Page 59 of Engulfing Emma

“Yeah, did you always get your way with Amanda?”

He nods to the person walking up to the elevator. “No,that’sAmanda.”

Oh, God.His ex is about to get on the elevator with us.

Two beautiful women, one blonde, one brunette, get in the elevator, both of them oblivious to Brett and me. They are chatting away about a “spring line” when Brett interrupts them.

“What the fuck, Amanda?”

They stop talking and the blonde turns around and looks at Brett and then at me. She looks at me the way someone might look at a piece of gum on the bottom of a shoe.

“Brett,” she says in a high-pitched voice that can’t possibly be real. “How nice to see you.”

“You’re kidding, right?” he barks. “I haven’t heard from you since Leo’s birthday and you just step in this elevator like you live here and not three thousand miles away. Were you even going to tell me you were in town? Were you going to take two fucking minutes out of your day to come and see your son?”

“I literally just got into town,” she says.

“Yet you had plenty of time to get all gussied up for a night out,” he says.

“I was going to call you tomorrow.”

“It’s good to know you have your priorities in line.”

“This is my job, Brett.”

The woman Amanda is with is wearing a flashy skirt and low-cut top. He sticks out a hand. “Brett Cash. You’re obviously someone very important. President of the company perhaps? Is this a business meeting to save the fashion industry from imminent demise? It must be if it keeps her from picking up the goddamn phone and calling her son, who she hasn’t seen in months.”

The woman has no clue what to do. She shakes his hand. “Uh … hi. I’m Victoria.”

“Brett, quit it,” Amanda scolds. “It’s not that big a deal. He’s two. It’s not like one day will make a difference. I was going to call tomorrow. I promise I was.”

He laughs. “As if your promises mean anything.” He’s fuming inside.

Amanda apologizes to Victoria and then gives me the once-over, as if I’m her competition or something. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your little friend?”

Little friend?I’m not sure if it’s her condescending tone, the complacency she expresses when it comes to her child, or the mere fact that she seems like a cold-hearted bitch, but I make a split-second decision to stick it to her.

I scoot over next to Brett and take his hand. “Actually, we crossed that threshold long ago. Didn’t we, babe?”

He’s taken aback to see me looking into his eyes, batting my eyelashes, but he recovers quickly and tries to suppress a smile. “This is Emma,” he says, lifting my hand to his mouth and kissing it.

“Emma,” Amanda says flatly, sizing me up like a predator considering its prey. “How long have you been fucking my husband?”

I smile and push a stray hair lovingly off Brett’s forehead. “Don’t you meanex-husband?”

She huffs as the elevator doors open. They walk out ahead of us and Brett beams. “That was awesome,” he whispers.

“Oh, you thought we were done?” I ask.

He looks sideways at me.

We patiently wait for Amanda and Victoria to check in with the hostess and then, while they are waiting for someone to escort them to their table, I walk up to the hostess stand and say loudly, “Please don’t forget about the romantic table for two my boyfriend requested for our very special occasion.”

“Uh, of course not,” the hostess says, clearly confused as she scrambles to find the nonexistent notes on our reservation.

Amanda’s back is stiff as a board when they are led to their table. I fight a grin. I’m having so much fun.

I whisper to the poor hostess caught up in our dramatics, “I was just messing with that woman. We didn’t really request that.”

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