Page 31 of Great Pretender
I grab some cold water from the cooler and walk over to the window to soak up the fresh air.
Elodie comes in, and I turn to her. She’s been looking at me all morning, and I think she can see as per usual that I’m not okay.
“Okay, Miss Lady. What the hell is up with you?” she asks, setting her hands on her hips. “Hold on, let me rephrase that since I do know what’s going on. Has something else happened?”
Where do I begin, and can I even tell her?
I don’t have a lot of female friends. The ones I have are more like acquaintances because they’ve always shown jealousy toward my relationship with Chad. If anything, they’ve used me to get close to him or closer to someone either on the team or working for it.
So, when it comes to friends, there’s just him and Elodie.
I blow out a breath and shake my head. I’m tired and frustrated, and I just want to sleep, wake up, and everything to be fixed. Or even different.
Elodie comes closer and rests a hand on my shoulder. “What’s going on, Piper? You’re starting to worry me.”
“I…” I begin, but again, I’m not sure of what to say. “If I tell you, can you promise me you won’t tell anyone?”
“Yes, that goes without saying. Should we go to the office?”
“Yeah. I think we need to.”
We head to her office, and as soon as we sit down, I tell her what happened. Everything pours out of me in one breath while she gazes back at me in shock.
“My God, no wonder you asked me not to talk,” she gasps, bringing her hands to her cheeks.
“Anything with him like that is going to be private. Secret even. The press would have another field day with a story like that.”
“It stays with me. I promise you it will stay right here in this office.”
“Thank you. I just had to get it off my chest.”
“I think I would need to talk about something like that too. Thank you for telling me. We’re fast becoming the way I was with Bree,” she says with fervency. “I think it’s something like this I would have shared with her. Although nothing so bizarre ever happened to me. Bree could handle bizarre, though. She always knew what to tell me. I hope I can be that for you.”
Whenever Bree— Brianna— the lady the Center was named after, is brought up, I can always tell how much she meant to Elodie.
“You’re always there for me.”
“Thanks, I’m glad you think so. What I mean, though, is she could look beyond what I was telling her and cut to the crux of my problems. So, here’s my attempt. Piper, you turned down a million dollars.” She holds my gaze, and I stare back at her. “To my knowledge, you spent a shit load of money on your father, and at one point, you were working double shifts for months. I could have guessed things were bad financially from the fact that Heath said most of everything in the house was his, but I kind of knew already. And aren’t you in a shit load of debt?”
“You think I should have said yes?” I ask weakly.
“It doesn’t matter what I think. What matters is why you turned him down. He’s Chad Holdsworth. I’m not sure there are many women who would turn down an offer like the one he served you. Yet you seemed to do it in a heartbeat. My thoughts are that you would only do that if you stood to lose more than money.”
I dip my head and lace my fingers together. “Maybe that’s exactly what I thought,” I confess and meet her stare.
She’s not giving me the usual mischievous look that covers her face when we talk about Chad. What I see in her eyes is understanding.
“So, I’m right? And I’ve been right this whole time?”
“Maybe. Elodie, you see what he’s like. I think I can admit that maybe I mentally decided to have him in my life as my best friend as opposed to nothing. If we got together, it would be a disaster.”
“How on earth do you know that? There’s no way you could know that.”
“I do. He’s never been in a relationship for longer than a week, maybe two. He’s changed somewhat over the last year, but I think it’s for show. It was more about appeasing his father than anything else. When he gets what he wants, he’ll go right on back to being the same old Chad.”
“I always believe in giving a person a chance, but this proposal, if you call it that, is crazy.” She smirks and then becomes my mischievous old friend. “I guess, though, if you wanted to be wild and look at it as a way to test the waters, it might be a way. It is a million dollars after all, and let’s face it; it’s not like he’s a toad.”
I find myself laughing. “Elodie, only you can make me laugh when I’m in a dilemma like this.”
