Page 26 of One Night with My Lawyers
I blink. “Umm, what?”
“Christmas party at the castle,” he says. “Oh, and Layla's here.”
“What?” I yelp. Layla is Xavier's long-lost love. If she's here. . . “Is this a good thing?”
“It’s a very good thing.” Somebody honks behind Xavier, and he mutters a curse under his breath. “Addie, for fuck’s sake. Hurry up.”
Xavier’s offer is a vast improvement over staying in my highly decorated condo and ordering Chinese takeout. It would be brilliant to see Layla again. “I don’t want to get in the middle of your reunion.”
“You won’t,” he says, his voice impatient. “I told you, it’s a party. There are a dozen people there. Julian, Maggie, Anton, Ellie, and Alexander?—”
Stop hiding, kitten.“I'll be down in five.”
I slideinto the passenger seat. We get underway. Once we're on the highway, Xavier gives me a sidelong glance. “Have you heard from Theo and Shane?” he asks, his voice casual.
Xavier is as curious as a cat. It's tempting to thwart his obvious desire to know what happened between the three of us, but if there is anyone that will help me make sense of the situation, it's my friend. “They've been sending me Advent presents.”
“Huh?”
“Do you know what an Advent calendar is?” He nods. “Well, there was an Advent calendar at Taco Gus, and I commented on it. They noticed. They've been sending me presents every day, twenty-four in total. The last one arrived this morning.” A gloriously soft, green cashmere sweater.
“And?”
“They wanted to see me again. I said no.”
“Why?”
I sigh. “Come on, Xavier. Can you imagine what the tabloids would say? Besides, they live in the UK, and I live here.”
“You're a writer,” he points out. “You can work from anywhere. How is your book going, by the way?”
I grimace. “Terrible.” I wrote well when Theo and Shane were here, but I've been blocked since they've been gone.
“Hmm.”
“You're not going to say anything?”
He shrugs. “Addie, you know what you need to do. Elliott wouldn't have wanted you to mourn forever. If you're interested in them, tell them. If there's something there, explore it. Theo and Shane are good guys. I know and like both of them. When Shane called me about the employee-only elevator, and when Theo ran around town looking for?—”
My head snaps up. “Shane called you about the employee-only elevator?”
Xavier looks puzzled. “Yes. Club members are not typically allowed to use them. There are no cameras there.”
“But Shane asked you to let me use it,” I repeat. “That wasn't your idea?”
He shakes his head. “No. I should have thought about it, but I was preoccupied.”
Oh.The first time I used the employee elevators was before our first scene. They barely knew me. We hadn’t slept together. But even then,they saw me.
Then the rest of Xavier's words penetrate. “When Theo ran around town, you said? When Theo ran around town doing what? What's the rest of that sentence?”
“The bedroom,” Xavier replies. “The room in the club, the one you didn’t use. Nothing about it rang a bell?”
It's my turn to frown. “It looked familiar.”
My friend rolls his eyes. “Authors,” he says. “It was a scene from your book.”
What? My mouth falls open. Shock ricochets through me. I grab my phone and open my reading app. I find my book and flip through the pages until I locate the scene he's talking about.
