Jeri brought me a coffee the following Monday, and I barely managed to suppress a groan, wondering what she wanted to talk about now. No doubt, she was curious about Oliver having come to see me at the office on Friday. I certainly wasn’t about to tell her about what happened.

“Good morning, Sophia,” Jeri said, sitting in the chair across from me. “I just wanted to have a little chat with you—you know, woman to woman.”

I rolled my eyes. “What do you want, Jeri?”

“Well, I was just wondering what exactly you and Oliver talked about on Friday.”

“I don’t think that’s any of your business,” I told her frostily. “Now, if you don’t mind, I still have a lot of work to get caught up on.”

Jeri narrowed her eyes at me. “Actually, it is my business,” she said. “Oliver and I are kind of seeing one another. So I hope you don’t mind my asking you to stay away from him. You had your chance with him, and you weren’t interested.”

I stared at her for a long moment and then shook my head. What?! “Jeri, Oliver isn’t interested in you, can’t you see that?” I asked. “He hardly said two words to you when he came in here.”

“That’s because we agreed that given his history with you—and the amount of money that he donated to Le Monde Ensemble—we should keep things strictly professional while either of us were at work, but especially around the office here. We wouldn’t want you to get upset.”

“Sure,” I said sarcastically.

“You know, he and I went out on a couple dates while you were in Argentina. We shared a night of passion, if you get my drift.” She sat back, a broad smile on her face. “He’s very experienced. Do you have any idea what it’s like to be with a guy who knows exactly what you want in bed?”

I stared at her for a long moment, shock coursing through me. But, of course, I couldn’t let her see how surprised I was. I definitely couldn’t let her see that I was upset to hear that they had gotten together. I wasn’t supposed to care about him.

“Jeri, I don’t want to hear about all the guys that you’re cheating on Jackson with,” I said, keeping my tone carefully neutral.

Jeri rolled her eyes. “I’m not cheating on Jackson with a lot of guys,” she said. “It’s just . . . it’s Oliver Lewin. Again, I’m using my hall pass.”

“Sure,” I said, shaking my head. “Well, regardless. I don’t think it’s very professional for us to talk about any of this.”

“Maybe not,” Jeri said, getting to her feet and looking down her nose at me. “But I just wanted to make sure that you knew that whatever you had with Oliver, it’s over now. And I’d prefer if you didn’t make things awkward around the office by inviting him here.”

“Whatever you say, Jeri,” I said, even though I hadn’t invited Oliver there—and things between us had been far from over on Friday night.

Jeri walked out of my office, pointedly shutting the door behind her, as though she were making it obvious that she was giving me space.

I stared blankly at the wall for a long moment, trying to fight back tears. I didn’t even know what I was so upset about. It was the same thing over and over with Oliver. I thought that he was sleeping with other women. Now, though, I had proof that he was.

I sighed and dialed his number, even though I wasn’t really sure what to say to him.

“Hey, Sophia, how are you today?” Oliver asked, a smile in his voice.

“I understand that you have a hard time keeping it in your pants, and I pretty much expected you to sleep with someone else while I was in Argentina. But did it really have to be my assistant?”

There was silence on the other end of the line. “What?” Oliver finally said, sounding perplexed. “Who told you that?”

“Oh, come on. Does it really matter?” I asked. “I’m surprised I didn’t read about it in the tabloids, actually. Jeri’s the type who would flaunt something like that.”

“Look, Sophia, I didn’t sleep with her,” Oliver said finally, sounding tired. “I don’t know what she’s told you, but—well, something happened, but not that.”

My heart sank. Something did happen. “Sure, like that makes it any better,” I said bitterly.

“We should talk about this in person,” Oliver said. “I should have brought it up on Friday, but I didn’t want to stress you out on your first day back to work. I didn’t realize that she was going to tell you about it, not so quickly. I mean, of course she did, but . . .” He trailed off, sounding frustrated.

“I don’t want to see you again,” I said flatly. “Ever. Around the office or anywhere else. If you want to make donations to relief funds, by all means be my guest—but do me a favor and leave my organization out of it in the future.”

“I understand that you’re probably upset right now,” Oliver said soothingly. “I know what this probably looks like. But Sophia, I need you to trust me. I’ve never lied to you before.”

“Of course you haven’t,” I said bitterly. “You never give me enough detail about anything to really trap yourself in lies. That business that you were going to on Friday night, how did that go?”

Oliver sighed. “Sophia, I really wish I had time to explain everything right now, but I’m in the middle of something really important,” he said. “Maybe I could take you out to dinner tomorrow, though? That’s the earliest that I’m free.”

“Are you even at work right now?” I asked bitterly.

There was a momentary pause. “No,” Oliver finally admitted. “I promise I’ll explain everything when I see you, all right? I shouldn’t have been hiding this from you for so long anyway, but like I said, it’s top secret. If the media found out, they’d have a field day.”

“You’re married?” I guessed. “You have kids?”

“No,” Oliver said, sounding frustrated. “Sophia, please. I’m just asking you to trust me. At least give me a chance to explain.”

“Oliver, I think you’ve already had plenty of time to explain,” I said cooly. “And you’ve shown that you really don’t want to explain. I think you and I are done. Goodbye.”

“I’m just going to show up at your office tomorrow anyway,” Oliver said.

“Don’t make things any more awkward than they need to be,” I said warningly. “Don’t make me get a restraining order against you—I’m sure the media would love that story as well, although I’m surprised this hasn’t been a thing with women that you’ve been with in the past.”

Oliver groaned. “Seriously, you are the most stubborn woman I’ve ever met,” he said. “No matter what I try to tell you, you refuse to believe me—to even listen to me.”

“Well maybe if you would try telling me the truth . . .” I said.

“All right, you want to hear the truth?” Oliver asked angrily. “You want to know where I am right now? I’m at—” He cut off abruptly, and the background noise became muffled, like he was holding his hand over the microphone. “Sophia, I have to go,” he said when he came back on the line a moment later. Before I could say anything in response, he hung up.

I stared at my phone, feeling aggravated and upset. I wanted to be angry at him. This was even worse than the times he’d had to leave dates early. This was worse than Friday night, when he’d had somewhere to be late at night, after getting me off in the front seat of his car like some cheap whore.

There was no way I was ever giving him the time of day after this, I vowed. He clearly didn’t deserve it.

The thought of never seeing him again left an ache in my chest, a hollow feeling that I hadn’t expected. I had grown to like him the more time I spent with him, but if he couldn’t even be honest with me—if he couldn’t find the time for me—then it wasn’t worth it. And especially not when he was threatening to come make trouble around the office. I didn’t need a distraction from work, and I definitely didn’t need everything that I’d worked so hard for to implode just because I’d foolishly gone out with some guy that Jeri was involved with.

I took a deep breath and deleted his number out of my phone. It was a symbolic gesture more than anything, I was sure, since I had no doubt that there would be flowers and whatever else. He could still come visit me if he really wanted to.

But I was never going to call him again.