“No. I told her that she has to get thicker skin, and if she doesn’t respect you, then I will fire her.”
I swallow a rock and nod once. “So why have you called me in here like a lowly servant?”
He drags out the chair in front of the desk, but he stays standing, just holding the back frame. “Besides to give you a taste of what Connor and you make us feel every day, I need to talk to you about the marketing division here. Hale Co. wants the promotional campaign to begin well before the summer release.”
A knock sounds on his glass door. I careen my head past his shoulder. My stomach drops.
Loren turns. “Which is why,” he says to me, “I need you to work close with the assistant to the CMO.”
I knew Theodore Balentine worked at Hale Co.
I knew he was one of Mark’s marketing assistants.
Did I ever believe I would come face-to-face with my husband’s ex-boyfriend?
In all honestly, I thought fate would be kinder to me.
16
ROSE COBALT
Around two months after we began dating, I asked Connor about his past relationships. I hoped to pocket his insecurities like ammo since he never showed any. I could use it against him, if need be. He often prodded me the same way. Whereas I stayed padlocked for much longer, he answered my questions even if, deep down, I didn’t really want their answers.
The facts drill my brain.
Eight years ago at a Model UN conference, I spotted Connor exiting the bathroom, another guy right behind him, sans blazer or nametag.
Connor wiped his bottom lip, their hair equally disheveled, indecent; the way people look after a quickie.
Connor blew him, I deduced.
What I didn’t know until years later: Theo Balentine and Connor were dating. Not openly. Hence the rendezvous in the hotel restroom. And this was different from Caroline Haverford. Connor called his time with her “eleven months and twenty-two days of vapidity and boredom.”
He called his time with Theo “fun.”
Jealousy should slither down my spine like a snake making route to my heart. Or rage. I am fire where my husband is water. It’s only natural I should burn in the face of his ex.
But I don’t feel those things.
I feel triumphant. I’ve kept what Theo couldn’t.
Connor is mine.
When Theo enters the room fully, I draw in a breath. I’ve seen him numerous times. He was always a part of the academic tournaments in Faust and later in college, but this is the first time I’m seeing him with the knowledge that his bathroom hook-up wasn’t a one-time event.
He’s taller than I remember, paler, the bags beneath his eyes darker. He resembles a sinister villain, aquiline nose and ratty brown hair, and his posture suggests a creature that lurks in shadowed corners.
He enters Loren’s office with curved shoulders, hunched and uncomfortable with his height, hands stuffed in his pockets. He shuffles forward, eyes flitting to Lo as though he’d like to self-eject from this room…the one that contains me.
He wears a prim and proper suit, dark-colored and tailored for his frame. I hone in on his hair, wondering if he purposefully left his locks unkempt. Maybe he heard he’d be seeing me, so he ditched his comb to appear laid-back and pliable, friendlier. It’s something Connor would do, seeming as nonthreatening as possible to other men.
But I forget Connor is one-of-a-kind. A manipulator and a genius.
Theo is mortal in comparison.
I scoot forward to the desk, openly giving Theo another once-over like I’m the automated, full-body security scanner at an airport. I’m not afraid of you or intimidated. His eyes find me, the color of storm-clouds. Fate is telling me something.
I willfully ignore this ominous sign and straighten my back.
Lo releases his grip from the chair and angles his body, giving me a better view of Theo and vice-versa. An awkward, strained tension lingers in the quiet.
I swivel my chair a fraction to Loren. “Why can’t I speak to Mark? Or is he too busy to call the president of Hale Co.’s new billion-dollar subsidiary company?” I don’t add that Mark has ignored nine of my ten calls. I’d rather he look like an incompetent fool than me look like a reject.
Theo rocks forward on his feet and answers before Lo. “That would be because he’s too busy sipping cocktails on his yacht.” He shrugs like it’s nothing. “Mark has a family and kids and grandkids and apparently it’s been his youngest one’s birthday for thirty-five days.” He glances hesitantly at Loren, worried like he said too much in front of Hale Co.’s CEO. “I’d work just as hard if he was gone three hundred days out of the year. I really don’t mind pulling the all-nighters. I’m single so…” He cringes a second, scratching at his head and looking quickly to me, then to the floor.
What the hell. Fun? How is he fun?
He’s accidentally handing me personal information, making mistakes left and right. Someone just dropped a sad, little guppy into my ocean and it’s swimming past my razor-sharp jaws. Unless he’s manipulating me into believing he’s weaker than he is…
I rest my hands flat on the desk. “So those dark circles under your eyes aren’t from weed?”
I asked Connor for three facts about Theo in case I ran into him at Hale Co. I wanted artillery, and without falter, he gave it to me, zero emotion attached.
1. Theo used to smoke copious amounts of weed at Faust, hot-boxing his dorm room and disassembling the fire alarm.
2. Theo loved poetry and art. He never had passion for the corporate world, but his parents pushed him towards it.
3. Theo liked to be bottom.
I was not excited to learn the third fact, but I pocketed it anyway for later use. Connor wouldn’t hand me meaningless information. He’d open a wardrobe of ammunition—of swords and pistols and arrows—and ask me which one I needed.
At the mention of drugs, Theo tries to flatten his ragged hair. “I don’t do that…” He clears his throat, coughing into his fist. “It was a…Faust thing.” He lets out a tense breath and turns to Lo, maybe to see if he just drove his job into the ground.
Lo only stares at me. “You know him too?” He was aware that Theo knew Connor from boarding school and that’s it.
“Only a little.” Bringing up Theo’s relationship with Connor will get him fired on the spot. Loren’s protectiveness towards me circles around like an eclipse. It’s always there, waiting to darken the skies.
Theo watches me carefully, cautious and knowing. I hold the string to his fate, sheers practically glinting in my grasp. His storm cloud eyes are benign, a tornado that never touches down but lingers uncertainly before vacuuming into the sky.
He’s the guppy.
I swivel back to Lo. “We knew each other through Model UN and Quiz Bowl.” I don’t cut Theo’s string. I angle towards him again. “You were their literature trump card.”
He nods, his shoulders falling. “And poetry.”
“Huh,” Lo says, almost bored by the knowledge. His cell rings, and he checks it, making his way to the door. “Theo can take care of whatever you need, Rose. I’ll be back in a half hour.” He puts the phone to his ear, exiting the office and disappearing down the hall for privacy.
The call is either from his father or Lily. Maybe Ryke.
Theo scratches his head again in thought. Then he gestures to me. “I can take care of any marketing needs. Anything else, you can call your assistant.” That was rather assertive. He pauses and rocks on his loafers. “I graduated summa cum laude from Yale.” He nods a couple times, scanning the office to avoid my gaze.