Page 78 of Perfect (mis)Match

I sighed. “Darcy, give me two minutes to deal withthis.”

She smirked at him and drifted over to a booth selling handmade jewelry.

“What do you want, Matthew?” I asked him warily. “Because I’m tired of you pretending there’s some big cosmic reason why we keep ‘accidentally’ meeting up. I’m not in the mood to deal with you. So tell me what you’re after, and let’s be done with all of this.”

“I can imagine you’re going through some shit right now,” he said, trying to sound comforting. “Looks like your company isdealing with some gossip, and you’ve got a co-starring role. That guy Vincent turned out to be a real asshole, huh?”

I wasn’t about to go there with Matthew, especially since I wasn’t sure exactly what he’d seen. I’d purposely avoided social media since last night, but Darcy had given me a couple of brief updates about the drama. By now, it was probably everywhere.

Which absolutely sucked. Not that I was in any mood to discuss that with Matthew. Much less—ew, even the thought was gross—accept any comfort from him.

“What do youwant, Matthew?” I asked, not bothering to mask my frustration. “I know you have an ulterior motive, so spill it.”

He looked up and down the street and then fixed me with his attempt at a heartfelt expression. “Okay, I’m going to put it all out there. I need a favor, Piper.” He clasped his hands under his chin.

“Clearly,” I glared at him. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t be stalking me.”

He squirmed, and I sort of liked making him feel vulnerable for a change. Watching him get ready to beg for whatever he needed from me made my day five percent less terrible.

“You probably heard that I started working for Waldorf Construction,” he began.

“How would I have heard that?” I demanded. “It’s not like we hang in the same circles. Clearly, since you didn’t think I was worthy of yours.”

He flinched. “Oh, come on.”

I stared at him and said nothing.

“Anyway,” he continued cautiously, less sure of himself as he finally realized I’d grown a backbone since we’d been together. “Things have been going really well, and the owner Bruce Waldorf seems to think I could fast-track to being a partner. Before his own son, even.”

He paused like he was expecting congratulations, which of course I didn’t offer.

Matthew cleared his throat. “There’s a huge distributor’s meeting coming up next month in Palm Springs, and one of our biggest suppliers is obviously going to be there, as a sponsor. They’re going to grant an exclusive East Coast distribution deal, and Bruce wants to make sure Waldorf is the one to get it. He’s convinced that if we play golf with that distributor, we’ll make them love us, and we’ll win the contract.”

The murky details of Matthew’s pursuit of me started to swim into focus.

“The golf tournament is a pretty big deal,” he continued. “It’s not some rinky-dink eighteen holes; there’s real money at stake. So I might’ve told Bruce…uh…that my girlfriend is a near-pro golfer, and he’sinsistingyou be our fourth. He thinks having a cute girl in the cart with us will help us close the deal.”

I stared at him with my mouth hanging open. Thepresumption! To call me his girlfriend now, after denying me for so long…for implying that my “cute girl-ness” is what would help close the deal and not my golf prowess or my well-developed people skills…and for lying that he wanted to strike up a friendship with me.

“Listen,” Matthew continued hastily. “It’s a weekend in Palm Springs, on a beautiful course! How can you say no to that? Wecould share a room, so that’ll be free. All you’d have to pay for is your airfare?—”

“Are youkiddingme?” I interrupted him. “You lied to try to reconnect with me in the first place, you only want me to be there to make you look good,andyou want me to pay my way?”

Darcy hovered in the wings, ready to jump in if I needed her. Matthew fidgeted at getting called out so loudly in public.

“You’re unbelievable,” I shook my head at him. “Seriously. What did I ever see in you?”

Vincent had shown me the kind of relationship I deserved, one where I felt appreciated and cared for. True, it had all fallen apart in the end when his only response to a massive humiliation for me was to worry about how hiscompanywould be impacted by the giant messhehad caused—but it had still taught me that I deserved a hell of a lot more than this. My lingering sadness shifted to fury at the current state of my life.

“Fuck off, Matthew,” I continued. “I hope you hack your way through that course and show them exactly who you really are: an absolute asshole. Lose my number, okay?”

“Yeah, fuck off for good,” Darcy said as she materialized beside me.

Matthew opened and shut his mouth a few times, like he was going to give it one last shot to try to convince me, but I guess my furious expression and Darcy’s backup muscle convinced him not to.

“Can I call you sometime?”

“No!” Darcy and I both shouted in unison.

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