“Well, just wait and see. You never know what could happen.”
“Yeah. Wait and see. That sounds much less dangerous than going jogging again.”
“Definitely.”
“How’s she doing?” Lucah said when I came back after getting Sloane ready for bed and handing her some ibuprofen with a sleep aid. Hopefully she’d be a lot better in the morning.
“I think her pride is wounded more than anything else.” I looked around for Ryder and then heard the toilet flush.
“She really likes him, doesn’t she?” Lucah said, as if the thought had just occurred to him.
“Yeah, she really does,” I said quietly as Ryder emerged from the bathroom.
“Is she going to live?” he asked, throwing out the words as if he didn’t really care either way. I knew he was full of shit.
“I think so.” That was all he was getting. I wasn’t going to intervene or try to turn this either way. I was waiting and seeing. Staying neutral. Stepping back. Lucah and I had meddled too much already and look at where it got us.
“But we’ll just have to wait and see,” I said, taking Lucah’s hand and leading him toward the bedroom. “Goodnight.”
Waiting and seeing was awful. Especially since I was a known control freak. I poured my heart out to Lilia during another lunch on Monday. I was starting to rely on her as my own personal therapist, but she claimed she didn’t mind.
“It’s my job. I’m your assistant, and I need to meet your needs, whatever those are. Right now they happen to be acting as your de facto therapist. I’m okay with that. Especially if there is cake or pie involved.”
She did get a free meal out of it, so that was her fee for services rendered.
“I get what you’re saying about having a hard time staying out of it. It’s like, if you could only get in there and put everything in place, where you wanted it, then everything would be perfect. But life isn’t like that.”
“I know. That’s what makes it so hard.”
Lilia laughed and finished the last bite of cake.
“Haven’t you heard the expression, ‘Life is what happens when you’re making other plans’?” Of course I had. That didn’t mean I had to like it, or follow it.
“Have you talked to Lucah about it?”
“Sort of. I try to avoid talking about Ryder with him. It’s kind of a touchy subject, and then there’s the fact that Ryder is always around and we sort of agreed to stop talking about him behind his back.”
She gave me a face of sympathy as the waiter brought the check and I pulled out my company card to pay.
“So tell me about your problems. Boys? Girls? Friends?” I was always trying to repay the favor, but she always closed right up.
“Things are fine.” Her eyes immediately went to staring at the empty dessert plate.
“That was almost convincing,” I said, sipping the last of my water.
“Good, that means I’m improving. It’s nothing. I just had a breakup not that long ago and it kind of wrecked me for a little while. I’m mostly over it, but every now and then things remind me, and I’m thrown back into misery again.” She gave me a sad smile.
“How long had you been together?”
“Since high school. We were sweethearts and then we grew apart, and then we were these different people, still trying to have the old relationship, but we couldn’t remember why we were even trying anymore. It was . . . it was hard. Really hard.”
“I’m so sorry.” I proceeded to tell her about Royce (otherwise known as King Douchebag) and all of his escapades, some of which I could finally laugh about, and that seemed to bring Lilia out of her sad moment.
“Why were you even with him in the first place?” she asked as we walked back to the office.
I shrugged. “I have no idea anymore. Our parents were friends and he had money. He was one of those people who had everything on paper, but didn’t deliver when it came to real life. He was also an ass**le. That was the biggest problem. I ignored a lot of things because I was trying to give him a chance, but he definitely used up all his chances and then some.”
I was glad to be rid of him, because now I had Lucah, and I understood what having the right man in your life was like.
“Well, if you ever want me to set you up . . . “ I said, and waited for the reaction from Lilia.
“Oh, no. That’s okay. I’m good.” Her panicked expression made me burst out laughing.
“I’m only kidding. I know how much I hate being set up, so I never do it to someone else. It’s cruel and unusual punishment.” I had sort of set up Fin and Marisol. Or I had let Sloane set them up and that had worked out. So far.
“Agreed.”
I was still laughing about my ex as I sat down at my desk, but I cut off abruptly when there was a knock at the door.
“Oh, hi Violet.” I hadn’t seen her much lately, and I’d almost forgotten she was working here. It had been nice, actually, but now here she was.
I had to get over my jealousy issues. I really did. A few more sessions with Lilia should nip it in the bud.
“Hi, Rory. How are you?” We exchanged the normal office small talk, but there was obviously something she wanted to speak to me about. Again.
I was getting really tired of her using me as a Lucah Information Source, but maybe that wasn’t what she wanted to talk about. I hoped not. Anything would be better than that.
“Do you need to talk?” I said in a lowered voice.
“Oh, no. I just wanted to see how things were going. We should another lunch again soon.” I tried to see what her ulterior motive could be and came up with nothing. Unless she wanted to take me out to lunch to pump me for information. You know, keep it out of the workplace.
“Yes, we definitely should. Next week? I’ll check my calendar and get back to you.”
“Great.” She smiled and then marched right back to her office. Wait and see. I was going to wait and see . . .
Fuck that. She was up to something. I could smell it. Now I just needed to figure out what it was.
“She’s obviously trying to get him back,” Sloane said that night when I went to check on her. She was tucked on the couch with some more painkillers, a glass of water and a whole stack of fashion magazines, courtesy of Ryder.
“Really? I don’t think it’s that,” I said as I swiped one of the cookies off a plate that Ryder had also left.