Page 87 of The Plus One Professional

“She did?” I pulled out my phone to see if I’d missed a text from her, which was the definition of insanity since I’d just checked it seconds before and yet expected a different result.

“Yep, last night. I let her into the building.”

Oh, right. He was talking about Lindsay.

“I think she might have had a few too many to drink.” He mimed, tipping a glass back.

“Yeah,” I confirmed.

“You two gonna get back together?” He returned to leaning on the railing.

“Nope.”

“Good.” He nodded. “Never liked her much.”

I stood staring up at him in shock. Everyone loved Lindsay, so it surprised me that he hadn’t.

“That blonde, though, Bliss’s granddaughter, I like her.”

Yeah, I liked her, too. A lot, I thought to myself. I fucking loved her.

“She’s a keeper.” With that sage wisdom, Arthur went back inside his apartment.

Somehow, hearing Arthur tell me how great Bailey was only made me feel worse about the situation. By the time I made it up to my apartment, all I wanted to do was take a shower, lay down on the couch, put a blanket over my head, and not speak to anyone the rest of the night.

When I opened the front door, I saw that my perfect night was not going to be happening. Carly was on the couch with her laptop, which meant the boys must be at their friend Jeremiah’s. When the twins were home, she stayed holed up in her room.

“Hey, Carly Poppins,” I greeted her as I kicked off my work boots and tried to summon the energy to be in a pleasant mood.

“Are you getting back together with Lindsay?” she asked.

Wow. She did not mess around with small talk; she got right to the point. It reminded me of Bailey’s older sister, Billie. I liked Billie. She did not tolerate B.S. It was refreshing to be around.

“Why?” I asked.

She shrugged.

“No.” I shook my head. “I’m not.”

“You’re not?” she double-checked.

“No.”

“Because she cheated on you?”

“How do you know?—”

“I was listening last night in the hallway,” she stated as if it were obvious.

Fuck. I really needed to get a bigger place.

Even though it was the last thing I wanted to do, I lowered down on the couch and figured I might as well face this conversation head-on. I’d found that was the best way to handle situations I wanted to avoid. Putting off things I didn’t want to do only made me miserable, knowing they were out in front of me.

“So, is that why you’re not getting back together, because of Frankie?”

Damn, she even knew his name. “No. That’s not why we’re not getting back together. It doesn’t help, but it’s not the reason.”

“What is?”

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