Page 20 of Love & Other Disasters

It’d been an exhausting day, and he had nothing but a weekend of spreadsheets in front of him. Then he had to face Violet on Monday. He had to find her and demand an explanation. Why did she lie? And why did she leave? Because she lied, dumbass. J.P. stepped back from the bag gasping for air, and moved to the track to walk a few laps to cool down. Nothing would make any of this better.

On his way to the car, he broke down and called Brent. “Her name isn’t Katia,” J.P. said when he answered. “It’s Violet, and now she’s my damn employee.” Brent remained silent. “I suppose you already knew that.”

“Not until yesterday,” Brent said. “Where are you?”

“Leaving the gym,” he tossed the gym bag into the back seat. “She lied to me.”

“Now, wait a minute. Elle said she was the one to introduce her, and it was a joke, and she never meant it to go that far. They didn’t know you were my friend.”

“She lied by omission.” He turned the ignition. “Give it a sec, my phone will switch to the car.” The Bluetooth connected and Brent’s voice came over his car speakers.

“Omission? A little dramatic aren’t you, princess. I get it, you’re all butt hurt here—”

“I’m not butt hurt, damn it.”

“Clearly. Exhibit A,” he quipped.

He growled. “I think I have the right to be pissed off here.”

“Yeah,” he conceded. “If you had the entire story.”

“What whole story?” He pulled the car out onto the road.

Brent sighed, breath loud in the car speakers. “Okay, the best I gather is that at the bar, they noticed you. Elle said you were checking out Violet. But, Violet didn’t agree, and made a bet it was Elle that you were looking at. Violet said, no way you were interested in her. Something about you looked like the type of guy who dated models named Katia.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Right, your ugly mug couldn’t get a model.”

“Blow me.”

“You’re not my type.”

“And so Elle introduced her as Katia as a joke?” J.P. rubbed his forehead. Mental, emotional, and now physical exhaustion taking over. Violet didn’t even think he was looking at her.

“Yeah, she thought it was funny. Until you turned out to be my friend. They went with it to avoid embarrassment. Who knew you two would hit it off so well.”

“This is insane.”

“Go home and get some rest this weekend and calm down before you do something stupid.”

“I will not do anything stupid.”

“Famous last words before the man does something stupid.”

“I have too much work to worry about anything else.”

“And yet we’re having this conversation.”

“What could I possibly do?”

“Demand answers from her?”

“Why can’t I do that?”

“You need to let it go. You’re her superior at work… inferior in every other way.”

“Thanks, man,” he quipped. “So I can’t ask her to explain herself?”

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