Page 90 of Kiss and Tell

All those times Connor had mentioned his friend, talking about how it was hard to stay in touch…

That hadn’t been the whole story.

“This might actually be something you could talk to Connor about,” Jessie said. “I know it must be difficult for him, but he doesn’t have a lot of people to talk to. I only know this much because I’ve been able to read between the lines. Connor never told me any of this, but Walt, Gael and I managed to piece it together.”

“I’ve tried to talk to him about it a couple times, but he usually gets upset and clams up before we get too far.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” Jessie sighed. “If he ever decides to open up to you, I think it would do him a lot of good to talk about it.”

“I’ll keep that mind,” I told her. “And I won’t tell him you told me all of this.”

“Thanks,” she said. “I’m sure Connor wouldn’t appreciate knowing the groups of us have been nosing into his personal life, even if it was out of concern.”

I nodded absentmindedly as Jessie went back to work.

I was still processing everything I’d just learned. Learned about Connor and learned about his best friend. The one he could barely bring himself to speak about.

And no wonder. Now that I knew the whole story, I could understand why the subject was so touchy.

Mason had abandoned Connor because he wasn’t useful to him anymore.

The ache in my chest grew.

Connor had been forced out of the music industry because of his injury, but at least he’d been planning on leaving anyway. But to have your best friend ditch you because of it…

That was a completely different kind of hurt.

A hurt that wouldn’t heal easily.

Twenty-Nine

I staredat my laptop screen, pen held loosely in my hand, as I read the same email over and over. I wasn’t paying attention to the words in front of my face. I was still obsessing over what Jessie had told me about Connor.

I now felt bad for all the times when I’d pushed him to talk about his friend. I should have been more understanding, less presumptuous. If I had been paying attention, I would have realized it wasn’t just reluctance on Connor’s part to talk about it. It was him trying to avoid the heartache that no doubt came with remembering his best friend.

His ex-best friend.

Along with the sympathy pain I felt for Connor, I also felt a sort of rage taking hold inside me.

How terrible it was, to abandon your best friend because he wasn’t of any use to you. Sure, they may not have been working together anymore, but that didn’t mean they had to stop being friends. From all the things Connor had told me, and from what I’d learned from Jessie, Mason had essentially dropped him the moment he left the industry.

The thought of someone treating Connor that way, especially someone he considered to be his best friend, was enraging.

But it was an impotent rage. There was nothing I could do to solve this. Nothing I could do to fix it, to make the pain go away. Nothing I could do to make Connor’s loss any better.

I leaned back in my office chair with a sigh and flicked the pen, tossing it onto the desk with a clatter.

I hadn’t been able to concentrate on work all day. It was one of the few days of the week I had to be in the office and I’d been all but useless. I hadn’t said a word in any of my meetings, and the emails were piling up without any response. I might as well have called in sick for all the work I was getting done.

As if my thoughts had summoned it, one more emailed pinged in my inbox. I gave it a quick glance, knowing that I was probably going to ignore it along with all the rest.

It was a meeting request. An urgent meeting, right that minute.

A meeting request with my boss and one of the firm’s partners, David, the People Manager.

My heart leaped into my throat at the same as my stomach dropped to my knees. The dual sensations made me feel vaguely hollow in my mid-section.

I wracked my brain but I couldn’t think of anything I had done wrong. Maybe I had simply misfiled some paperwork and I was going to get a talking to. But that wouldn’t have required an immediate, emergency meeting.