“Because I have a very bad idea, but if we can pull it off, I might just be able to get her back after all.”
CHAPTER 32
JACQUELINE
Miranda topped off my glass, lifting the wine bottle with a little flourish when she was done. “Now that’s what we call anecessary refill.”
I snorted, already a few glasses in and genuinely starting to wonder if this wine might be able to solve all my problems if I just kept drinking. “It wasn’t just necessary. It was critical.”
She grinned, clearly pleased with herself as she tucked one leg under her on the couch. Tonight, she wasn’t inboss behaviormode at all. We were firmly ingirls’ night with tea to spillterritory and I was tipsy enough to forget that technically she signed my paychecks.
“Alright,” she said as she leaned back. “It’s your turn now. We’ve covered my last couple of dating disasters, who’s boinking who at the office, and even which of our esteemed colleagues in the city have a knack for getting it on with clients. I’d say your stay of execution is over.”
I groaned. “Do we have to?”
“Yes.” She pointed at me with her glass. “I haven’t seen you all week. You’ve been sighing like a Victorian widow every twenty minutes and I deserve answers.”
“A Victorian widow?” I repeated blandly. “Should I feel scandalized?”
She grinned again. “Only if Jesse Westwood has been scandalizing you.”
I laughed, but just hearing his name made my heart ache like she’d stuck a blunt blade right into the center of it. “I’m blaming you for this when I wake up tomorrow and realize I overshared and ruined my professional image.”
“Please,” Miranda waved me off. “I like you. We’re friends now. You’d have to commit tax fraud and try to blame it on me for that to change.”
“You came up with that astonishingly fast,” I said. “I feel like there’s a story there.”
She sent me a coy smile. “Maybe I’ll tell it.Afteryou tell me yours.”
I took a breath, wondering someplace in the back of my mind if I should truly be letting my boss in like this, but then, I started talking. Miranda was a girls’ girl and she wanted me to dish. Plus, she’d already proven herself a friend in the time since I’d met her.
At some point, I was going to have to either accept that or draw the line completely, and since I had not done that, it seemed pointless to start now. Once I started, the words came out easier than I’d expected, perhaps because she wasn’t judging or maybe because I was a little drunk, but either way, I finally talked to someone about it.
“Okay, so I’ve already told you about Thomas,” I said. “He’s the absolute villain in my origin story, honestly, but then there’s Jesse now as well.”
Miranda leaned forward. “Ah, yes. One can always count on some Westwood drama to thicken the plot.”
I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t stop the small smile that tugged at the corners of my mouth when I thought about him.“Jesse isthatguy, you know? That one we all wanted to end up with when we were younger.”
“Hot, rich, obsessed with you, and well hung?” she guessed, pressing a hand to her chest and pretending to swoon. “I think I know Iexactlywhat you’re talking about.”
I felt my cheeks flush, but she wasn’t wrong on any of those counts. “Well, yes, but he’s also so much more than that. He says whatever he wants without thinking about it, which should be annoying, but somehow isn’t. I don’t know. It also just felt like he reallysawme. It’s weird, so I can’t really explain it, but I’m not used to that.”
Her features softened. “It sounds like he really likes you.”
I let out a breath, staring at the ceiling for a second before looking back at her. “I think he did, yeah.”
She frowned. “He did, as in, past tense? What on earth happened?”
I laughed, but there wasn’t much humor in it this time. “I have atype, apparently. It’s men who don’t see me as anything more than a shiny object to keep on hand.”
Miranda’s eyebrows shot up. “That can’t be right.”
“Oh, but it is. Thomas had his career, his world, and his people. I just had to fit into it while it was convenient.” I shrugged, trying to make it seem smaller than it’d felt, but from the look on her face, she wasn’t buying it. “In Jesse’s case, he might not want it to be that way, but his world is even bigger. The family has their expectations of him and their opinions are loud. It’s all just seemed so very consuming.”
She arched an eyebrow at me, quiet for a beat before she shook her head. “I don’t believe that about him.”
I frowned. “What?”