“Good morning.” I startle, glancing over my shoulder to see Wade entering the room. I already want to slap the smug look off his face.
“Sorry. Just admiring the city,” I say. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch him watching me as I walk to my seat. The guy gives me the creeps, but I put up with him for Pierce. That’s what I get paid to do after all.
Pierce hasn’t said a word since we walked in here. He sits at the end of the table like a king witnessing our exchange. He’s probably waiting for Wade to eat me up and spit me out after what I did to him. “Did you make a decision?” Pierce asks.
Wade clears his throat, leaning back in his leather chair. “I did.”
“And?”
“The project is yours with forty percent ownership under two conditions.”
Pierce lifts a brow but says nothing. I feel like a spectator at a powerful ping pong match.
Wade continues, “She stays on the project.” He points his pen in my direction. “This hotel is going to be the future of New York City hotels, and it needs her fresh eye.”
Both sets of eyes are on me, but it’s not my decision to make. Pierce pays me, and I don’t think I’m his favorite person at the moment. Then there’s the whole apprenticeship—nothing more permanent has been promised.
After a long pause, Pierce finally says, “She’s on the project. What else?”
Wade smiles. It has an evil undertone. “I want Blake Stone to work on all of the murals and art pieces. His style will blend in perfectly with what Lila presented yesterday.”
My breath catches, and my gaze whips to Pierce. The muscles in his jaw pulse, his teeth bared. “No fucking deal,” he barks across the table.
“Are you sure about that?” Wade asks, smugness washing over his face again, “There’s a lot of money in it for you.”
“I don’t need your fucking money! We’re done here.” Pierce stands from the table, motioning me to join him. I comply, too afraid of his current emotional state not to; I’ve never seen him like this.
“Hey, Lila!” Wade shouts behind us. On instinct, I glance back over my shoulder. “If you’re fucking him, be careful. He has a penchant for using things once and then letting them go, especially things that aren’t his to begin with.”
Pierce releases me, striding across the room to where Wade sits, relaxed in his leather chair. A gap between two speeding trains is closing before my eyes, but I can’t look away. Pierce grips Wade’s shirt, pulling him up a couple inches. “Who the hell do you think you are?”
“You know exactly who I am, Stanley. You took something from me, and I don’t think you’ve paid me back yet. Now, I’m just going to take it.”
Pierce swings his arm back but hesitates. “You’re not worth it.” Just as quickly as he went to Wade, he walks away. “Let’s go,” he says as he passes me.
He moves quickly toward the elevator as I struggle to keep up in my heels. We step inside, him on one side, me on the other. Anger radiates off every tense inch of his body.
“What was that all about?” I ask, my voice low.
“This isn’t the time, Lila.”
I open my mouth but quickly shut it again. He’s right.
When the elevator reaches the first floor, Pierce surprises me, grabbing my hand in his. Behind almost sleeping with Pierce and frozen hot chocolate, elevator rides are going to be the most memorable part of New York City. It’s where everything starts, or ends, or where my thoughts get me all worked up.
Before I know it, we’re in the car, all the space in the world between us. It’s strange going from lovers one night to distant acquaintances the next.
“So, you want to know what that was all about?” he asks, rubbing his hand along his jaw.
I nod. Obviously I do. Who wouldn’t? “If you want to talk about it,” I answer.
He laughs sadistically. “I feel like I owe you some explanation, so here it is . . . a couple years ago, I slept with his girlfriend once after a night of having too much to drink.” He continues, “I didn’t know who she was at the time and had no intention of ever seeing her again. He can’t seem to let it go.”
“Were you friends before?”
He shakes his head. “No, business partners in some aspects.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t work with him anymore.”
“I wouldn’t, but he’s a smart asshole. We can either work together or be enemies. I guess the latter is where we’re heading.”
I fidget with the buttons on my jacket, not sure what to say. I pull my phone out and check for messages. There’s one from Blake.
Blake: I don’t know.
“Who’s that?”
I tear my eyes from the screen, looking into Pierce’s. “No one.”
“I hate being lied to, Lila.”
“I hate when people keep things from me,” I bite back. Frustration boils to the surface. There can’t be two sets of rules between us.
“And what exactly am I keeping from you?”
“Tell me what happened between you and Blake. Why do you hate each other so much?”
He stares at me long and hard, reading me as if I have some complex definition. “Have you asked him about Alyssa?”
Shaking my head, I glance out the window and watch New York City go by. I haven’t asked him because I’m scared. If it weren’t a big deal, Pierce would just tell me.
“Ask him. Tell me what he says, and I’ll fill in the blanks.”
“I don’t get why you can’t just tell me,” I respond. If we weren’t stuck in this car right now, I’d probably scream.
He shrugs. “There’s no way I can explain it and come out sounding like a nice guy, but if you want a glimpse into the past, let’s just say, when two men love a woman and both lose her, it turns into one fucked up mess.”
I contemplate his words—roll them around. In the end, I’m just left wondering if I should just walk away from both men. If the baggage they carry is more than I can take on my back. And even more than that, I wonder if I can ever compete with Alyssa . . . whoever she is.
BY THE TIME THE CAR PULLS up in front of my apartment building, the sky is completely black. I’m happy to be home—ready to climb into my warm bed and sleep the night away, but there’s still a Pierce hurdle I have to jump: goodbyes.
“Let me walk you to your door,” he says.
I don’t argue. I don’t have the energy. Instead, I stand quietly on the sidewalk and watch as Pierce takes my bag from the driver. The air is frigid, so much so it seeps through my jacket, peppering my skin with goose bumps.
“What did you think of New York?” Pierce asks as we make our way up the sidewalk.
“The hot chocolate was good.”
He opens the door, allowing me to step inside first. “Hmm, just the hot chocolate? You’re low maintenance, Ms. Fields.”
We make our way up the flights of stairs, and all I can think about is how I’m going to handle things when we get to my door. I need to smooth things over with Pierce. I’ve enjoyed the little bit of time I’ve spent at Stanley Development, and I want to be able to go into work without this giant cloud hanging over my head. Even if I know it won’t dissipate completely.
Then there’s Blake. I don’t know if he’s still going to be here when I open the door. Part of me hopes yes, the other no. It makes me nervous as hell. To top it off, I need to keep the two of them apart. When they’re together, it’s like watching a lit match hit gasoline, and I’m the one who seems to get burned.
“Pierce.”
“Yeah?”
“I know we’ve already talked about this, but I want to make sure that what happened last night isn’t going to affect our work relationship.” I stop walking, closing my eyes to clear my head. “I don’t want it to ruin what could be a really great friendship between us.”
I don’t want to look up, but I don’t have a choice when he uses his finger under my chin to lift my eyes to his. “Nothing has changed for you at Stanley.”