Page 102 of How to Get Even

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Bella teased the hem of her rollneck a little higher hoping that no one could see what was hidden beneath.

A love bite.

She had a love bite. At twenty-six.

She felt a knowing gaze on her, but it wasn’t coming from Chase. She looked up to find Maurice staring at her. Perhaps she and Chase weren’t being discreet enough. Maurice raised a wry eyebrow as if to say, ‘You think?’

Ali entered Chase’s office just ahead of the man who had given her more orgasms last night than she could count and Bella fought the blush on her cheeks hard. And failed.

‘Are you okay? You’re looking a little?—’

Maurice cut Ali off before she could finish. ‘It’s a little warm in here.’

Ali looked between them and shrugged before dropping down next to Bella, who was absolutely refusing point-blank to make eye contact with Maurice who was now fully smirking.

Chase was the last to enter, muttering about never making coffee again, and Bella remembered that shestillhadn’t fixed the sugar sachets in his room. The problem was that she rarely had time here alone. She and Chase would leave together after the others had gone home, not because they waited for the opportunity, though there was maybe a little of that, but mainly because they’d been working so hard in the run-up to the pre-opening event, which reminded her.

‘Maurice, Ali? Can I have the final list of your invitees for the pre-opening by the end of today?’ she asked. ‘And Maurice, if you could speak to Ye-Joon?—’

‘I’ll do it!’ Ali cried, bouncing on the sofa, with her hand practically in the air, delighted by any excuse to speak to the crush who now blushed every time she looked his way.

‘Okay,’ Bella replied with a laugh.

Chase sat down, eyeing his coffee warily, as if it may or may not commit grievous bodily harm at the first sip.

‘Okay,’ he said, finally dragging his eyes away from the coffee. ‘I wanted to let you know about an email I received from Zadzisai a few days ago.’

Bella smoothed out her features before the frown she felt gathering could take place. Chase hadn’t mentioned it, but it wasn’t like he had to. It wasn’t some secret he wasn’t telling her. Not like the secret she was keeping from him about Astrid and the girls and why she’d first come here.

She bit back a mental curse. Having a good-girl conscience was a real pain sometimes.

Maurice nudged her with his knee and she refocused.

‘It seems that they have changed their minds and would like to return as featured artist for the opening.’

A whoosh of air left Bella’s mouth, not quite a gasp, not quite a sigh. Maurice did manage to frown and Ali looked a little confused.

‘What about Sascha?’ Ali asked. ‘What about all the material that’s ready to go out? And the website?’

‘Can we peddle it back at this point?’ Chase asked Bella.

Even while she reeled at the thought of dropping Sascha, Bella ran through the amount of work needed. ‘Nothing has actually gone out to the mailing lists, the website is live, but hasn’t reached phase two of the update in terms of specific artist details, beyond the current images. But…’

How? How could he consider doing that to Sascha?

‘I’m not making any decisions right now,’ Chase assured them, ‘I just want to know if a) we can do it, b) whether we want to, and c) what would be the right thing for the gallery. So. Thoughts. Maurice, take it away.’

After a beat, Maurice leaned into it. ‘Technically we can do it. Technically it would be the most sensible thing for the gallery – Zadzisai brings a lot of attention and kudos, not just with clients and guests, but other artists too. But do we want to?’

‘No,’ Bella said. She blinked when all eyes landed on her. ‘I know that it would make the most sense, I know that…’

But it would sell out everything that Chase stood for. She didn’t want to watch him turn into one of the corporate raiders that he had been so disdainful of, just because he’d been forced into it by that shitty article she’d practically written herself. She didn’t want to sell out Sascha who had worked day and night, pushing herself, to get ready for the opening.

‘I get that this could cost the gallery in the short term,’ she pressed on. ‘It doesn’t make the most business sense, turning them down. We’d obviously do initially much better with Zadzisai. But I can’t help but worry about what it would cost us in the long term.’

And why was she thinking of the long term? For this gallery? She had come here, hoping to ruin the life and reputation of a man she had thought a monster for making her friend suffer. And now? Now she was planning for after? With Chase? And the gallery?

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