Page 107 of Love and Other Champagne Problems

“Are those the same clothes you wore last night?” Aaron asked as he approached, sliding off his sunglasses.He peered at me closer, expression twisting. “Oh, it is. Did you not brush your hair either?”

I moved to shut the door between the three of us, already eager to finish this conversation.

“Hang on!” Aaron rushed forward, as if he were going to attempt to stop the door from closing if I hadn’t paused. Ms. Jennings swung her keys around a finger, as if warning she’d just open it back up. “I just wanted to talk to you for a moment. Five minutes. Ms. Jennings, do you think you could keep the car cool for me?”

She flashed him a smile before leaving us alone on the porch. I absolutely did not want to have a single word exchanged with him, and I resented myself and my curiosity for winning out. I retreated back into the house, but Aaron followed after me, letting the screen door slam shut. “Oh, this is a—cluttered little place, isn’t it?”

I stepped into the kitchen, shaking my head. “If you’re here to convince me one last time why marrying you would be in my best interest, save it.” I pulled a coffee mug down from the cabinet, hunting for her Keurig coffee cups. “My answer is no.”

“You think I want to marry you after the spectacle last night?” Even though his words weren’t kind, his voice was very shocked, which lightened the mood. “All of my friends saw how impulsive you are. They’d never let you in our circles now.”

Despite everything, I smirked down into my empty coffee mug.

“Besides, I doubt after last night your parents are too thrilled with you, either. What’s the point in marrying into your family if they’re going to disown you?”

My smirk vanished. He was quite possibly the bluntest person I’d ever met, apart from Nancy. “I’m glad we’re on the same page, then.” I placed my mug underneath the spout and pressed the start button, turning around to lean against the counter. Aaron had helped himself to a seat at Nancy’s small kitchen table, his hands folded professionally on its surface. “What do you want?”

Aaron looked very ordinary sitting in Nancy’s kitchen. He wore designer, as always, but nothing about him seemed special in a space that used to hold the world’s most special woman. He could’ve blended in with the wallpaper and I wouldn’t have noticed. “You might’ve created quite the spectacle, but you alsomissedone.”

“Did I, now?”

“Let me paint the scene,” Aaron said, ignoring me. “You’re off out in the hallway, listening to Sumner plead his case, but in the ballroom? Chaos. It was quite funny, in a way. in the beginning, anyway, before my parents took their anger out on me.”

I ignored him as best as I could as I hunted around for wherever Nancy kept her Keurig cups. It would’ve been monumentally disappointing if she’d run out of them.

“My mother, in a fit of anger, says—are you paying attention, Margot? Stay with me, this is the fun part. My mom, in front of everyone, goes off on how your mother and I conspired to manipulate you into marrying me for business.”

“Which you did.”

“Yes, but it was a little amusing to see your parents stutter an excuse.” Aaron propped his chin on hishand. “Your mother is a good liar. I almost believed her when she said no.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, but the visual pervaded anyway.

“My mother was only interested in the business deal because she thought I liked you,” Aaron went on. “So, upon thisunsavorydiscovery, she called it off. Loudly. This time, peopledidhear. It was all very embarrassing.”

Everything Aaron said made it clear what my parents would say over the phone when I did call them. The phone weighed heavily in my pocket, and I didn’t want to pull it out. I wanted to stay in this bubble of Nancy’s sanctuary for as long as I could. “Let’s hope theydidcatch that for Annalise’s video,” I said at last, turning back to hunt for coffee grounds. “You deserve to be embarrassed in front of all your friends.”

“I suppose.” To his credit, he seemed a bit sheepish, back to the nervous self I’d first met. “Have you spoken to Sumner?”

The next drawer I opened had the Keurig cups—thankfully. “I’m not talking to you about him.”

“I get it, I’d be pissed at him too. I’m just saying?—”

“You two did a good job.” I pressed the start button and turned around, giving Aaron the full view of my glare. “Acting like you hated each other. You had me perfectly fooled.”

“It wasn’t an act so much,” he said with a shake of his head. “I was pissed he got so buddy-buddy with you—he was just supposed to find out information, not become your new BFF—and he was pissed that I wouldn’t call the whole thing off after finding out youdidn’t want to marry me. I’d say the tension was quite real.”

I eyed the annoyance on his face, and from what I could tell, it was genuine. “He told you that I didn’t want to marry you?”

“Yep. Which, honestly, I thought was a good thing—I was able to switch tactics. I had been coming here fully intending to make you swoon, but knowing your feelings made it easier.”

I wondered when Sumner would’ve told him—the night he found out the truth? The night my dad came into my hotel room? Or had Sumner told him later, after, when I’d confessed my true feelings? “Why would you send your best friend to do your dirty work?”

“He wasn’t just my friend,” Aaron said, “but my secretary. I worked for Astro Agencies, and he worked under me. I didn’t send him as a friend, but as an employee. And if you think about it, how is it any different from someone scoping out companies before investing? Sending a proxy to gauge the situation isn’t unheard of.”

Looking back at everything, it was almost irritating how well the pieces all fit together, and how many I missed. Sumner coming “highly recommended” from his previous secretary role in California—it never even occurred to me that the company could’ve been Astro Agencies. I wanted to kick myself in hindsight. “You aren’t wrong, I suppose.”

“I knew you’d get it.” His own confident smile faded a little after a beat, and he hesitated before speaking again. “Sumner… he’s a good guy. Better than me.”

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