Page 110 of Happily Never After

To Do:

- Apologize to Luke

- Call Dr. Goulding

“I’m confused.Do you want to die? Is that why you keep doing this?” Luke paced across the living room.

Claire sighed. Her clothes still smelled like river water, and she had spent hours in the police station. This had undoubtedly been the worst week of her life—fired, arrested, abducted. Even worse than the time Barney had tried to kill her, or when Jason cheated on her with Wendy. She was at rock bottom. And now her one true love was shouting at her.

“No, I just?—”

“I’m not done,” he interrupted. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to come out of a meeting expecting to celebrate with your girlfriend and then instead find out that she took advantage of my absence by sneaking away?—”

“To work—” she clarified.

He jabbed a finger at her. “Brad fired you. This wasn’t work.”

Ouch. It would have hurt less if he had slapped her in the face. But he wasn’t done.

“You went to spy on him to see how badly he was messing things up. And you snuck away when you know full well there’s an entire team of homicidal maniacs trying to kill you. And when I specifically told you not to leave the house alone.”

She waved her hands. “I’m sorry that I’m unemployed and don’t feel like waiting around all day for you to get out of your meeting.”

“It went great, by the way. Thanks for asking.” His beat-up high tops screeched against the hardwood. She would never get used to the business casual dress code in LA.

She bit her lip. She hadn’t even asked about the meeting. Not okay. “Tell me mo?—”

“I’m not done.” He whirled on her again. His normally styled hair was sticking up like he had driven home in a convertible. “It’s disrespectful to me, to Mindy, to your mom?—”

“Oh god. My mom. You didn’t tell her, did you?”

“Of course I told her. She’s furious.”

Claire swore. It was a good thing her waterlogged phone was dead because Alice would surely be blowing it up. If she hadn’t already called the National Guard and arranged for Claire to join the Witness Protection Program.

“This isn’t just about you.” Shadows hung beneath his eyes. He had aged a decade since that morning. “It’s about me. And Nicole and Mindy and the dogs.” He pointed to the corner, where Winston was lying upside down in yet another new dog bed. Rosie rested next to him, snoot on his belly.

“We need you. And we need you to start taking this seriously. You’re being selfish. I know you want to pretend like everything’s normal and you can just run off and do whatever you want, but that’s not our reality. A stranger incapacitated youand threw you in a fucking trunk today. You could have died. You’re in danger, Claire. All the time.”

“I know.” She jumped to her feet, hands balled into tight fists. The bubbles of rage had grown the longer Luke talked. “I know I’m in danger. Trust me, no one ever lets me forget it. ‘Don’t go to the grocery store, Claire, someone might jump out of the green bean pyramid and chloroform you,’” she mimicked in a near-perfect impression of Alice.

Luke’s eyes smoldered. She frowned.

“I’m sorry, okay?” She folded her arms across her chest. As much as she hated to admit it, she could really use a hug right now.

“Sorry’s not good enough.” His voice was quiet now. There was so much in his sea green eyes—hurt, exhaustion, worry. “You know, even when you’re here, you’re not here.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Was this Air All Your Grievances with Claire Day?

“You’re so obsessed with work that?—”

She laughed. “Me? Obsessed with work? Coming from the guy who locks his office down and refuses to talk to anyone while working on a project?”

“You have no boundaries with your clients. It’s killing you right now, isn’t it? Wondering if Brad is trying to call, begging you to work for him again. So he can call you every four minutes trying to change the color of a horse or the shape of a firework or?—”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about that anymore, since as you so kindly pointed out, he fired me.” This wasn’t the tearful reunion with her boyfriend that she had imagined. She had known he would be mad, but this was another level—a hurtful one.

They both stared at each other.

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