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I sit up straighter, ignoring Kat’s protests at being jostled. “What did you do?” He remains suspiciously quiet. “Bryce?”

“Thomas called me this morning,” Bryce explains. “He informed me that he’d given the project to Chad, who would be down over the weekend to touch base with us both before he starts overseeing the project remotely.”

“He’s overseeing the project remotely?” My question seems to get Katrina’s attention because she’s sitting up, motioning for me to put the phone on speaker. I hesitate for just a second before I do as she asks. “You’re on speaker; Kat’s here.”

Bryce is quiet for a moment. “Hey, Kat.”

“Bryce,” she greets. “Who’s taking over the project?”

“Chad.” She drops her head on my shoulder. We’d gone through her whole team, deciding who the best-case scenario would be. He was not at the top of our list. “That’s not the reason I’m calling, though.”

“Yeah, you said you did something drastic,” I remind him, which only makes Kat’s frown deepen. “What’d you do, man?”

Bryce lets out a disgruntled sounding groan, which usually means he let his mouth get ahead of his head. Which could mean many, many things. “He started talking shit about Katrina. Apologizing for the overdramatic, emotional mess of a contractor he provided us with the first time. He was being a misogynistic asshole and was trying to get me to join in, making jokes about my girlfriend and relationship he knows nothing about.”

Commiserating with toxic masculinity was something I was more than aware of. I also knew how much Bryce hated it.

“That’s Thomas, that’s just the way he is,” Kat says, but I can tell by the way she’s looking up she knows it doesn’t make it better. “Please tell me you didn’t do something stupid, Bryce.”

“He did something stupid,” I reply. “I’m just not sure what.”

Bryce’s silence is just further proof of what I already know.

“Dude,” I warn, “we already know you did something, so just tell us.”

“I fired Thomas and Dalton Enterprises.”

Katrina gasps beside me and I can feel my eyes widening, my lips pressed in a firm line, unsure how to process this. It’s not that I’m necessarily mad about the decision, but it’s something we probably should have talked about before he fired them. Plus, the pool is over halfway done. It’s going to be harder to find someone to take over the project with the remaining balance we have set aside for it.

“You signed a contract,” Katrina argues. “When I quit, I didn’t want this to happen. I made sure everything was in place to hand things over to someone else. This is supposed to be a simple trade. I can’t believe you would just—”

“I know we signed a contract.” Bryce raises his voice ever so slightly, making sure he’ll be heard over Kat. “We signed a contract that Dalton Enterprises is technically in breach of, as we signed it with you as the contractor. Yes, you left the company, but that doesn’t mean he can just assign someone new without our approval. It falls into our rights to withhold payments, should we find the work lackluster. He had ample opportunity to inform us of your exit yesterday and he chose to make decisions for his clients instead of with. There’s a reason we didn’t sign a contract until we spoke to him about who we’d be working with, Katrina. I read the whole thing, multiple times, and we’re well within our rights to dissolve the agreement.”

My eyes are still focused on Kat as jaw drops in surprise. I can’t help but laugh. “You wanted proof that Corporate Bryce Clark existed.”

Her jaw snaps shut, and she glares playfully up at me. Before she has the chance to say anything else, Bryce continues on.

“He didn’t seem too happy with the idea of dissolving the contract based on those reasons alone, so then I made it a bit more personal. I told him how pleased we were with the work Kat has been doing on the club and that she’s become such a close, personal friend that integrated herself into our little group.”

“Oh, my god, Bryce,” I groan, knowing where this is going.

“I think he thought she was lying about that part to them,” he says. “Anyway, I told him we knew all about her relationship with Will and the sexism she experienced on a day-to-day basis at Dalton Enterprises and would hate for word to get out that he took her off a project simply because she was happy and doing a good job.”

The room is silent as the two of us just stare at one another. She looks completely stunned at the idea of Bryce standing up for her like that, but I’m not even a little surprised. This is what Bryce does for the people he cares about, and he’s never one to back down from bullshit.

“As of an hour ago, we are no longer working with Dalton Enterprises and all work has been halted,” Bryce says cheerfully. “Oh, and Kat, Thomas says you need to be out of your place by Friday.”

“What?” Kat exclaims, looking at the phone with wide eyes before sighing. “I guess I’ll text Nadine and see if she can help me.”

“Goodbye, Bryce.” I watch as Kat reaches over to her nightstand to grab her phone.

“Don’t you think we should talk about what we’re going to do now?” Bryce questions.

Kat is already typing away at her phone. “We’ll talk when we’re at your place later.” Without giving him a chance to reply, I hang up, and turn all my focus onto my girlfriend. “What’s Nadine saying?”

She’s squinting at her phone. “She actually has my spare key, so she’s going to get a head start on the packing this week, and I’ll head down on Wednesday when you’re back in Georgia.”

“We can go today if you want to,” I argue, wanting her to understand I’m on her side and willing to help her, whatever she needs. Especially because my idiotic best friend is the reason she needs to vacate so quickly. “I can also push it back a couple of days—train at the club.”