Page 29 of A Conflict of Interest

She’d been too shy to talk freely about herself. Had mostly steered the conversation to talk about me. But she had talked about an ex-girlfriend who was a little overexcitable… the first time she’d really dated a woman. She’dgottenme—clicked like I was talking to Veronica all over again.

Because Iwas.

The barista knotted his brows. “Ma’am, I understand you’re having some hard feelings, but if you lean on the counter there, I can’t… I can’t pour the water for your coffee.”

Oh. That was why he’d asked if I was okay. I moved in a daze, my face feeling cold, and I heard myself say thinly, “Can I actually have it to go?”

“Oh, uh. Sure.”

“Why is ither?” I said, my voice shaky, thin, low. He shook his head, muttering.

“Ma’am, I’m not sure how to help your nutcracker disputes. You can buy one just like it at the Target down the street instead of brooding at the windowsill.”

“Don’t worry. I’m going as soon as I get my coffee.”

“Jesus, woman likes a nutcracker,” he muttered to himself, finishing up my coffee and pouring it from the mug into a travel cup, handing it over together with my muffin. “Enjoy your—”

I didn’t even notice he existed. I took the coffee and the muffin, and I stormed out of the door, my face drawn in a tight, cold mask of a hundred different feelings, and I got in the car and didn’t stop for one second the whole way back to the apartment, where I’d just kicked off my shoes and outerwear and gotten into the bedroom to stand at the balcony with my coffee in one hand and clutching the phone with the other to text Nic. To textVeronica.Dammit.

I hesitated over it, hovering over the keyboard—that last cute little message,good luck with your meeting! I’m sure it’ll be fine, you’re too charming to get rid of.Real likely. I hadn’t been too charming forherto get rid of.

I hit the call button. It rang, and it rang, this awful feeling rising in my throat the whole time—something like anger but more like humiliation, mocked like this, because she hadn’t hurt meenoughI guess—and when it rang out, I hit call again. She sent a message.

Kelcey, what’s going on?

I gritted my teeth against the prickling in my eyes, and I typed a reply.answer the damn phone, Veronica

I hit the call button again, my hand shaking as I held it up to my ear, struggling to keep my breath steady. It almost rang out before it picked up, and my heart shattered at the sound of Veronica’s voice on the other side. I’d expected her to be snide and laughing at me, or maybe flirting, which—I didn’t know which would be worse—but I got the worst option of all, one I didn’t even know existed, which was that she sounded even shakier than I was, small and scared. Well—maybe sheshouldhave been shaky. I wasn’t letting myself feel guilty.

“Kelcey, I’m…”

“When were you going to tell me?” I snapped, squeezing the phone tight enough I thought it might break. Her voice came through thinly.

“Once… once the project was done. I didn’t want… this coming up… to get in the way of you doing this job, when I know how much it means to you.”

Dammit.She couldnotsay something like that. I sucked in a sharp, shaky breath, letting it out slowly. “And the reason you didn’t tell me at the beginning? What’s that about,Nic?”

She sighed, heavily, hard, defeated. I felt sick. I’d never once heard her sound like that before. “Don’t know, honestly… no, I guess I do. Because I’m selfish and short-sighted and all I could think about was that I wanted a chance to talk to you again.”

“You had your chances. And you pushed me away. You—you only want me when you can’t have me, Veronica. I can’t believe… this whole time, when I trusted you—how did you manage to findanotherway to break my trust and break my heart? Do you everrest?”

She was quiet for a long time, long enough I wanted to scream—she didn’t get to bequietafter all this, didn’t get to make me wonder if I was overreacting—and she spoke in a small, crackling voice when she finally answered. “I’m sorry, Kelcey.”

“That’s not enough. Ugh… I don’t know whatcouldbe enough at this point. I can’t believe… I don’t… why won’t you just leave mealone?” I choked, sinking against the door, squeezing my eyes shut and squeezing my coffee. “What were you hoping for withtalkingto me again? That you’d get me in bed again? What, while it was dark enough I wouldn’t notice it was you? Were you planning on sexting me?”

“I wasn’tplanningon anything, I just… love you… and when Danielson told me you were our contact for this job andthat I was on duty to talk you into signing the contract, I panicked and couldn’t think of anything else.”

I swallowed, hard, my head spinning. “You don’t love me. You never did. And you were never going to. You loved my body, and you loved my money. Because—that’s what people are always going to love me for, isn’t it? My family’s status. I’m just the stupid girl who can’t even keep… an easy job… who can’t manage to stay in the office even as the nepotism hire.”

Her voice sounded panicked. “What—Kelcey, did they fire you?”

“Oh, so you care so much about my career and my wellbeing? Just drop it. Drop everything. Forget about it. And delete those pictures I sent you. You don’t get to keep them. You don’t get to have me, because… you’d just stop wanting me anyway.”

I hung up, and I turned and threw my phone into the bed, where it bounced and flopped off onto the carpet. I couldn’t even angrily throw my phone right. I was a lost cause. I sat down on the edge of the bed, dropping down hard, and I clutched at my hair, crying through gritted teeth.

At least I had a muffin to cry into. That always picked up a situation.

Chapter 10

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