Page 79 of Boss Level

“Are you kidding me right now?” Xander had gone from exuding nothing to radiating anger in a blink.

And he was right to be pissed. I dropped the ring on the table. It lay there between us, the most mocking inanimate object I’d ever seen.

“We agreed—”

“Nothing.” Xander talked over Dom. “We agreed to nothing. You talked, and I never thought it was a good idea.”

“Talked about what?” I had a feeling I already knew, but I couldn’t admit it, not even to myself.

Dom focused on Xander. “Why isn’t it a good idea?”

“You have to ask? After all this time?” Xander scoffed. “Then again, given how quickly you two slid into this fake engagement…”

The noise level in here no longer mattered. Their voices had risen to carry easily across our table, and probably to the neighboring ones as well. “That sounded uncharacteristically passive aggressive. What the fuck is going on?”

“There’s nothing passive here. This is flat out aggression,” Xander said.

“It’s bullshit is what it is.” Dominic’s voice rose another couple decibels. “I’ve watched you two for seven years as you pretended you weren’t head over heels for each other.”

We weren’t. We never had been. Xander and I didn’t do love. We didn’t…

“And you’re going to get upset over a few kisses and a ring?” Dominic continued, unaware that the war raging in my head was building to the same proportions as the argument at our table. “Everyone but the two of you sees that you belong together.”

This wasn’t what I was here for tonight. I wanted the company of friends. I wanted to either cheer or jeer. I didn’t need yet another person, the last person who should be doing this, deciding that he knew better about my relationship with Xander than Xander and I did.

“I’m not with her because I love you.” Xander focused on Dom. “I’m withyou, Dominic.”

Exactly. I was the friend. The wing woman. So why did Xander’s words feel like a slap? “Except that you’re not.” I needed to keep my mouth shut, but that had never been me. I had thoughts, and I was going to share them. “The two of you—”

“Had an agreement,” Xander said.

Right. Theagreement.“Even though it’s killed you to keep things quiet.”

“Yes, if fucking killed me. I want to tell the world we’re together, and now we can.We’re in love,” Xander shouted the three words. “I want to hold Dom’s hand in public. And kiss you and sometimes I just want to pin you to the wall by the throat and make sure the world knows you’re mine.”

“Okay.” Like that, Dominic backed off.

The words were sweet. Touching. A conversation I’d been waiting for them to have for years. And tonight it pissed me off. It dug under my skin and gouged my heart from beneath my ribs. “Okay?Just like that? After all this time? After making Xander wait for so long?”

Dominic scowled. “No. Notjust like that.”

“We had a mutual agreement, and I hated it, but I understood.” Xander doubled down on a narrative he’d been fighting for so long. “Gossip destroys people.”

“Is that why the two of you aren’t together?” Dom asked.

And now we were back to this? He’d just gotten a shouted confession of love from his fucking husband and he wanted to bring me back into the conversation? “This isn’t about us.”

The laugh Dominic let out was harsh. “But it is. Because Judith isn’t the outlier in this relationship, I am. It’s always been about the two of you. And I’ve always been okay with that, except that you fight it so fucking hard. Don’t you dare come down on me if you’re not willing to admit to yourselves, out loud, why you’re not together.”

Because—

“Because I don’t want to ruin her.” Xander slammed a fist into the table. “Is that what you’re looking for? We’re not together because Judith deserves the world, and I won’t be what stands in her way.”

Oh. Fuck me. That was a little sweet and a little infuriating. “Excuse me? You won’t stand in my way by being with me?” Correction—it was alotinfuriating. “Who the fuck are you to think… I’m single because I choose it, not because some person—anyperson—decided that for me. Not even you, Alexander Lewis Haddar. You don’t decide who I fuck, or who I date, or whether or not I’m successful. Your dick isn’t so magical that it can stop me from being me.”

“That’s not—”

“What you meant? That’s exactly what you meant. Fuck you both, we’re done. Period. Don’t call me. Don’t drop by. Don’t forget your ring, Dom.”

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