InHap*pily Ever After (Incidental Happenstance) (35 page)

             “What the
hell do you mean by that?” she answered, her palms up and her shoulders
shrugging.  “He was the only one on the list, and I crossed him off the minute
I found out he was dating my best friend. Months ago. It’s not my fault that
you don’t believe me, but that’s not even what’s pissing you off, is it—you’re
not that dim.”

            “I’m starting
to wonder about that,” he said, shooting daggers from his eyes. “Where’d you
spend the night last night, Lex?”

            “At about
30,000 feet, Ryan. On a plane coming back here so we could spend New Year’s Eve
together. What are you insinuating?”

            “Always the
smart ass,” he hissed. “Let me rephrase that. Where’d you watch the show? Were
you with the drummer?”

            For a split
second she considered lying, but didn’t see the point. She hadn’t done anything
wrong, and had nothing to apologize for as far as that was concerned. “Yes, Bo
and I watched the show together. So what?”

            “I see. Dylan
is no longer available, so you jumped to someone else in the band? The big
black drummer? Are you that desperate to get banged by a celebrity?”

            Before she
could think; before she could even form words in her mind to respond to his
ridiculous accusation, her hand came up and cracked him across the face. “How
dare you,” she hissed. “You have no right…”

            “Don’t I? Put
yourself in my goddamn shoes for a minute here, Lexi. I walk out of the locker
room at the club and find you in the arms of the guy I practically gave you
permission to sleep with—the guy you said was “hotter than hell,” or something
to that effect.  Then  I find out that you not only hid the fact that you knew
him, but that the two weeks you spent in Europe weren’t just you and Tia
shopping and getting your goddamn nails done, but that you were on tour with
the fucking band the whole time.”

            “I had to keep
that a secret,” she said. “For Tia’s sake. You know that, Ryan.”

            “What about my
sake? I’m your fiancé, Lex. I knew you were hiding something the minute you got
back from that damn trip. You were secretive and evasive and shared almost no
details—I figured that you’d slept with Miller, and that was why you kept
telling me you’d crossed him off your list…”

            “I know you
thought that—you threw it in my face every chance you got!” she yelled. “Do you
really have that little trust in me, Ry? I swore to you that I didn’t, but you
kept getting in your little digs and accusations whenever you could. You don’t
think it hurt me that you didn’t believe me? You don’t think it hurts me now that
you think I’d jump into bed with Bo just so I could ‘bang a celebrity,’ as you
so delicately put it?”

            “How many more
secrets, Lexi? It seems like every time I turn around I find out something else
you’ve been hiding from me. What am I supposed to think, especially when I see
you on TV practically sitting in the dude’s lap—right after he calls you
beautiful in front of the whole damn world—and then you call and tell me you
aren’t coming home and I find out you were with him? You should have told me all
of it—we’re not supposed to have secrets from each other.”

            “It wasn’t
mine to tell. Tia didn’t even tell her own parents, Ryan. I wasn’t trying to
hide something
from
you; I was hiding it
for
her. There’s a big
difference.”

            “Not from
where I’m standing, there isn’t.”

            Lexi sucked in
a deep breath and took his hand. He tried to pull it from her grasp, but she
held tight and looked at him hard. “I’m so sorry, sweetie, for how all this has
made you feel. But I’m engaged to you because I love you, and I would never do
anything to jeopardize our relationship. Bo and I are friends; that’s all. We
have similar senses of humor and joke around with each other—it’s all very
harmless, I promise you. He’s never once hit on me, and I’ve never hit on him.
I’ve never been unfaithful to you, and I never will be; you should know me well
enough to be sure about that. I’ve only seen Bo once since Europe, months
ago…and before you even say I hid that from you too, remember that I was still
keeping Tia’s secret at the time.”

            Ryan dropped
his head. “What else? What else do I need to know, because I don’t like being
blindsided like this, Lexi, and I don’t want any more surprises.” 

            “There’s
nothing else, Ryan, I promise,” she whispered, and climbed into his lap to hold
him.

            He’d forgiven
her, it seemed, finally, but there was still this tension between them that she
hoped would dwindle with time. God knew her explanations weren’t making things
any better. The party had been miserable that night, both of them running on
way too little sleep and neither in a celebratory mood. They left shortly after
midnight, and fell quickly into restless dreams.       

            And now he
accused her again of having something going on with Bo. They’d had another
nasty fight yesterday, and she was still reeling. And now, it was Monday.

            The welcoming
committee felt more like a mob crushing in on her. She could just feel them
staromg, and people she barely knew; workers from other offices with whom she’d
shared no more than a smile and a nod in the hallway or on the elevator; were
hugging her just a bit too enthusiastically and showering her with compliments
and well wishes. It was nearly half an hour before she got into her office and
shut the door, falling into her chair and powering up her laptop.

            Her stomach
sank when she opened her email—she had 146 new messages, the subject line of
many being, “Congratulations!” and “You were amazing!” She groaned out loud
when she saw that a good number of them were from clients, and she knew she’d
have to open them and possibly respond. It was going to be a long freaking
morning.

            The first
email on the list had the subject, “Your Invited!” and was from the office
slut, Candy Christmas. Lexi wasn’t a bit surprised that she’d used the wrong
form of “you’re;” it certainly wasn’t her intellectual skills that had
contributed to her rise in the firm. She’d amassed a number of nicknames over
the couple years she’d been with
Family Advocates Inc
., Lexi’s personal
favorites being “Eye Candy,” and “The Gift That Keeps on Giving.” Candy was
gorgeous in a Playboy model kind of way, and claimed to have a sex addiction.
She’d slept with a good number of the men in the firm, some of them married,
and Lexi found her deplorable, doing her best to avoid the annoying woman
whenever possible. She opened the email reluctantly, hoping it contained an
invitation to an office party or a baby shower for Peggy, one of the
receptionists, but wasn’t a bit surprised when neither was the case.

                        “…to
our monthly Progressive Dinner!” it read, causing Lexi to

             shake her
head. “Next Saturday, starting at 6:00!!!!! We’ll start at my

             place for
wine and cheese, then move to LaVonne’s for appetizers, Allie’s

             for salads,
Stella’s for main course, and Bailey’s for dessert, then finish

            off back at my
place for cocktails
J
My guest this month will be Lexi

            Sommers, my
newly famous friend! (she’ll  just be a special guest this

             time, and can
take a rotation next round!) Remember, our theme

            this month is
Italiano—see you on Saturday!”

            “You’ve got to
be kidding,” Lexi said out loud, not at all surprised that the woman didn’t
even know how to spell her freaking name. As she hit the delete key, her door
swung open and the spelling disaster herself walked in, balancing some files in
one arm and a paper coffee cup in the other.

            “Good
morning!” Candy practically sang, setting down the coffee and taking a seat in
the chair in front of Lexi’s desk. “I brought you a skinny mocha latte from my
favorite café.” She pushed the cup over toward Lexi.

            “Um, thanks,”
Lexi managed. “Are all those files for me?”

            “No, none of
them, actually,” Candy said with a toothy smile.
Crocodile smile
, Lexi
thought immediately. “I just wanted to tell you again how amazing it was seeing
you on
After Dark
last week, and to see if you got my invitation to our
progressive dinner on Saturday. I’m so excited to have you come!” She clasped
her hands together in the most fake display of delight Lexi had ever seen.

            Before Lexi
could even respond, her phone rang. She snatched it up, grateful for the
temporary distraction, only to wish she hadn’t .

            “Lexi, it’s
Dalia Buchanan, darling, how are you?”
            Dalia was member of the country club and a former client. Lexi had
helped her successfully slam it to her husband in their divorce after he’d
impregnated one of his nurses and spent a good chunk of their marital estate to
keep her quiet in a luxury penthouse in the city. She still sung Lexi’s praises
around the club; and had secured her a fair share of new clients; but they
didn’t run in the same social circles. “I’m good, Dalia…how about you?” She
squinted at Candy, but she just leaned back in the chair and showed no signs of
leaving.

            “Oh I’m just
great, darling, and it’s obvious that you are too. I thought you were just
fabulous on TV the other night—Danielle Hastings told us you’d be on, and a
bunch of us watched you together—you made us all so proud…”

            “Well, ah,
thanks,” Lexi said. “It was an interesting experience.”

            “I’d love to
hear all about it! Listen, I don’t want to keep you; you must have a million
things on your plate right now; but I wanted to shoot you a quick call to
invite you to lunch a week from Saturday. I have a friend who’s looking for a
good attorney, and of course I gave her your name. She’s got a lot of influence,
but she hasn’t told her husband yet that she’s planning to divorce him and take
the kids, so I thought it would be best to meet in a less formal setting.
She’ll pay you for your time, of course.”

            “I’m happy to
do it, Dalia, but I have to wait until a bit later in the week to confirm, is
that OK? Tia’s may be coming back that week and I…”

            “Marvelous—she
could join us! It’s been such a whirlwind for her the past few weeks; I’d just
love to catch up with her and congratulate her on her engagement! She could
bring Dylan, too. I could set up a grand tour of the club for him, you know, in
case he wants to join. We could talk business over tea, and after he’s had a
chance to see all the club’s amenities, I’ll treat you all to lunch.”

            Lexi saw the
situation for what it was—a blatant attempt to be seen in the company of Dylan
and Tia. Dalia barely gave Tia the time of day; she wasn’t rude or dismissive,
she just didn’t go out of her way to be friendly. Now suddenly she wanted to
buy her lunch? She knew that wouldn’t be the case if it weren’t for her
relationship with Dylan.

            Yet again,
Lexi had a whole new appreciation for the tough decisions Tia had to make in
regard to her relationship with Dylan. She remembered how outwardly frustrated
she’d been when Tia swore her to secrecy, telling her that it was too good a
secret to keep and that she should be singing from the rooftops; but she now
saw the complexity of the whole situation, and once more, had a new respect for
Tia’s ability to see the whole picture. Tia knew that people would look at her
differently; treat her differently; because she was involved with someone
famous. She’d chosen to remain as anonymous as she could for as long as she
could because she understood that people would “crawl out of the woodwork” for
a little piece of that action. And judging by the number of incoming emails
that kept her computer pinging, she’d absolutely made the right decision.

            “I certainly
can’t speak for them,” she answered. “When they come back they’ll have a lot of
celebrating to do with friends and family, and I’d guess they’ll have a very
tight schedule. That’s why I’ll have to let you know later in the week whether
I can do Saturday—it depends on when they get back and what their plans are.
Can I call you on Thursday or Friday and let you know? Or, is it possible to
get together in the next couple days? I know she won’t be coming back for at
least that long, and I’ll have more availability.”

            “No, my friend
is out of town at the moment, so we’ll take our chances for that Saturday, I
think,” Dalia responded. “You will be sure to invite them, right, just in
case?”

            “Yeah, sure,”
she said, more to get her off the phone than anything else. “I’ll be in touch.”

            “So, Tia and
Dylan are coming back next week, huh? We don’t usually invite men to our
dinner, unless they’re incredibly sexy, which in this case, is an
understatement,” Candy said with a wistful smile. “I’d be very glad to make an
exception, and I was going to ask you to invite Tia anyway—I’ve always liked
her. Do they like Italian food? Does Dylan have a favorite wine?”