Page 58 of HEA: Happily Ever After

“Hey,” I breathed.

“I need a favor,” he began.

14

HUGH

“Anything,” he said before I could say what the favor was.

I squeezed my eyes closed and took a breath. Oscar making things easier was already making things harder. “I know this is beyond weird, after… everything, but I need your help.”

“Yes,” he agreed instantly. “Of course. Always.”

His instant support made my stomach swoop. I both loved it and hated it in equal measure. But I couldn’t help thinking Oscar wouldn’t be so agreeable when he found out what the favor was.

“You remember me telling you how I needed a date to my sister’s wedding because I didn’t want to see Jared alone?” I asked. “Well, it turns out there won’t be a wedding. Abby and Dex got married at a courthouse last month because she says she cares more about her marriage than her wedding. But she is having a marriage celebration party, and Rafa can’t make it, so I wondered if you’d come?—”

“Oh, Hugh, I’m sorry.”

I swallowed. Stupid to feel the sting of disappointment when I’d known it was a long shot. “No, don’t be sorry. It was silly of me to ask. You’re busy, and I know you were joking when you offered before?—”

“I meant I’m sorry that Abby and Dex decided not to have a wedding,” he said, his voice low and oh-so kind. “I know how much you were looking forward to her having a perfect wedding day so she’d know how special she is.”

“Y-yeah.” The word came out with a little wobble, not because of Abby’s changed plans—I was over that, mostly—but because Oscar got it. No one else had understood my disappointment—not Rafa or Dex or even Abby—and I’d had trouble articulating it even to myself. It wasn’t a surprise that Oscar saw what no one else had, but damn, it hurt.

“But Abby and Dex are happy,” I went on, “and that’s what matters. Well, that and not appearing like a pathetic, dateless idiot at her Nacho Reception?—”

“You won’t,” he said with the supreme confidence of the powerful billionaire I sometimes forgot he was. “I’ll be there.”

I blinked, suddenly flustered. “It’s November 14. Are you even free that day?”

“I’ll have Lesya clear my schedule.” He said it as if that were easy. As if he weren’t the CEO of an investment firm with an infinite number of obligations on his plate more important than this.

“It’s in New Jersey,” I added.

“No problem. Whatever you need me to do or don’t need me to do, I’m there.”

“Thank you,” I told him, hoping he wouldn’t notice my voice wobbling again.

“You don’t need to thank me. I’m happy to help. Believe me, I understand about family weddings. In fact, maybe you could…” There was a pause. “Never mind.”

“I could what?” I pressed.

But whatever Oscar might have said was cut off when a man’s voice in the background asked if “Oscar darling” was going to “finish his rosé.”

My stomach curdled with embarrassment and something hotter… something a lot like jealousy.

But what had I expected? That Oscar would be home alone on a Saturday night, missing me as much as I missed him? That he’d want to keep talking for hours, the way he had the last time I called?

“I’ll see you on the fourteenth,” Oscar said. “Send me the information, and I’ll pick you up.”

I wanted to press him again on what he’d almost asked, but since the man in the background was still talking, I let it go. “Okay. Thanks again, Oscar.”

Over the next two weeks, I did my best to convince myself I was okay with the idea of seeing Oscar again and embracing the happy-right-now, but it wasn’t easy. Half my brain was worried Oscar might have to cancel at the last minute. The other half was busy fantasizing about what might happen if he didn’t.

Being with Oscar again for one evening… and possibly one night.

When November 14 rolled around, a sleek Ferrari Stradale pulled up in front of my apartment building, glinting in the late-afternoon sun. Oscar stepped out of the vehicle, and I met him on the sidewalk. He wore a butter-soft cashmere overcoat with a burgundy cable-knit sweater and designer jeans underneath. He looked like the cover spread of a men’s magazine.

---