Page 78 of Playing With Secrets
“Very well. The lighting is better in there. She takes a swift detour and goes to the kitchen.
I roll my eyes and take a deep breath. I’ve already been in a boxing match with Jamison and now I’m back in the ring with a new opponent.
And everyone knows women play a hell of a lot dirtier than men. I have a feeling she’ll knock me out in the first round.
I move to the other side of the island and wait while Ava pretends to be searching through her bag.
“Oh, there they are.” She smiles like she found a lost lotto ticket.
Although she doesn’t need to win the lottery. She just needs me to fulfill some fucked-up promise I made when I was twenty years old.
“These may be of some interest to you.” She hands the stack of photos to me from across the counter.
My jaw tightens as my eyes cut her in half with an invisible sword. Ava’s one woman I wouldn’t care about if she ran out on me. I think I’d throw a party instead.
I flip through the images. The first one is of Dorothy and me getting onto my jet. I know right now I’m fucked.
My chest caves in and my stomach hollows. With each picture I flip through, my heart gets further hacked into pieces.
There are photos of us coming and going into each other’s places. Our clothes tell the story of how long we’ve been together. From Dorothy’s summer dresses to her jeans and sweaters, it is clear we’ve been dating for months.
The pictures are even time-stamped from early morning to late in the evening. Everything about them covers what the board would need to make a quick decision.
Dorothy would lose her job at the first glance. And just as I thought, Ava knocks me out with her first swing.
“I won’t bother asking where you got these.” I toss the stack on the counter. “If you’ve known all this time, why wait until now to confront me about them?”
“I didn’t know until recently. That party we were at when you were giving Colton Monroe a hard time for having an interest in Ms. Fisher was when I was first alerted to it.”
“How so?”
“After you denied it so ferociously, I knew there wassomething you were hiding.” Ava shakes her head like she’s bored.
“And you knew just where to go to get the information, didn’t you?” I leave the kitchen and go to the bar to retrieve my drink.
This next part of the discussion is the one that will kill me, so I’m hoping to be numb by the time it gets brought up.
Ava spins on the stool she’s sitting on. She hops off and struts toward me. “What are we having tonight?”
“I’m having scotch. You won’t be here long enough for a cocktail, so you’re having nothing.” I grab the bottle and pour.
She steps up to the edge of the bar area and scans the wine rack. “In that case, I’d like a cabernet sauvignon from Bordeaux. From my understanding, you just received a case not too long ago. I’m sure you didn’t drink it all. Be a gentleman and pour me a glass.”
I really hate this wench.
“I had a feeling that case came from you. How was France?” I leave the bar area and open the door to the walk-in wine cellar.
The door closes behind me as I look for the case that Ava’s talking about. My assistant was supposed to unpack it, so I’m not sure where she put it. It’s good for me because I’m taking my time in here so I don’t have to look at Ava.
There’s a box in the back corner of the cellar. I mosey to it and find the bottle Ava wants. For a tasteless bitch, she sure knows her wine. As I exit the cellar, I consider how I want to handle our meeting.
The newly presented betting chip is in play now, so everything’s different. I’m not sure I know the rules anymore.
My gut squeezes hard with that realization. I join Ava back in the bar area and go to open her bottle of the best wine France has to offer.
“Before you rudely walked away from me, I was about totell you about my trip to France.” She glides onto a stool and neatly straightens her Valentino skirt.
I only know that’s the designer because the charges showed up on my credit card statement along with her trip expenses just last week. I laugh when I realize the bottle of wine I’m opening I paid for as well.
