Page 16 of A Break in Communications

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I’m going to go find Gould now. Please do not embarrass me—”

“You two are such a cute couple. Honestly, I’d been wondering when you two would finally get together.”

The hell did that mean? I wasn’t reading into it. “Don’t hold your breath, Kelce.Bye, now. I’ll talk to you later.”

She beamed. “Going to go find your girlfriend? Oh my god, I love love. I’ll see you later, girl.”

“Do not call megirl,” I called after her, but she skipped away, blissfully ignorant. Of all the people to see me and Lucy in a compromising position, her?Her?What were the damn odds?

Given it was about coming back for the laptop she forgot—probably pretty high.

It took a second of working my way through the event—still just warming up and getting situated, the tables empty and people standing and mingling—before I found the worst confluence of things I could have imagined, a nightmare summoned from sick alchemy of things that were never supposed to be together: Matthew Gould, a wiry man in his late fifties with neat dark hair and a fine red suit, together with Lucy, and my goddamnmother.At the company event. I was going to scream. To make matters worse, they all seemed to be having a fantastic time, smiling and laughing together, my mother showing Matthew Gould pictures on her phone.

And then it got worse, because another voice from behind made me jolt, at where—of all people—Veronica Preston came up next to me with a glass of champagne.

“Honestly, place doesn’t seem half-bad,” she said, and I shot her a wild-eyed look.

“Veronica? Are you out of your—what the hell are you doing here?”

She looked down at her glass, and back up at me, presenting it to me. “Drinking.”

“How—what? They haven’t even served drinks yet.”

“I went into the back and asked. You’d be surprised what you can get with a little confidence and swagger.”

I wanted toconfidence and swaggermy way off a fucking cliff. Shouldn’t have told Veronica anything about a damn party—obviously she’d take the opportunity to dress up, show up, drink, look for cute boys whose hearts she could break. She’d outdressed me too, in a long form-fitting silver dress and showstopper crystal heels, hair up in an elegant messy bun and chandelier earrings, so I got the pleasure of looking like an off-brand Veronica Preston at best.

“Let me guess,” I said. “When you sayconfidence and swagger,you mean preying on some sad lonely man who thinks you’re flirting.”

“I just asked. It’s on him if he takes it as flirting.” She sipped the wine, following my gaze to Lucy and the others. “So, that’s your girlfriend, huh?”

“No—oh my god, Veronica, not you too. You know Mom’s just desperate for me to date someone. Lucy and I aren’t a couple.”

She arched an eyebrow at me. “Mom said she’s your girlfriend, your coworker said she’s your girlfriend, your boss said she’s your girlfriend—”

“How did you even talk to that many people already?”

She shrugged. “Practice?”

That didn’t even make any sense. I pinched the bridge of my nose, and she tipped back her wine, downing the glass. Full glass of champagne before the event even started. Veronica remained… Veronica.

“She’s cute, anyway. Can’t blame you.”

“Blame whoever the hell you like, Lucy and I arenot dating.”

“You sure talk about her a lot for someone you’re not dating.”

“Oh, so now you do remember me having talked about her before?”

I raised my voice a little too much, because Mom turned and looked at us, and she lit up seeing me, waving me towards her. I felt myself pale, but she gestured the others towards me before I could get away, and I guess I had to face the music. Maybe I could stage a fall and strangle myself to death in all the light strings.

“I’m going to go,” Veronica said, stepping away. “You have any single coworkers?”

I sighed, a deep, spiritual sigh from the very core of my being. “Yeah… Kelcey’s single, actually. I’m sure you’d get along great. Youngest one in my department, your height, ash blonde.”

“Oh, cool. I’ll go hit him up. See you.”

Didn’t think she’d actually fall for it that easily. Maybe she and Kelcey could keep each other busy.

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