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‘Not from your lips,’ Leigh noted sassily.

‘If I keep being predictable, how will I keep you on your toes?’ Alex asked.

‘You’ve never had a problem in that department,’ Leigh shot back. She paused. ‘You give her notice yet?’

Alex looked over at where Isabelle was talking to her assistant, Steven. She was saying something to him with a smile. He wasn’t smiling, however. Alex was pretty sure she was chewing the poor boy out.

‘I have a letter of intent in my purse right now,’ Alex told Leigh. ‘I’ll give it to her at the end of the night.’

‘You gonna tell her why you’re ditching her?’ Leigh asked.

‘I can’t. Not without landing Amanda in it,’ Alex said quietly, checking for errant ears.

But the partygoers weren’t paying her any mind, too busy getting steadily sozzled, laughing, playing with the toys in their gift bags, and generally acting very pleased with themselves for being important enough for a bribe. Alex wished to god this party wasn’t her idea. It felt like a celebration of corruption.

Funny how that wouldn’t have mattered to her once. And funny how it did now.

‘So, what will you say?’ Leigh pressed.

‘I’ll think of something,’ Alex shrugged. And she probably would. But fuck knows what.

‘She’s not gonna like it, is she?’ Leigh asked, more of a statement than a question.

‘Nope,’ Alex breathed.

‘You gonna be OK?’ Leigh asked.

Alex was astonished that she cared. ‘I’m always OK,’ she told her.

Leigh looked at her for a long moment. ‘You know I know that isn’t true, right?’ she eventually asked.

Alex felt the words weigh heavily on her soul, the soul she never believed she had. Damn that woman. Why couldn’t she ever let things be easy?

‘Yeah, I know that, Leigh. But just for tonight, just let me pretend?’ Alex asked her, trying not to make it sound like she was pleading for some mercy.

But shewaspleading. And what she was asking,reallyasking, was, ‘Please don’t make me fall in love with you again.’

She didn’t know how Leigh was going to respond or if she understood. And she never found out because something had grabbed Leigh’s attention behind Alex.

‘Oh, my fuckingChrist,’ Leigh muttered, her eyes wide in alarm.

Alex spun to see what could have elicited such a response from Leigh. But when she saw Erin Porter come in, dressed to the nines and obviously hammered, she wasn’t surprised. This had been inevitable. Isabelle had hired Alex to fight off the chaos of her divorce but the thing about chaos, Alex was realising, was that it couldn’t be defended against. It could only be postponed.

But the time was nigh. Isabelle’s messy chickens were coming home to roost. And Alex wondered what this evening was about to become and who would come out of it with their minds, limbs, and reputations intact.

Thirty-Four

Whatever dance Leigh and Alex had been doing with each other was about to come to an end, and Leigh could accept that. She could also accept they weren’t going to be friends. They were more than likely going to be nothing as soon as Isabelle got served notice. Perhaps that was for the best.

But what she couldn’t take was going along with the notion that Alex was unfeeling. Leigh could see how much this Isabelle business bothered Alex, regardless of what she said. And she’d seen Alex lose her shit during her mother’s medical emergency. She’d watched her publicly whack her father around the face for the love of god. There was plenty of feeling there. So why did she feel the need to put up this front? It was maddening.

But Leigh had to accept that it wasn’t her place to ask for anything from Alex. She had to let Alex be Alex if she felt that worked for her. She had to stop prodding her, trying to squeeze her humanity to the surface.

And she was gonna do that any minute now.

‘You gonna be OK?’ Leigh asked.

‘I’m always OK,’ Alex said, with a flash of her perfect teeth. But the smile didn’t reach her grey eyes. There was a storm in them.