Page 49 of More Than Words

He was clearly trying to lay it on thick, so I couldn’t get nervous and try to push him away again. From any other man, I would find the overbearing attitude a turnoff, but I couldn’t hide the blush as I read his missed texts.

Isobel: I’ll be waiting, sans panties, at 11:45 on Monday. You had better bring your A-game, big boy.

As I read through Leila’s reply, I shook my head at her brazen response. But I had no doubt that he’d think it was from me because of the big boy comment tacked onto the end. I’d called him that before, much to his inflated ego’s amusement. Clearly my friend knew my go to phrases a little too well.

Adrian: Better block out your calendar in the afternoon with that kind of flirting. I’m going to need time to check the truthfulness of your statement. It’s not nice to mislead a gentleman.

Isobel: Let me know if you find one. We both know you’re not a gentleman.

Adrian: If I weren’t a gentleman, I wouldn’t have left last night.

Isobel: Behave.

Leila was bouncing in her chair as I ignored her to respond to Adrian’s messages, her eagerness to see the rest of the conversation obvious with how she was watching me.

Adrian: You know me better than that. That’s not what you want either.

Isobel: Save it for Monday.

Adrian: A-game activated. Be ready for it.

Isobel: Oh, I’m more than ready. Bring it. If you can…

“Give me that.” Leila snatched the phone from my hand, laughing as she read through the messages. “Oh, he so wants to fuck you.”

Yeah… I was aware. Which was why I told him I wouldn’t sleep with him. But I was having a hard time convincing myself that was the right choice.

“You’re going on Monday.” Her statement left no room for argument, and she would hound me until I agreed.

“I know.” I was curious how things would play out between us. It was too late to back out now. He’d worked his way in, and I was intrigued enough to give him a chance.

“Let me know if his A-game involves getting dicked down in the copy room.”

“Leila!”

“Hey, might as well live out those dirty work fantasies. He looks like the type to know what he’s doing.”

“Not exactly looking to get fired for screwing on the copy machine, Lei.”

“They invented locks for a reason, Is.”

She laughed as she handed back my phone, her delight at this situation pulling me out of the funk I’d been in since my deep dive into Grant’s social media.

“I’m taking it by the way your expression just darkened that you looked at what I let slip?”

I nodded, biting my bottom lip, tears forming at the corner of my eyes as I finally let myself process what I’d been avoiding. “I’m not surprised.” My eyes closed as I shook my head, reaching up to swipe a tear that escaped. “I mean, look at her. Of course he’d change his mind for her.”

“We both know he was obsessed with you, so fuck that, Is. He’s not the same angry person he was with you.”

“Is that supposed to be helpful? That being with me—being married to me—made him angry.”

Leila pinched her lips together before she sighed. “He was too upset back then to understand the ramifications of his decisions. He still texts me to see how you’re doing sometimes.”

“Oh great, glad you two like to talk about me behind my back. He hasn’t had a actual conversation with me since the ink dried on the papers. Nice to know he’s willing to spy on me through my best friend, but doesn’t have the balls to ask me how I was doing after he destroyed my future when he pulled the shit he did.”

Angrily dropping my phone to the table, I stood and paced behind the couch, hating that I still had this much resentment over the situation in my heart. It still felt like there were so many answers I was denied when everything happened, and now he was moving on with a new woman and a new baby. All he did for me was rip my heart out and stomp on it without so much as a backward glance.

“If you couldn’t tell by the cryptic adoption hashtags, it was him, Isobel. He was the reason you couldn’t get…”

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