Page 56 of My Office Rival (Keep Your Enemy Closer #2)

JASON

I rattled around the apartment like a ghost, moving from the couch to the kitchen table, to the bed, and then off the bed because it reminded me of her .

It was Saturday night and Miles was harassing me to get a drink with him because he was bored .

Or needed distraction. Or maybe it was all a game to get me out of the house I’d been hiding in for a week.

Miles

You just got back. How can you already want to hole up in that apartment?

Jason

I like my apartment.

I didn’t like it right now. Normally, I loved the drafty townhouse, with its casement windows and its working fireplace, but today it felt empty.

Miles

Just one drink.

Jason

I’ve heard that before.

Miles

Too late. In a cab. Get dressed.

And then five minutes later as I was staring at my closet, rubbing my tired face with one hand:

Miles

And not a suit.

Get dressed, be normal, forget about her.

I could do this. I needed to do this. Life might be duller without her in it, but this was my new normal.

Had it always been like this? Saturdays spent alone, instead of trying new activities, and dinners for one, instead of watching her close her eyes in pleasure at the first bite of food? Fuck .

Not ten minutes later, I was folding myself into a cab with Miles, who flashed me a grin.

Oh no, he was in a fun mood. Something must have happened with his fiancée.

He was normally pretty stoic, but every now and then, he needed a night to burn it all down.

And I was frequently his accomplice. He’d been lighter in college, but now, he was darker, like Jonah, like me.

“No driver? Jonah would not approve,” I said in greeting.

“Sometimes I prefer the anonymity of cabs.” He slapped me on the back, and I grunted. Tonight he was wearing a faded T-shirt, a hoodie, and high-top sneakers.

“Where are we going? I assume somewhere I’ll hate since you’re wearing a disguise.”

He barked a laugh. “New bar downtown. I’m going for low key.”

“Not another dive bar, please.” Miles loved to “slum it” downtown, as Jonah so often reminded us. He loved dive bars with an unholy passion. I preferred privacy, exclusivity, and quiet.

“No, you’ll like this place. Maybe you’ll even meet someone tonight,” he responded. The thought of being with another woman right now made me feel sick. But maybe I should try.

“Trying to marry me off already?”

“Come on in, the water’s warm,” he replied, but his eyes were shadowed.

Things must have been rough with his fiancée, and I knew in the back of his mind, he would never forget his first love.

I shook my head. Miles was too complicated for me to ponder right now.

We pulled up outside a bodega and clambered out.

Three knocks on a graffitied door to the right had us whisked up the stairs and into a speakeasy.

My shoulders lowered, and I loosed a breath when I saw that it was dim and quiet, and we were being settled at a corner table.

“Not bad, right?” Miles looked pleased with himself. “So what’s eating you?” he asked, after we ordered drinks.

“How could you tell?” I didn’t deny it.

He gestured vaguely at my face. “The dark circles, the general aura of irritability. You’re not Jonah, so I knew something was up.”

I scrubbed a hand over my face and took a hearty gulp of my martini. The last time I’d had one had been with her. My chest ached.

“You know the woman I told you about? Cynthia? My opposing counsel?” And so much more .

Miles nodded.

“Yeah, well. I was in deep. Turns out you were right.” He grinned, and I shook my head. “She’s moving.”

His face fell. “Seriously? After you told her how you felt?”

“Ah. Here’s the thing. I didn’t tell her.”

“Well, why the fuck not?” He frowned at me.

“Because, man, you know how I am.” Fucked up. Damaged goods.

“I want to hear you tell me.” He crossed his arms and his eyes bored into mine. Miles was too damn perceptive for his own good. And he thought he was the smartest guy in the room.

“I was going to.” I blew out a breath. “I actually had it all planned out. The wine, the meal, the speech. Everything. And you know I’ve never been romantic before.”

His brows went up. “So you broke your only one-night policy for this woman, you wined and dined her, and then you didn’t tell her how you felt?” He sounded incredulous.

“I didn’t get a chance. I was one breath away from confessing that I was in love with her when she told me she was moving.”

“Moving? To go where?” His voice rose .

“Yeah. Talk about shitty timing.” I shoved my fingers through my hair. “She took a temporary public interest job in Texas. It’s her dream job. Doing immigration work.”

“Fuck, man. I was prepared to hate her, but she actually sounds like a good person.”

“She is, unfortunately, amazing.” I took another fortifying sip of my drink.

“Temporary, though? So she’s coming back. And you didn’t offer to do long distance?” Miles questioned, and my anger rose. At Cynthia, at myself.

“Long distance? What are we, in college?” I shook my head bitterly. “There were no promises between us. I fell for her, but it was one-sided. She’s not interested in a relationship. Hell, she told me when I met her that she thought you couldn’t have it all.”

Miles sat back, stunned. “Huh. I never thought I’d meet someone just as blind as you are.”

“I’m not blind,” I grumbled.

“Yes. You are.” He was annoyingly persistent when he thought he was right.

“It sounds like you really want to tell me why, so go ahead.” I crossed my arms and waited.

He looked gleeful at the opportunity. “Well, first of all, you have that stupid only one night rule, even though sex gets better the more you have it with the same person.”

I had to give that one to him. Sleeping with Cynthia had been a life-altering experience.

“That rule is in place because I’m sick of people walking away from me. So I walk away first. You know this. It’s actually quite simple.” And I should have stuck to it with her.

“It’s actually quite simple,” he mimicked before sipping his drink. “And you seem to think that she doesn’t want you.”

“She doesn’t. She’s walking away. She didn’t ask me to come, and she left immediately after the conversation. She’s a fucking coward.”

“Takes one to know one,” he snapped back. “You opened up to her. I know you did.” He pointed a finger at me. “ You fell in love, which means you two had a connection. I know it. And you’re just going to give up on that? What the fuck?”

Suddenly I was exhausted. “Give it a rest, man. Not everyone’s due for a happy wife, happy life situation like you are.”

He snagged his drink and drained it, not meeting my eyes.

I knew that look. That look said he was hiding something from me.

Miles deflected a lot. Possibly more than anyone I knew.

Oh, his eccentric billionaire bullshit was real, but a lot of the time his flashing smiles and small talk were not.

He was ruthless and more fucked up than anyone I knew.

Probably why we got along so well, and why he felt free to call me on my bullshit.

I opened my mouth to ask him what was eating him when my phone pinged. My stomached clenched. Cynthia?

We’re getting closer pretty boy

You owe us

Stop hiding

It will go better for you if you come to us

My hands shook slightly as I read and re-read the message. I dropped the phone on the table and stabbed at the screen.

“There. Reason number one why I’m never leaving New York for some godforsaken small town to chase a woman who couldn’t care less about me.”

Miles read the message and his brows drew lower. “What the fuck?”

I waited for him to put two and two together. He knew the whole sordid history with my last foster family. He and Jonah were the only two people who knew all the details.

“It’s them, isn’t it?” His jaw was set.

“Yep,” I said roughly, before signaling for another round.

“Fucking assholes,” he spat. “This doesn’t sound like the first message. ”

I shook my head mutely, numb, and swigged my new drink. The liquor burned going down, and I welcomed it.

“Are you going to respond?”

“And say what? I—” My voice broke. “I can’t, man.”

“I’ll do it.” His voice was steely. “I’ll do it and I’ll fucking kill them if they come near you.”

“Thank you,” I replied dryly. “I’m sure they’re shaking in their boots.”

“We should get my security company to look into these pricks.” Jonah and Miles used some fancy, just-this-side-of-the-law, private security firm.

My throat started to close, panic clawing at me. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. What if they find out?”

He leaned forward, forearms on the table, eyes fixed on mine.

“Jason. Man. Be real. You told me these people are hillbillies. They make meth in their basement, for fuck’s sake.

You think they have some sort of advanced technology?

Resources? No fucking way.” He shook his head.

“We’ll have our private security investigate them. They’ll never know, okay?”

“Okay.” I sipped the liquor more slowly this time. “Okay.”

My life is so fucked. And no place for a woman. No place for her . She wouldn’t stay and I wouldn’t leave. I signaled for another drink.