurantI’ve picked is a romantic one with an art nouveau interior I’m hoping she’ll appreciate and dark secluded corners that I hope are going to still give us the privacy we need away from prying eyes and ears. Especially when I bomb her with the reveal that I bought her a studio, and her reaction might be to walk out on me.
We order our drinks and salads, and she smiles at me, dragging her shoe along the inside of my calf as she smiles at me.
“You seem stressed tonight. Something wrong at work, or just one of those days?”
“One of those days.” I smile at her, taking in the sweet way she’s looking at me right now.
“Well, we can call it early and go fuck in your car if we need to.” She smirks at me as I nearly choke on the sip of ice water I was taking.
“You love doing that, don’t you?”
“Yes. It’s one of the greatest pleasures of my life.” She grins, and I wipe the water off my lips and set the napkin down.
“I have to tell you something, and you might freak out a little. Or a lot. Frankly, I’m terrified to tell you, and I just need you to believe me when I say my heart was in the right place when I did this. I wasn’t thinking at the time of how it might make you feel, so I’m sorry for that.”
When I finally work up the courage to look at her, her smile has faded and her brow is furrowed but she still seems to be calm, waiting for whatever I’m about to say next.
“Okay…”
I pull the deed out of my suit jacket and slide it across the table. She opens it, and her eyes drift over the page.
“You bought a building?”
“A studio, for you.” I take a breath as my heart starts to race. “It has some offices downstairs too that I thought you and Harper could use while you get things figured out with the nonprofit. You could hold meetings and do your shoots there without always having to worry about booking other spaces.”
“Downstairs?” she asks.
“Yeah. The main floor. Upstairs is an apartment. It’s not huge or fancy or anything, but I thought if you wanted your own space away from Ben and Violet… I’m not expecting you to move there permanently or anything. You could rent it out too for some extra cash or whatever you feel like. I just thought in case you wanted a place to crash when you have to come back to town to work on foundation business, it’d be useful.” I swallow against the lump in my throat as I wait for her reaction.
“Oh… Yeah. That makes sense I suppose.” She lifts her eyes to meet mine, and a small smile forms on her lips. “Also an easy place to take my hookups after I photograph them too. Better than just riding them on the couch in the studio.”
