Page 5 of Best In Class
Like hell!
“She went to see a man-shaped mistake,” Stella explains.
Aurora sighs. “You’ve got to just accept this, Luna. Minton tied you to Dom, and you’re like a….”
“Two-for-one deal at Arby’s?” Stella suggests.
They both laugh. I flip them a finger.
They’re right. I don’t have a choice. The Minton project is what I need to progress my career. It has scale, visibility, and legacy. And I won it. Fair and square. Dom just hitched himself to my victory.
“Whose kneecaps are we breaking?” Nova asks as she leans against my office doorway.
“Dom’s,” Stella says and sails out of the office, past Nova.
“Bring her to the meeting,” Aurora instructs Nova as she leaves to set up for the upcoming meeting.
Nova nods and then studies me for a long moment. “When I was working with Anson, there weremanytimes that I almost did that.”
Anson LaRue is Nova’s old lover, old betrayer, and current husband. Some romances work out, some don’t. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that Dom and I aren’t going to have a happy ending.
Because, despite him mouthing off about not giving up onus(whatever the hell that means), Dom is now dating Camy Channing.
Blonde. Typical. Bland. Perfect arm candy for him.
Camy is the type who’d normally not associate with Dom. I mean,OMG, he’s the son of the help. And if that isn’t bad enough, he’s half-black.
But then he won the Pritzker Architecture Prize and made tons of money, looks like freaking Regé-Jean PagefromBridgerton, so…yeah, he’s acceptable to a Savannah society belle with more tits than brains.
I’d bet money Camy’s daddy bought her those tits. They’re perky as fuck.
And you’re jealous.
Sigh!
“Come on, Steele,” Nova prompts. “Your ex is gonna be here in a few minutes for our meeting. Game face on.”
I roll my eyes. “Don’t need no game face,” I reply petulantly. Any minute now, I’m going to stomp my feet like a toddler. “I need a minute, I’ll see you in there.”
After Nova leaves, I do some breathing exercises. The man rattles me. No one does that but him. Even my parents can’t push my buttons any longer. I’ve been in therapy long enough to have cured myself from wanting to win their approval and am comfortable with the truth that I neither like nor love them.
As a child, that was hard. I didn’t understand what was wrong with me that I didn’t like my mostly absent mother, or my world-class bully father. My therapist helped me normalize my emotions. Lots of children don’t like their parents, and as impossible as it sounds, a lot of parents don’t like their children—it happens.
“You can’t control your parents or their behavior; all you can control is your reaction to them.”
It’s a philosophy worth living by—one I’ve struggled to apply with Dom. I can’t control him, and I can’t stop the storm of emotions he stirs in me every time he’s near—confusing, overwhelming, and all-consuming.
By the time I make it to the meeting room, my game face, unlike what I told Nova, ison. It stays on when I see Dom walk into the meeting room, looking like…regret wrapped in charm.
I square my shoulders and hold back a sigh of longing because my body remembers him like a favorite song I wish I could forget.
He grins at me and then throws in a wink for good measure. I glare at him.
Stop letting him get to you, Luna.
Easy to say,veryhard to do.
I can lie to the whole world, but I can’t lie to myself, and the truth is that I’m stupidly, recklessly, carelessly in love with Dom Calder. He cheated on me. Broke my heart, and I can’t forgive him, but I also can’t stop loving him. He’s my soulmate. I’ve always known this.
