Nara

I lowered my voice so the rest of the office wouldn’t hear me.

“Mom, I have to be honest with you. I’m not coming back for the reunion. I don’t care that Becca told everyone I’d be there.” How many more times did I have to say that?

Mother sighed loudly. “Everyone is counting on seeing you. I don’t see how you can let your friends down.”

Ugh. She killed me.

“I saw Becca the other day. Her children are beautiful, and she seems so happy,” she continued.

“Good. I’m glad she’s happy. She doesn’t need me to come to town. No one does. They’ll have the reunion and no one will ever miss me.”

My mother was silent for a moment. “I’ll miss you.”

There it was. “Oh, Mom, I miss you, too. Just let me know when you want come to New York. We’ll have a great time. And please stop telling Becca I’m going to come. Because I’m not.”

“If that’s what you want, sweetie. But I think you’ll be missing out on a lot of fun.”

We obviously had different ideas of fun.

* * *

I figured I had some version of “survivor’s guilt.” Obviously no one had died, but the guilt of having escaped my hometown, having left it behind like I did, made me feel like the world’s biggest scumbag. But I’d had no choice—I would have slowly died there. My only ties to the place, Becca and my mom, were growing weaker every year. The longer I lived in New York, and the more life rolled onward, the more unlikely it was I’d ever go back. There was no going home, as the old saying went. I didn’t know who the hell would want to, anyway.

I hadn’t heard from Simon since the night Brodie had punched him out. I honestly wished it had never happened, but I had to admit—it did feel good to have someone defend me. Problems like Simon were a lot easier to contend with when someone had your back.

Especially someone like Brodie.

But I had a nagging feeling that Simon wasn’t out of my life yet. Hard as I tried to shake it off, it followed me around like a dark cloud.

* * *

Joi poked her head into my cubicle.

“Hey,” I said.

She bounded in, blond hair flying, scooping up a pile of papers to make room for herself.

“So, how are you feeling about things? I mean, are we ready for our meeting?” she asked.

“I think so. At least as ready as we’ll ever be.” My head was pounding, but everything else was great.

We had investors from a venture capital firm coming by in an hour along with several beta testing moms who’d be joining to help demonstrate the Mommy Knows software app. Well, their babies would be helping, too. Mimi had lined up ten moms; out of the group, someone’s baby would certainly pee or poo. In a show of support, some even offered to give their little ones an additional bottle just prior to the meeting to help facilitate the messy diapers we so desperately needed. It was a real team effort.

This was an all-hands-on-deck type of day. Even the introverted software engineers tidied up their work areas, wore something other than ratty hoodies, and were ready to be friendly with our guests. There was plenty of grousing about that, but when I had reminded the complainers about their stock options and the potential for making money, they had shut right up.

Mimi had arranged for catering, so we had snacks and beverages to offer our guests. I didn’t want to go too crazy, though, since we would be talking about dirty diapers. We’d researched the team coming in, and several of them were parents—what luck. They’d get the gist of what we were doing in a second. Moms and dads always did.

“Anyway, what about the new guy, Mr. Hotel?” Joi asked with a raised eyebrow.

She knew me well.

“He’s great,” I said simply.

She rolled her eyes. “C’mon. Don’t be stingy. Share.”

The thought of Brodie made my heart race—not a comfortable state for me. “We’ve had some really nice times together…”

“Oh, I can hear it,” she said. “Here it comes…dum da dum dum…what’s wrong with him? What did he do?”

“He’s fine, he’s done nothing wrong. I’m just not sure about getting involved. I can’t afford any time away from the business right now.” There was more behind my hesitation, but I hadn’t put my finger on it yet.

Confusion marked Joi’s pretty face. No, she didn’t know how relationships took time. She’d always had Jack, so she had nothing to compare it to.

“Well, there was also an incident,” I added.

She scooted forward on her chair, eyes widened. “I knew it! Tell me everything.”

“He punched out Simon.”

“Oh. My. God.” She looked as though she’d just won the gossip lottery. I told her the whole story while she shook with excitement. “That is so badass. Nara, you gotta give this guy a chance. He sounds awesome.”

“Yeah, thanks. I think I’ll be able to figure it out.”

Hurt crossed her face. I needn’t be such a bitch to her.

But I hated being pushed.

* * *

Two hours later, I was fairly floating. Not only had several of the babies done both number one and number two, the sensor strip in their diapers had communicated perfectly with the moms’ smartphones. Things could not have gone better, and if these investors weren’t all over the promise of Mommy Knows, well they could go to hell. They’d be missing the opportunity of a lifetime.

My phone buzzed.

how was the big meeting, beautiful?

He’d remembered.

beyond perfect. seriously

i knew you’d knock it out of the park

thank you

Oh my god, I was melting. He did that to me, dammit. My resolve to remain single and unfettered was weakening by the day. I hadn’t been this terrified of anything in a long, long time.

you should be getting your divorce papers soon from simon. then you’ll never hear from him again.

what do u mean?

I had some friends take care of the matter.

Oh my god oh my god oh my god.

brodie what did u do?

don’t worry about it. ur all set now.

What the hell? Did he kill the guy? Or just turn him into a vegetable?

can you call me?

My phone rang right away.

“Brodie, what do you mean, I won’t hear from Simon anymore?” My heartbeat pulsed in my temple for the second time that day, only this time, it was worse. And on top of it, I felt like vomiting.

“Baby, I told you I took care of it.” He sounded as casual as if he’d just carried in the groceries or some other sort of task you did every day.

“Tell me what is going on. Did you do something to Simon?”

He laughed. “I guess you could say that.”

But I wasn’t laughing.

“I don’t like the sound of this. Tell me what happened.” My voice shook, and I swallowed hard to hide it.

“I sent someone to have a talk with him. That’s all. But it was a firm talk. It was made very clear he wasn’t to bother you ever again. And if he did, the consequences would be very, very serious.”

No fucking way.

I exploded. “What are you, in the mafia or something? You break people’s legs?” I was so pissed I gripped the edge of the desk until my knuckles whitened.

“Hey, what’s the big deal? I had a problem taken care of. Apparently the asshole was scared shitless. It’s over.”

“I don’t appreciate that.” I said.

There was silence for a moment.

“What? What do you mean?”

Amazing how clueless guys could be.

“It was not up to you to resolve my problem with Simon. You may have just made a bad situation much worse.” Shit, I needed to lower my voice.

“You’re joking right?” Now his voice was tense. “You’re not happy that asshole is off your back?”

“I am not happy you interfered with my situation. I appreciate your wanting to help but threatening him was completely inappropriate.”

“Wow. Okay,” he said. I could picture him running his hand through his hair, baffled beyond understanding.

“Okay,” he began slowly. “I…guess I fucked up. I…I am sorry. I overstepped.”

Brodie had overstepped because I’d let him overstep. He thought I was a damsel in distress. That I needed saving. Well, he was wrong. And I’d been wrong to let down my guard.