Page 78 of French Martini

“I’ll answer that for you,” I continue. “No. No one deserves to be chosen as a placeholder. If he’s chasing some kind of ghost from the past, that’s his mission, not yours.”

“But…” Gerard squeezes my hand. “He’ll ruin me if I leave.”

My heart sinks. “Did he say that?”

Gerard nods. “Often. He reminds me that no one would know my name without him. I swear I’m not a doormat. I don’t even know how all of this happened. We met at a party and suddenly he was wooing me. It all happened so fast, I’m not sure I’ve had time to think about it.”

“That’s his way, Gerard. You get caught up in the limelight. It happened to me too. Do you know why our marriage ended?”

“I know what he told me and what I’ve read. I don’t know which is the truth.”

“Yes, you do. He tried to ruin me, but guess what? He didn’t. I know this is hard, but I promise you, it’ll be much harder ten years from now.”

He nods. “I have to think about it.”

“Of course. Don’t let me influence you either. I don’t know your relationship. Maybe it’s very different from my experience.”

Oakley squeezes my shoulder.

“Follow your heart, but also listen to your gut.”

“You’re right. Thank you.”

“My pleasure, and to be abundantly clear, I don’t love him, I don’t speak to him, and I never would.”

Gerard nods, chewing on his bottom lip.

“We should go inside,” Oakley says. “It’s freezing and neither of you are dressed for this weather.”

He opens the door, and when he does, we’re met with a frantic Alain searching the crowd for Gerard. Someone points in our direction, and every drop of color drains from Alain’s face.

He hurries over to us, glaring at me. “Don’t believe a word he says, G. It’s not at all what it looked like in a darkened hallway. I was justtalkingto someone I thought I knew.”

Oakley mutters, “Oh shit,” while I gasp softly and Gerard looks absolutely confused.

“What?” Gerard asks.

“Lowen didn’t see anything. He just thinks he did. He would say anything to make me look bad. I wasn’t cheating, G. I wasn’t going to.”

I’ve never heard Alain sound insecure before. Now this is interesting.

Gerard pulls his head back as he crosses his arms over his chest. “You…” He shakes his head. “When I couldn’t find you earlier. You did it again.”

Again?

“No. Like I said?—”

“Was it a pretty blond? That’s your poison, isn’t it?” His voice rises an octave, drawing attention to us.

Oakley grabs my arm, gently pulling me back.

“For the record, Lowen didn’t say anything about that.”

Alain’s eyes shift to me, pure terror reflected in them. “He didn’t?”

“Nope. Seems like your confession was unnecessary.”

Alain chuckles nervously. “It wasn’t a confession because I-I didn’t do anything wrong, amor. As I said, I was just talking to?—”

---