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“It wouldn’t have made sense for you to fake feelings for me. It wouldn’t have helped Aaron, and it wasn’t as if you had some vendetta against your best friend. Plus, you’re really bad at lying. I knew you weren’t faking how you felt.” Each of the words, I meant. I might’ve been angry last night with the shock of it all, but I never doubted him. Not about that. “Reporting everything about me back to him, though… That’s where my issue is.”
“I didn’t tell him the big things,” he insisted. “I—I told him about the little things. How you liked suits and fashion, where you went to college, that you liked avocado toast but don’t like garlic butter on your mashed potatoes. I didn’t tell him the personal things.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Aaron knew about my situation with my parents.”
“I never breathed a word about your parents or how they treated you. I—I might’ve said how people at the club treated you like an outcast, but I never said anything more serious. Not about your parents yelling, not about your dad coming into your hotel room—none of it.”
That was at least a point—Aaron didn’t know about the specifics of the poor relationship.Besides, I’m from this world too, he’d said that night in the hotel lounge.If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s to read between the lines.“Aaron knew I didn’t want to marry him.”
“Because the morning after your dad was drunk, I called him. I thought he’d call the whole thing off.” Sumner reached up and pressed his fingers into his eyes, shaking his head. “And maybe I shouldn’t have—it would’ve created more problems for you if Aaron backed out—but I thought… I thought he’d call it off if he knew. I didn’t think he’d double down. I guess… it makes sense he would’ve, doesn’t it? Now that I know.”
It did make sense. Sumner didn’t know it, but calling Aaron and telling him my true feelings most likely had been what Aaron was hoping for. He didn’t have to worry about winning over my heart any longer, as he’d said. After finding out I wasn’t looking for love, all he had to do was convince my mind.
I knew the lengths people would go to when it came to money. I understood Aaron. He would’ve manipulated an innocent person in order to inherit her family’s company; I would’ve married someone I’d never met in order to keep my fortune. One was worse than the other, sure, but both stemmed from an unhealthy desire to beat the top.
When I thought about Sumner being Aaron, despite the fact that that would’ve been a huge breach of trust, there’d been no betrayal there. That thought of Sumner being the elusive Aaron Astor had only brought relief. I would’ve been willing to take that trick, had it been true. I might’ve been a bothered he’d lied, but it would’ve been perfect if he’d been the man I was supposed to marry.
This was a different sort of trick. He wasn’t pretending to be someone he wasn’t, just hiding the truth of who he was.
“You said that I was showing you it was okay to be your own person,” I said, circling back to another point I had on my mental list. “You meant your own person apart from Aaron.”
Sumner nodded. “I always listened to him when it came to what to do. For college, for work. Being his secretary only turned me even more into what he wanted me to be. I wasn’t happy, though. I never felt like I was living the lifeIwanted to. And if it weren’t for you, I probably never would’ve realized it.”
“I meant it when I shouldn’t have fallen for you. Itwasa disaster.”
“Youhavebeen liking me selfishly all along,” I murmured, remembering what he’d said the other day.
“I have been.”
One corner of my lips tipped up ever so slightly. “So we did balance each other out well.”
“We do.”
The present tense almost seemed hesitant, nervous, as if he was afraid I’d disagree with him. “My parents most likely won’t speak to me again,” I said slowly, tracing theseam on the side of my jeans. “I was thinking about going back to California with Destelle. I don’t have a place to stay here once I get kicked out of Nancy’s place, and really, there’s no point in staying.”
He nodded again, slower this time. Tension still seemed to knit at his shoulders, as if he thought this was my way of teeing up to let him down.
I kept my voice nonchalant. “You live in California, don’t you? It’s a big state.”
He leaned forward. “Where does Destelle live again?”
“Los Angeles.”
“What a coincidence,” Sumner said in a soft but bright tone. “Me too.”
The lie caused a smile to tug my lips up completely before I could fight it—and really, I didn’t want to. Sumner’s eyes traced the grin on my face, as if savoring the sight, committing it to memory. I wondered if he thought it’d be the last time he’d see it.
I got to my feet and crossed the distance between us. Sumner didn’t rise from his chair before I stopped in front of him, forcing him to tip his head back to meet my gaze. It wasn’t the first time I stood over him like this, but everything was different now. My life was different, my future. All the choices were before me now, and I could pick any one of them.
Really, though, I didn’t need a plethora of choices. I knew my answer. “You said you’d be the breadwinner and put me through fashion school,” I reminded him. “That offer still on the table?”
“I told you I’d never change my mind.” That was whenhe stood up, a few inches taller than me. He reached his hand out and grazed his fingertips along mine, still hesitant to fully grab on. “I meant it when I said I want to find out what that other life is like with you.”
The other life. The new life. There’d be no fancy cars, no Gilfman or Malstoni, and no thirty-dollar avocado toast, but it’d be a life of my own. No, notmyown—ourown. I wove our fingers together, securing him tight. Securing him to me. “Together.”
“Together.”
We both moved in at the same time, meeting each other and our new beginning halfway.