Page 84 of The Plus One Professional

“No.”

“Where are you?” she asked.

“In my car.”

“So, this is a walk of shame call?”

“What? No. I’m on the way to the gym.”

Billie didn’t respond, which was her silent way of calling bullshit.

“I am. I was at my apartment, alone, last night.” I figured I might as well get to the point. “But, when I got home yesterday, Simon was there.”

“Simon was where?”

“He was waiting in front of my building.”

“What the fuck did he want?”

I took a deep breath and filled her in on everything he told me: the fake pregnancy, how seeing me with Cole made him realize what I meant to him, that he was going to get the marriage annulled, and that he wanted me to marry him—all of it.

“I told you I didn’t trust her,” Billie remarked.

“Seriously? After everything I just told you, that’s all you have to say?”

“Please don’t tell me you’re going to take him back.”

That’s more along the lines of what I’d thought she was going to say.

“No. No, I’m not.” Billie was silent, which, again, meant she didn’t believe me, so I reiterated. “I’mnot.”

“Good.”

Since I’d already given her half the cup of tea, I figured I might as well finish it off. “Did you know that Simon went missing the night before the wedding?”

“I heard rumblings at the wedding.”

“Guess who he was with.”

“Please don’t say you.”

“No!” I couldn’t believe she’d even say that.

“Who?”

“Helga.”

“Helga…from the spa?” Billie questioned.

“Yep.” After I told Simon that I wasn’t interested in being with him, I’d asked him where he was the night before the wedding. At first, he stuck with his story that he’d been walking around. But after pushing him on it, he admitted he’d hooked up with Helga. The night before his wedding to a woman he believed at the time was pregnant with his child, he spent the night with Helga.

I’d always heard that you should be careful what you wish for, but man, I’d never truly understood the gravity of that statement. I’d dodged a major bullet with Simon.

“What a piece of shit.” Billie sighed, then asked, “What about Cole?”

“What about Cole?”

“You said when he dropped you off, Simon was there.”

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