Trick never showed up.
Lyla would have been pissed off except when she woke up on Curtis’ couch, she panicked. What if something had happened to her husband and she hadn’t been there for him?
After talking to Curtis for a while last night, she’d been ready to go home. But she hadn’t taken a purse to the club. Trick had assured her that she wouldn’t need anything because she’d be with him all night. Except that meant she didn’t have her cell phone to call him and had no money for a cab.
Curtis let her use his phone, but Trick’s just kept ringing out over and over again. If he was still in the club, he’d never hear it over the music. She couldn’t get in a cab if she didn’t know Trick was at the other end with his wallet, and she didn’t feel confident walking the streets that late by herself.
Trick would probably be mad for endangering herself like that anyway. He didn’t like her out and about at night alone. At Curtis’ she was safe, and so when he offered her a blanket and a pillow, she conceded. Trick would show up when everyone was done at the club and he noticed she hadn’t come back from the bathroom. When he did, she’d be on the couch, ready to shout at him for not answering his phone.
But she fell asleep and no one ever knocked on the door.
Curtis offered her breakfast, but she wasn’t going to hang around at his place. They were both due at work anyway, so she persuaded him to take her straight into the office. She went to reception and requested to use the phone. The receptionist said she had to dial the number out and when Lyla said she was calling Trick’s cell, she was told that Trick was already here… in a meeting with Bunyan.
Good.
Thank God.
At least he wasn’t in danger or dead.
Curtis was there at her shoulder when she turned around. “Do you think I should go to Bunyan and apologize?”
“Couldn’t hurt,” she said, racing toward the elevator.
Trick was never at work this early unless he’d been called in for something. But what could he have been called in for? What did Bunyan want with him?
“Will you come in with me?” Curtis asked.
To Bunyan’s office? “I’m going there anyway,” she said and it made no difference to her if Curtis buddied her up the stairs.
The elevator seemed to take an age to ascend. Eventually it got to the executive floor and she dashed to Bunyan’s office. If Trick was in there, she didn’t need to knock, so she strode straight in.
Trick was standing at the desk opposite Bunyan. Sadie was on her feet at the end of the desk. Everyone turned when she came to a rushed halt. “Trick,” she said, but his eyes were cold as they scanned her figure up and down.
He exhaled a tut and then his lips sloped. “Guess I do have it in me to corrupt even the purest,” he muttered. “Haven’t been home yet, sweetheart?”
Damn.
Looking at herself, Lyla saw that she was still in last night’s outfit. It hadn’t even occurred to her that she’d be a mess, but she hadn’t combed her hair or brushed her teeth, all she’d thought about was getting to Trick.
“I didn’t have money for a cab,” she said.
Trick looked over her head. “You’re a real gent.”
“There, you have your answer,” Bunyan said, dropping into his seat. “She was screwing this guy.”
Her jaw swung loose and she gasped. “No! No, I wasn’t… doing that.” Bunyan was evil, through and through, but she didn’t think that Trick would believe him, at least not until she looked into her husband’s stony eyes. “Trick,” she said and took a step to him, but he took a reflexive step back and cast his attention to Curtis.
It was fine, Curtis would tell him the truth, and then she could be pissed at Trick for believing the worst of her. “I’m sorry, Strickland,” Curtis said.
Spinning around, Lyla couldn’t even recognize the man she’d once thought of as her friend. His look of contrition. His shifty posture. What the hell was he doing? “What the…? Curtis!”
But Curtis was still looking at Trick. “We’ve had feelings for each other for a long time… But I guess you knew that. That’s why you went off at me, right? You saw how we felt about each other.”
“How we…?” The shock of this was making her numb, but she couldn’t shut down, not now. Pivoting to set her sights on Trick, Lyla sought for some sign that he was messing around. “Nairn, you don’t believe any of this.”
“That I never deserved you. That I always knew you were going to find something better? Someone… better suited to you. I told you if you did that you should go for it without hesitating, didn’t I?” he said, his words almost callous. “Congratulations, Malloy… Be happy.”
When he headed for the door, she tried to reach for him, but he twisted his whole body away from her and kept on going. The door slammed so hard that she was sure the room shook and for a minute she just stood gaping.
But it was when Sadie began to move that she snapped out of her daze. “Sadie,” she said. The woman stopped, wearing a look of such hurt and disappointment on her face that Lyla sank into a pit of shame. “I promise you… I wouldn’t—”
“Guess it wasn’t him we should’ve worried about playing away,” Sadie said. “I’ll have your stuff packed up and sent back to your apartment. Don’t call him. Don’t come near him. Stay the hell away… from all of us.”
Her apartment was on the market, due to be sold; she’d already had an offer on the place. Lyla was supposed to be living with Trick, dedicating her life to him as he did the same for her.
One night out and everything had fallen apart.
Sadie carried on out of the room, leaving Lyla alone with Bunyan and Curtis. When her eyes crept up to Bunyan, she was disgusted to see the satisfaction pasted across his face.
“When an asset is no longer valuable, we sell it,” he said, reciting what he’d said before. “I think this news will be getting to Ms. Levine later today… She’ll console Trick for you and I’d expect her to be a regular feature in his life from now on if I were you… They do make a very beautiful couple, don’t they? And now that she’s expecting his child…”
“That child is not his,” Lyla spat out. “Is she even pregnant? Was this some kind of game all along?”
“It’s all a game,” Bunyan said, opening his arms to the ceiling. “It’s entertainment.”
Heartbroken and infuriated, Lyla couldn’t stay calm. “These are our lives,” she said. “That petition was right. The lawsuit… it’s everything you deserve. You do enjoy playing with people’s lives… with their happiness… and their sanity. Why would Kira want to be anywhere near this station after the—”
“The footage of you and Trick waiting for the results of your pregnancy test was golden, some of the most interesting we’ve had. And let’s face it, Miss Malloy… you’re not exactly interesting to watch… unless you’re taking your clothes off on Boys Night.”
Was it spite? Was this guy really that pissed at her for having fun on Boys Night and not playing by his rules? Or was it less contrived than that? Was he so shallow that he’d do anything to produce what he thought was great television?
“Trick is smarter than you, he’ll figure it out,” she said. “And when he does, you’re going to lose your biggest star.”
“Trick is in contract for another three years, he’s not going anywhere… You on the other hand…”
Oh, she was happy to jump, she didn’t need to be pushed. “You can consider this my notice.”
“Accepted,” he said. “Though you’re required to fulfill your Opposites Marry contract.”
“Whatever,” she said. If Trick was going to hook up with Kira, they wouldn’t be filming much of her and there was less than three weeks left on that contract.
“Consider your credentials revoked. If you have to come back to this building, you’ll be escorted by security.”
“Fine,” she said, turning around to head for the door. She didn’t even look at Curtis, couldn’t bring herself to. The bastard had sold her out and whatever he’d been paid was blood money that ruined any chance of her finding happiness.
“Lyla,” Curtis said.
The apology in his voice meant nothing to her. “Go to hell,” she said, and marched out of the room, sick, heartbroken, and pissed as hell.