Page 151 of A Deal with the Bossy Devil

“Here’s one more truth for you to consider,” he went on. “I was there the day Adrien found out about Joshua and Mandy’s affair. I saw his reaction in real-time. He may have held on to some feelings of resentment toward Joshua that ended up festering, but with Mandy… it was night and day compared to what he’s been like the last twenty-four hours. Josh was lucky the confrontation happened while others were around to mediate the situation. And Addy will be lucky if charges aren’t pressed, but I digress.”

“To be clear, I didn’t encourage—or expect—there to be any physical retaliation when I told Adrien about what happened between Josh and myself.” I just thought he’d… I don’t know, maybe feel shitty about what he’d done for a bit, then move the hell on.

Robert shook off my concern. “Adrien’s a grown man, and he’s very capable of making his own decisions. I’m not here to blame you for his actions.”

I sucked on my cheek, wondering how I could ask this next question without being rude.

“You’re wondering what my angle is,” Robert cut in before I could string the question together. “What I’m trying to achieve by telling you all this.”

“Kind of,” I admitted.

He made a point of checking his wristwatch. “All right, I’ll cut to the chase, then. I’m trying to stall.”

Huh?“Stall for what?”

“Well, I could sit here all afternoon and talk your ear off about more truths we’ve all witnessed, but I really don’t think I have the words to accurately describe what Adrien’s currently… well, you’ll see.”

Uh… the fuck I would.

“Please tell me he’s not on his way here,” I pleaded as the panic set in.

“Okay. He’s not on his way here,” Robert deadpanned.

My eyes narrowed. “Are you lying?”

“Doesn’t feel so good, does it?” he chided with a pointed look.

Fuck.

“You said Adrien didn’t put you up to this!” I exclaimed, positively appalled by the level of treachery. It was always the innocent-looking ones you had to watch out for.

“Oh, that part was true. This was all Alice and me. Mostly me, though I’m sure she’ll try to claim otherwise if all goes according to plan.” He took a long sip of his tea. “But if it backfires, she’ll say she had nothing to do with it. Just watch.”

“Is this more stalling?”

“No. The next stalling item I had on the agenda was to ask for your input on a very serious disagreement Alice and I are currently having about the physical location of the matching tattoos she wants us to get for her birthday. She is being extremely impolite about the ordeal, and we’re both convinced that you’re the exact right person to settle the argument. But don’t worry, it should only take a minute or two of your time.

“You see, I’ve suggested a lower back placement for the tattoos, because then I can inform people who didn’t ask that I have a gramp stamp. But Alice claims that I’m not, and I quote, ‘a basic enough bitch’ to get away with a lower back tattoo. And even though I’ve repeatedly pointed out to her that you can’t get more basicorfragile than an overprivileged elderly white man, she simply refuses to see things my way. What do you think, Ria? Am I basic enough to pull off a gramp stamp? Or is my judgmental granddaughter correct?”

He nodded at his phone. “It’s actually what she was texting me about before you sat down.”

I rolled my lips, my palms hitting the table as I pushed up to my feet. “Well, I wish I could say this was nice, but I’ve very recently been taught a hard lesson about lying, so I’ll just say this: Alice is wrong, gramp stamp is hilarious, and I’m really sorry about lying to you all, but I’m going to leave now, and hopefully we never have a reason to—”

I cut off when I heard his gruff voice echoing outside, the rushed and unhappy pounding of his feet. My heart thrashed in my chest, adrenaline spiking through me.

Robert leaned back in his chair, his hands folding in front of him like a man who’d gotten exactly what he wanted.

I muttered a curse, twisting around just in time to watch the doors open, and for Adrien Cloutier to strut into the room in all his… glory?

Oh.

Oh, my god.

35

Robert may have slightly downplayedAdrien’s…state,as he’d called it. Though, to be fair, I wasn’t sure I’d have believed him had he been able to find the words to accurately describe what I was currently looking at.

Adrien’s T-shirt was inside out… and backward.

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