Page 76 of Exposed

“Why not? It’s important.”

“It’s late at night.” Bennie was trying to get her mojo back.

“I’m not sleepy.”

“I’m not either.”

“I don’t like you being taken advantage of. Mary’s taking advantage of you.”

“No, she’s not,” Bennie said, defensive.

“Yes, she is. You like her, so you don’t see it.”

“I thought you liked her, too.”

“I do. But I think you should let her move on. I wouldn’t keep a partner who wasn’t committed to me.”

“She’s committed to me.”

“How can you say that?” Declan kept his tone even, but he sounded annoyed. “She junked the partnership to represent a friend.”

“That’s not true.”

“Babe. What’s the status of your partnership?”

“We tabled it for now.”

“Junked.”

“Tabled isn’t the same as junked.”

Declan snorted. “Same difference. Either way, you’re left hanging. She just can’t come and go when she pleases. One day she’s in, one day she’s not. On her terms. She should have to fish or cut bait. That’s what you want in a partner. Commitment.”

Suddenly Bennie wasn’t sure they were talking about Mary anymore. “Declan, is this about us?”

“Maybe,” Declan answered after a minute.

“Really?” Bennie felt a tug in her chest. “I thought everything was going so great. We had such a good day.”

“You dropped in, out of the blue. You said you were staying the weekend, then you left. Maybe it was a good day for you. It wasn’t such a good day for me.”

“Wow, really.” Bennie didn’t know what to say. He was right, which made it worse.

“Long-distance gets old, babe. Today didn’t help. I miss you. It was nice having you here. I’m unhappy you left. I don’t like sleeping alone.”

Sometimes I do,Bennie thought but didn’t say. “Declan, do we really need to talk about our relationship now?”

“Why not? You said you weren’t tired.”

“I’m too tired to talk about our relationship. I’m not too tired to talk about anything else.” Bennie was trying to lighten the mood.

“I guess it bugs me.” Declan’s tone softened. “I dropped everything when you said you were coming. Canceled two conference calls.”

“I didn’t know that. You said you weren’t busy. You told me to come ahead.”

“I thought you were staying.”

Bennie sighed, suddenly exhausted. She’d thought she was kidding about being too tired to talk about their relationship, but now it was true. “Look, I’m sorry.”