Page 29 of A Private Affair
Chaz felt partial relief in knowing that it had only been a reporter who aggravated her, and deep irritation that her mood involved her ex-fiancé.
“He’s a reporter—their job is to push buttons. They get a reaction or a blurted quote and they run with it. You know how this works, Riley.”
“Yeah, I do and I think it sucks.”
“I agree.” Chaz moved to meet her on the other side of the bar. He really needed a drink now.
She pushed the whiskey closer to him and he found a glass and poured. He took a gulp, letting the liquid burn the back of his throat before he spoke again.
“What else did he say about you and Stone?” Because that was all that mattered to Chaz. He could not care less if the jerk was marrying someone else.
“It’s not relevant. I shouldn’t have let it get under my skin. Like you said, I know better.”
“But you continue to expect people to be better. That says a lot about you.”
It also said she was probably going to continue being bothered by people who didn’t have the good sense to get a clue.
“It either says I’m an idiot or I should have just punched the guy and went about my business.”
“You’re not an idiot.” Chaz finished his drink and turned around to lean his back against the bar. “Were you in love with Stone?”
It shouldn’t matter, but it did. He was certain Riley had the capacity to love. What he didn’t know is whether or not she’d given her heart to someone before.
She looked down at her glass and then up to him. “No. I wanted to be. Not just because it would have been the perfect professional union, but because it would mean that I was normal.”
He shrugged. “Normal is overrated.”
“Says the guy who played varsity football since he was in the ninth grade and went on to be a big shot in your fraternity.”
She’d done some research on him. Chaz was flattered.
“It’s much harder to be different.”
She sighed. “We were supposed to be like the royal couple of fashion. Everybody was watching us and waiting for the big day. And all the time I was having daily anxiety attacks and cringing each night he decided to sleep with me.”
Chaz had a rule about not knowing the past details of his current lover’s sex life. But something made him want to know everything possible about Riley.
She lifted her hands and ran her fingers through her hair. What had been smooth and neat earlier was still mostly straight at the top but curling on the ends. Chaz recalled how soft those curls were when he’d run his fingers through them. He wanted to do so again.
“I wasn’t frigid in bed,” she said in a huff.
“I can attest to that.” He leaned over and nudged her shoulder with his.
She looked up at him with a semismile.
“Anyway, on the business end everything went very well. Stonemill Apparel was going to cut our distributing costs in half because of their global reach. At the time we had contracts with a US and UK distributor locked down. However, we’d entered into intense negotiations with Canada and China. Stonemill had warehouses and networks all over the globe. It made sense to combine all our distributing to one company. The process would be streamlined, contracts, payments, shipments would all be the same across the board instead of our production department having to navigate the different logistics of each separate company.”
Chaz agreed. “A very smart idea.”
“And because we were also combining our families, the company names, our brands, it was going to be a huge slam dunk in the industry.”
“I remember.” His uncle had been beside himself with worry over how the Gold/Stone joining was going to affect his distributing.
“And I didn’t want to mess that up. I wanted RGF to not only remain on top, but to be so far ahead of the other fashion houses that they could only dream of catching up.” She sighed and shook her head. “But I messed up.”
Chaz rubbed a hand over her back and ignored the quick jolt of tenseness he felt in her with the touch. “You didn’t mess up. You made a choice. A very good one, I would say.”
She drank the rest of the whiskey, setting the glass down with another loud clunk when she was finished. “He cheated on me. I mean, I suspected all along that he had someone else but I’m not the type to hunt for clues to bust some guy. I was, however, the type to think once the wedding was over, it would stop. But there’s something about having proof slap you in the face. That was a defining moment for me.”
