Chapter Eight
JORDAN
“Surprise!” Nicole’s voice rang out from behind me. My heart and stomach both sank like stones right to my feet. Schooling my features to fix a smile that I hoped was happy and relaxed onto my face, I whirled around.
Nicole was standing a few feet away from my desk, sunglasses pushed up into her hair, wearing a flowing tank top, skinny jeans, and low-slung boots on her feet. She seemed excited about something, which usually meant trouble.
“Nikki,” I exclaimed. “What’re you doing here?”
She closed the distance between us and pulled me in for a quick hug, planting a big kiss on my cheek. “I’ve come to take you and dad out to lunch.”
Fuck. That was exactly the kind of thing I was afraid of. A ball of ice started growing in the spot previously inhabited by my stomach.
“Why?”
Nicole shrugged, stepping back to look toward Brad’s office. “Is he busy?”
“Very,” I answered. I didn’t know, actually. I thought that he was, but I hadn’t been back to his office since the bomb he dropped earlier that he’d gone and blabbed to Zach about us.
I still couldn’t believe that he’d done that. If word got out… Although, it was worse now that Nicole was there. The last thing that I wanted to do was spend time with both of them, especially right now.
It was going to be hard to pretend that I wasn’t pissed off at Brad, even just for an hour over lunch. Nicole would definitely pick up on it. On the other hand, if I declined her invitation, it would probably look more suspicious.
Post break-up Nicole always surrounded herself by friends and her dad. I’d never once not been there for her. If I started now, she would know something was up. I couldn’t even fib and tell her that I couldn’t get out of work, seeing as how my boss was included in the lunch invite.
She glanced at his door. “I’ll just go ask if he can take a short break for lunch. I’m sure it’ll be okay. There’s this new place over in Fremont that you’re both going to love.”
Without waiting for an answer, she bounded to his door and knocked once before letting herself in. She disappeared through it, closing it behind her.
Arguing with Nicole was a lost cause. I knew this from personal experience, so I grabbed my purse, smeared on some fresh lip gloss, and waited for her to emerge. Whether Brad was going to lunch or not, I knew that I wasn’t getting out of it.
A few minutes later, the door opened again, and Brad followed Nicole out, glancing at me before he turned his attention back to Nicole. “I’m serious, Nic. It’s going to have to be a quick one, okay?”
“Sure, sure. I’ll have you back before you turn into a pumpkin.” Nicole laughed.
Brad shook his head, his lips twitching up into a slow smile as he slung an arm over her shoulders. “What am I gonna do with you, huh?”
Shrugging, Nicole gave his hand a quick squeeze before she looked up at him, eyes bright with laughter. “Take us out to lunch. Then maybe a shopping trip?”
He sighed, still smiling. “As long as you promise to leave a couple of things in the shops this time. Honestly, you have to stop breaking up with these guys, Nikki. Or at least get the next one to sponsor your retail therapy afterward.”
Brad had always been a sucker for making Nicole feel better, but he knew it, and he indulged her anyway. It was probably the only reason he’d agreed to lunch.
“Whatever,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I left plenty last time. You ready, Jay?”
“Ready,” I lied, hating myself for it.
I trialed after them, barely aware of their continuing banter as I tried my best not to stare at Brad’s ass. I might’ve been angry with him, but the man had one fine backside. No amount of irritation could change that.
Once we hit the rainy sidewalk outside, we dashed to the town car that Brad had waiting for us at the curb, and he waited for both me and Nicole to pile in before gracefully lowering himself into the car. It was ridiculous, and now infuriating, the way he moved. Like the world itself would mold around wherever he needed it to be.
Unfortunately for my pissed off ass, it was also super damn sexy. I was beginning to realize that being angry with him while also being around him was going to be harder than I’d initially thought. In a screwed up way, that made some of the tension over being found out at lunch ease from my stomach.
If Nicole didn’t pick up that I was angry with him, there was nothing for her to question. If she did notice anything, I could always blame work, but he was a great boss, and she knew it.
Besides, I would hate to worry her that she’d made a mistake in landing me the job at Woods Technologies.
Oh, the tangled webs we weave.
“Why are you quiet again?” she asked, pulling me from my reverie.
“I saw you all weekend,” I said. “I thought I should give the two of you time to catch up.” It was a lame excuse, since I’d never done it before, but it was all I had.
Nicole glanced at Brad, who shrugged and distracted her with questions about the restaurant she insisted we go to. “How did you find out about this one?”
“A comment on the website,” she said. Nicole was a food blogger, not surprising, given the fine dining she’d grown up with. She was always ahead of the curve on what was new, just like her father.
“I saw you’re up to sixteen thousand subscribers,” Brad said proudly just as we started slowing in front of what looked like a hole-in-the-wall pub. The signage was new, though, so this must be it.
A wide smile spread on Nicole’s lips. “Yeah, as of last week. Wait until we launch the app!”
“App?” I asked, sliding out of the car first and taking in a deep gulp of fresh, Brad-free air.
If possible, Nicole’s smile grew even brighter. “Dad and I talked about it a little over the last few weeks. He’s going to help me develop an app for my blog. It’s going to be huge.”
“I said we’ll look into it,” Brad said. “Don’t go making any announcements yet.”
Yeah, like he was one to talk about making announcements right around now.
Nicole pursed her lips, and her eyes rolled skyward. “It’s just Jordan. We tell each other everything anyway.”
There was a hint of concern in Brad’s eyes as Nicole said it, but I caught his eye when Nicole loped toward the door of the restaurant and gave my head a little shake.
No, I haven’t told her.
He was the one going around, blabbing about it, while I had to deal with a fresh wave of guilt because I wasn’t telling Nicole everything anymore. Brad and I followed her inside silently, keeping more distance between us than might’ve been strictly necessary.
While the place looked like a hole in the wall from the outside, the inside was warm and decorated in bright colors. It was a Mexican restaurant and had the obligatory sombreros on the walls, but it also had quirky signs like “You bring the tequila, I’ll bring the bad decisions,” and “I didn’t text you, tequila did.”
I could immediately see why Nicole loved the place so much. Under ordinary circumstances, I would have too, but these were no ordinary circumstances.
We sat at a table in the corner, ordered soft-shell tacos, and relied on Nicole to keep the conversation ball rolling, which she did spectacularly.
Until she excused herself to the bathroom about halfway through lunch, leaving Brad and I sitting across from one another and completely alone for the first time since that morning. We were both quiet until she was out of earshot, then Brad turned to face me, his eyes burning into mine.
“Are you still pissed at me?”
One of his hands fell lightly to my knee, but I brushed it away. “Yes.”
Brad sighed deeply. “Great, we’re down to one-word answers. Talk to me, Jordan. Where’s your head at?”
I raised an eyebrow and gave him the darkest look I could muster. “Where do you think my head’s at? You fucking told Zach what was going on between us. How could you?”
“Would it make any difference if I told you that I was truly sorry, and that I won’t allow anyone else to find out?”
His head was bent slightly toward me, and I couldn’t help but lean just a little bit closer to him. “You better not, because the next person to find out could very well be Nicole, and—”
“What about Nicole?” she asked, suddenly right behind us.
My entire body turned ice cold, and all logical thought rushed from my mind. Brad leaned back in his seat, looking completely at ease. “Nothing Nicole needs to know about.”
Both of us glared at him, Nicole’s hands going to her hips. “I think that if it’s about me, I should know about it.”
Grabbing at the first excuse I could come up with, I blurted out the lie. “No, you don’t. It’s about your birthday.”
Her eyes narrowed, her fingers clenching into her hips. “My birthday isn’t for another six months. Neither of you plan surprise parties or anything else that far in advance. So, spit it out. What’s really going on here?”
As if she’d been struck with a revelation, her eyes narrowed until they were dark slits, and her gaze darted between the two of us, no doubt taking in the way that we were angled toward each other, heads close together. She sucked in a deep, pained breath. “Are you two sleeping together?”
I was struck absolutely dumb. Having seen her put together the pieces in her mind, I should’ve been prepared. I should’ve been able to come up with something, anything to say. But I couldn’t.
Apparently, neither could Brad. At first, anyway. As soon as he opened his mouth to speak, however, Nicole’s dangerously low voice cut him off. “Oh my god. You are. What the fuck is wrong with you?”
She fixed each of us with eyes that were filled with such pain, such betrayal that it actually hurt me to look at her. And yet, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from hers.
Brad crossed his arms. “Nicole, just let us—”
“Let you what?” she spat out. “Let you explain how you’re fucking my best friend? You disgust me, both of you.”
Nicole turned on her heel and stormed off without a backward glance. I could do nothing but sit there, stunned as I realized that my worst nightmare had just come true. Slowly, I turned to Brad.
“And that’s why you shouldn’t have told anyone,” I said. “This is your fault. Do you realize that? If you hadn’t told Zach, we could’ve hid for longer, we could’ve—”
He reached for my hand, but I jerked it away. Running both hands through his hair, he gave me a look that I couldn’t decipher. “Maybe it’s for the best this way. She was going to find out anyway.”
“No. She wouldn’t have.” I pushed up, the legs of my chair scraping on the floor. “I’m taking the day off. Maybe tomorrow, too. I’ll text you to let you know.”
Then I spun on my heel and hurried out of the restaurant after my best friend, hoping to all hell that she was still around somewhere outside.