Page 93 of The Payback Plan
‘There was champagne and cake and we all got talking about our bastard exes.’
‘Ah.’ He wriggled his eyebrows. ‘That’s where I came in?’
‘Yep.’ Paige nodded. ‘All four of us had felt trampled by men who had gone on living their lives quite merrily while we floundered around and after about two hours we’d hatched a plan. Each of us was going to get some revenge on someone else’s ex. Bella got Astrid’s ex. Astrid got Sienna’s ex. Sienna got Harvey. And I got…’
Oliver finally wasn’t smiling any more. ‘Me.’
‘Yes.’ Paige swallowed. ‘I’m not here because I had a last-minute gap in my living arrangements. I’m here for…’
His jaw tightened. ‘Revenge?’
She shook her head. ‘More like payback. Irritation by a thousand paper cuts.’
‘Like what?’ he asked, suddenly very,verystill.
‘Like…’ She looked at the dark grey turtleneck she’d worn on the plane with her baggy black harem pants. ‘My clothes. I don’t wear bright, mismatched, charity shop clothes, I wear monochrome. Because it helps me blend into the background. And I’m not this scatty, hot mess who leaves coffee rings on furniture and loses the remote control every day. I mean, I’mnotas anal as you,’ she conceded, ‘but I’m not kitchen chaos crumb girl either.’
Except maybe that was the true tragedy of all this. She’d felt more like herself this past couple of months than she had the last four years. A more exaggerated version for sure but truer to the woman she’d beenpre-Harvey. That Paige had been fun and spontaneous. She’d been easy-going and quirky. And the last couple of months, she’d allowed herself to be that woman again. To be herself again.
Except now she had to go back.
‘Notevervegan either I’m assuming?’
‘Nope.’ She shook her head. ‘Pavarotti was part of the charade. Casper too, although that happened organically, not deliberately. Same as the WI talk but I leaped on it because I knew it’d be the last thing you’d want to do. I know how to play violin really well and I don’t thinkDie Hardis a Christmas movie. Hamster Facts? That was me.’
She could see things clicking into place behind the sudden wintery bleakness of his eyes. ‘The second phone.’
‘Uh huh.’
‘So this is what Bella meant when I told her our relationship was complicated and she saidin more ways than you know.’
‘Yeah.’
He shook his head, his eyes locking with hers. ‘Why?’
‘You hurt her, Oliver.’
He gave a harsh laugh. ‘You think I don’tknowthat?’
‘I think knowing it and truly understanding thedepthof it, are two different things.’
He pushed off the table and stalked to the other side of the room before turning accusing eyes on her. ‘So the four of you appointed yourselves judge and jury?’
Paige shut her eyes. She supposed they had, in a way. She could see how it would certainly feel like that being on the other end. Her eyelashes fluttered open. ‘It seemed like a good idea at the time. Some harmless fun. Some… inconvenience for a while.’
He shook his head in disbelief. ‘I don’t know you at all, do I?’
His statement hit her like a cannon blast. Because the truth was, hedidknow her. She’d been more truthful and open with him than she’d been with anyone – even her three besties – in the last four years. And it was almost unbearable that he would think the opposite. Paige might not have been honest with Oliver about her reasons for being in his house, she may have adopted a different personality but those deeply personal things she’d told him had come from her deepest, darkest depths.
‘All this time we spent together,’ he continued, his voice taut with anger. ‘All the talking and laughing and getting acquainted. Gettingnaked.And it was all just anact.’
Another blast hit its mark. Yes, her being in his life had been performative. But not all of it. Falling in love with him hadn’t been an act. It didn’t alter the circumstances, though. She swallowed. ‘You weren’t supposed to find out.’
‘Right.’ His lips twisted derisively. ‘But you’re wielding it now like a weapon because you’re hoping it’ll make me want nothing to do with you so you can run away and hide behind that peach emoji again. Unless… all that stuff was a lie too?’
Paige sucked in a breath as this shot almost cut her in two, the jagged edges raw and bleeding. ‘I wouldnever’ – she faltered as her voice shook in a sudden spurt of outrage – ‘lie about that.’
‘Really?’ he demanded. ‘How would I know? I have no idea who therealPaige is.’
