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She scoffs. “He just wants to see your tits again,” Jules mutters as she keeps flipping through the hangers, wrinkling her nose at a distasteful turquoise paisley abomination. “I don’t think he cares about you matching him.”

“It’s Theo. All he cares about are tits.”

She pops her lips in a way that she does before she says something that’s either enlightening or that she knows I’m not going to like. “You know, he actually doesn’t usually fuck around with coworkers. Sage is basically his textbook type. Big tits, blonde, sexy. He’s never even asked her out for a drink.”

I don’t know if that’s supposed to make me feel special or not. Ihate that a part of me does feel a little something. I’m not delusional. I’m a conquest for Theo. He wants to ‘conquer’ me and then he’ll move on. He also recently ended things with his fiancée because he was cheating. Not exactly the signs of someone who wants something serious.

“He got out of a six-month engagement like two months ago,” I mutter as I push past a button-up pink dress with leopards all over it. Not leopard print. It has cartoon leopards with ridiculous looking faces all over it.

“Veronica was…” Jules trails off as she thinks over what she’s going to say. “I’ll preface this by saying I’m not justifying cheating. Cheating is wrong. Theo’s garbage for doing it. Veronica didn’t deserve that. But anyone who could see beyond her constant social media posting about how ‘happy’ they were could see that it was some fabricated trash.”

Immediately, I want to press for more. I want to know what Jules knows that I don’t, what she saw. Why am I so interested in Theo’s past?

Maybe there’s a tiny part of me that wants to see him as something other than a villain. I want to rewrite the narrative so he’s not some jackass who I’m forced to work with. I’m also a nosy coworker.

My chance to get more information is stolen when she gasps and grabs something off the rack. “This.” She holds up a sleeveless black mini dress with rose gold fringe and pearls detailing it. There’s a sequined flower design off-center. “It’s perfect.”

I tilt my head as I look at it. While I’m not a fan of the rose gold, I do genuinely like the dress. “Do you think it’ll match Theo?”

“If it’s not up to his standards, he can fucking change.”

We buy the dress and stop at the bakery next door for coffee, on Theo’s card, and begin the short drive back to the arena.

On the touch screen in the car, Jules’s phone notifies her of atext from Hext. Discomfort crosses her face as she pops her lips and tells the car to read the message.

The automated voice announces, “From Hex: Since you’re MIA, I’m checking to see if you’re still flying out this weekend. Let me know. Be safe, whatever you’re up to.” A pause from the automated voice. “Would you like to respond?”

With a sigh, Jules says, “No.”

I was going to press for more about Veronica, trying to figure out what Jules knows about that situation. This, however, is much more interesting. I’m quiet as I try to think of how to ask. “You’re flying out to see Hext this weekend?” I try to word it as casually as possible.

From the way her hands tighten on the wheel, knuckles turning white, I can tell that Jules is already on edge. “I fly out to see him every week,” she mumbles. “It’s not like that. He has a ring and everything set up in his basement. We train together. I sleep in his guest room. His wife knows.”

Nothing about that sets me at ease about her situation. If anything, it sends up more red flags. “Jules…”

“Rory, I need you to trust me, alright? It’s not like that. I’m not like that. Nothing is happening between Hex and me. We just spend a lot of time together because he’s taken me under his wing. He wants to see my succeed.”

There’s something more there. I’m not blind to how they look at each other, how they follow each other around, but I can tell by the look on her face that even asking is distressing Jules, so I stop.

“I got you,” I say, deciding not to push further, even if I want to. “Take care of yourself, Jules.”

The last thing I want is for her to get a reputation because she’s sleeping with a married man. It could ruin her, and she deserves so much more than that.

Chapter Nineteen

AURORA

Rise

Episode 573.

Savannah, Georgia

“Okay, okay. This is what I was talking about. I’m loving this look on you,” Theo says. He makes a slow circle around me, taking me in from every angle. I have never felt more uncomfortable in my life. It feels like every part of me is being scrutinized and observed. I feel myself trying to suck in my stomach, stand a little straighter.

But I also feel a heat building in the pit of my stomach underneath his gaze.

He stops before me, taking a loose red curl and holding it between his index finger and thumb.

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