Page 79 of The Plus One Professional

“Bailey, there’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”

She nodded and shifted toward me. When she did, I noticed, for the first time since we pulled up, a man standing outside her building. Not just any man.

“Simon,” I breathed in disbelief.

Fuck my life.

33

BAILEY

“Simon?”I repeated what Cole had just said as my brain tried to play catch up with what was going on. Naps always made me feel disoriented, and the one I’d just woken up from left me particularly foggy-brained since I hadn’t slept the night before. “What about Simon?”

Cole pointed to the entrance of my building. “He’s here.”

I turned my head, and sure enough, Simon was standing next to the glass entrance.

“What is he doing here?” I asked out loud as I reached for the door handle, but then turned back toward Cole. “Wait, what were you going to say?”

The light that had been in his eyes moments before was gone. It was extinguished. “Nothing. It doesn’t matter.”

“Yes, it does. I can just go see what he wants, and then?—”

“No, it’s fine. I have to get home anyway.”

“I thought everything was okay.” When I’d woken up, I’d heard Cole’s sister saying he didn’t need to come home. “I thought it was taken care of.”

“You don’t know anything about my family or my responsibilities.”

The harshness in his tone felt like a slap in the face. I had no clue where that had come from. I searched his eyes, and for the first time since our Trevor-arranged-meet-cute in the bathroom, he was shut off. In the few seconds it had taken for me to turn my head to Simon and then back, walls had gone up. It was the same look he’d had when I’d asked him if he wanted to speak to Lindsay at the wedding. It was cold and distant.

“Cole—” I started to reach for him, but he got out of the SUV.

As I sat in the passenger seat, trying to figure out what was going on and what I should do, my heart was beating so fast and so hard that I could hear it in my head. There were so many thoughts and feelings competing for the top spot right now. I wanted to know why Simon was there. He was supposed to be on his honeymoon. But, another part of me, a big part of me, didn’t care and just wanted to hear what Cole was about to tell me.

It might be delirium from waking up after a couple of hours of sleep, but I was ninety-nine-point-nine-nine-nine percent sure that whatever Cole was going to tell me was important. I’d seen it in his eyes. I’d felt it in the atmosphere shift between us.

I was still trying to figure out how to handle the situation when the passenger door opened, and Cole held out his hand. I couldn’t exactly refuse to leave his vehicle, so, not knowing what else to do, I took it. When I stepped onto the curb and looked up into Cole’s eyes, it felt like there was so much I needed to say, but none of the words were coming to me. I opened my mouth to speak, but no sound came out.

The moment passed when he shut the door and headed to the back of the SUV. After he got my suitcase out, he set it on the sidewalk beside me. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Simon was walking in our direction.

Acting on sheer impulse, I wrapped my arms around Cole, hugging him tightly. I buried my head in the crook of his shoulder and inhaled his musky scent. For a moment, he didn’t move; his hands remained by his side, but then I felt them engulf me as he pulled me tightly into him.

Being in his arms made everything I was feeling—all the anxiety, all the nerves, all the uneasiness—quiet down. If I had one wish in this world, it would be to stay in his embrace forever.

“Thank you,” I whispered against his neck. I wasn’t even sure what I was thanking him for. The weekend. The hug. The sex. The way he’d opened up my world and shown me how it felt to be truly desired, truly cared for, and truly protected.

No sooner had I said those two words than he recoiled from me. He stepped back, and his arms fell to his side like he’d touched a hot stove. I stared up at him in confusion as to why my thanking him had caused him to react that way.

“Cole, I?—”

“Goodbye, Bailey.” His farewell was clipped and impersonal. He walked back around to the driver’s side, got in, and drove away.

“Bay.”

For a split second, I’d completely forgotten Simon was there. All I’d cared about was Cole, what he was feeling, and what he was going to say to me. It was still all I cared about.

“Here, let me take this.” Simon reached down to grab my suitcase.

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