Page 66 of My Ex-Fiance's Best Men
“That’s precisely what it looks like,” I shoot back.
Dominic scoffs. “Damn, you’re stubborn.”
“You shouldn’t have come here. I need some time for myself. Some time and distance from the three of you,” I reply. “I’d really appreciate it if you could give me that.”
“Phoebe, we just want to talk,” August says.
“What happened at the Perle Noire is not what TMZ made it out to be,” Theo insists. There’s an urgency in his voice, and my heart starts racing. I want to believe him. I am desperate to believe him, but I need the truth, not a soul-healing illusion of the truth. “It was staged. I can’t prove it yet, but I swear, Phoebe, I am not involved with Georgina in any way.”
“And you’re free to tell me all of these things when I’m ready to hear them. Not now, not today,” I insist.
Maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on them, but I’ve spent most of my life being an absolute people pleaser, always putting myself last. For the first time in a very long time, I’ve managed to put myself first, and caving in to any demand that isn’t centered on my needs and wants feels like an abandonment of self. I can’t do that anymore.
“Please,” I add, my voice trembling slightly. “All I want is time away from the three of you, from everything. There’s too much happening right now, online and in the real world. I thought you would understand.”
“How can we, if you shut us out completely?” Theo asks. “I get being mad at me, but Dominic and August had nothing to do with it. Hell,technically, I didn’t have anything to do with it either.”
“But it’s a symptom of something else, and until I figure a few things out about us, about me, I need you to leave me be.”
The silence that follows feels heavy. It tugs at my heart and clutches at my throat, as I wait for Dominic, August, and Theo to concede. To give me the space I feel I need.
“Fine, Phoebe. If time and space is what you want, we’ll give you that,” August says. “But we’re not giving up on you. Let me make that perfectly clear. We’re not done here.”
I nod slowly.
He puts a hand on Theo’s shoulder and pulls him away before he can object. Dominic gives me a faint smile, the disappointment coming off him in crippling waves. As Penny closes the door behind them, I feel like absolute shit.
“You were right,” I tell her as I find myself on the verge of tears again. “Learning to say no and sticking to your boundaries feels awful at first.”
“True. But you noticed they respected your wishes, right?” she asks. “That’s got to count for something.”
It should. It absolutely should. But with the world around us so against us, determined to leave me with nothing, to watch me crumble under the pressure, it’s hard to find clarity and purpose. It’s hard to see a way out.
“I’ll tell you one thing, though,” Penny adds. “This Georgina business stinks to high heaven. I’m going to get to the bottom of it.”
“How will you do that?”
She gives me a wink and a sly smirk. “Leave that to me, toots.”
19
AUGUST
Every atom in my body screamed for me to take her home tonight and show her we’re not letting her get away from us at the slightest crack in the glass. I know Theo will eventually prove that the whole lingerie store nonsense was carefully orchestrated by Georgina.
I also know that deep down Phoebe suspects he’s innocent.
“She can be so stubborn,” he says, sitting in one of the guest chairs by the window in my office. “All she had to do was give us, givemea minute to explain.”
“It’s not your fault. It’s not hers, either,” I reply. “She’s overwhelmed by the attacks. In private, online… they’re coming at her from every possible angle, and Phoebe isn’t used to this kind of attention.”
“All the more reason for her to lean on us,” Dominic chimes in.
He’s seated on the sofa, sulking over a mug of luke-warm coffee. He’s been nursing it for the past thirty minutes while I’ve been going over company emails at my desk. It’s been a quietmorning, so there isn’t much for me to do to keep my mind off of what we could’ve done differently last night.
“Phoebe expressed her wishes. We owe it to her to respect them, whether we like it or not,” I remind Theo and my brother. “She’ll come around. But first, she needs to process and work through her emotions on her own.”
“I thought we were supposed to shield her from the bullshit,” Theo says. “How the hell are we going to do that if we didn’t even see Georgina’s play coming?”
