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“I’ve already signed the contract, the building is mine.”
He shrugged. “Anything can be undone if you’re quick enough.” Lowering his head toward my shoulder, I heard him breathe me in like a predator stalking his prey. “Lucky for you, I’ve got a lot of sway with them. That can be in your favor if you do things my way.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“Threatening? Never, Cara.” He grasped my chin. It took everything in me not to slap his hand away. “I’m just saying you should stay on my good side so things work in your favor. You know what I mean? I can be a very persuasive guy when the time comes.”
I was too focused on his beady eyes to notice his hand starting to slide under my skirt. It wasn’t until his fingers brushed the inside of my thigh that I realized how in over my head I was.
Chapter32
Wesley
Jenson had been after me to go out for dinner since I got news that Lisbeth was filing for custody. I had managed to wave off his invitations, citing I had to take care of Lucy. That is, until he and his wife made plans for our kids to go out for pizza and a movie and presented the plan without giving me an option to decline.
Much to my chagrin, however, dinner ended with him begging me to go with him to a new, trendy bar.
“The movie’s not ending for another hour. Let’s get a drink and then pick up the kids.”
It was either waiting around outside the theater for the movie to end or get a drink. “Fucking hell. Fine.”
The bar was actually a nightclub, and itwastrendy. Much too trendy for my forty-two-year-old ass. I felt extremely out of place among all the twenty somethings vying for a spot at the bar.
“Man, it’s too crowded. Let’s just call it.”
Jenson waved me off. “Don’t be such an old fart.”
The hostess took one look and recognized me, and that did the trick — soon we were seated at a high top for two. We didn’t even have to order. People just seemed to know what we liked. People think the star treatment somehow makes you feel special. It really doesn’t. It just makes you think people don’t want to talk to you, don’t’ want to get to know you, don’t think you’re capable of changing your order ever. So now that the entirety of Manhattan knew that I liked an old-fashioned with an extra twist, that’s what I was doomed to drink for eternity.
I would much rather have had straight vodka to quell my nerves.
Jenson eyed me over his old-fashioned. “What do you think?”
“Hate it.”
“Come on, Wes.”
“What do you want me to say?”
Jenson was quiet. He couldn’t do anything right in my eyes at this moment, even though he was the best fucking friend I had and was trying so hard to help. “It doesn’t have to be this hard.”
I frowned. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I don’t know, it feels like you’re forcing yourself to suffer. And you don’t need to do that.”
I laughed. “You really think I’m choosing this.”
“I think your circumstances suck and I don’t blame you for feeling them really deeply. But I also think you’re making it worse for yourself on purpose. Because of self-loathing.”
“Wow, self-loathing. Where’d you hear all that? Your therapist?”
Jenson nodded. “I think you’d really like her.”
“No thanks.”
“I’m just saying. You didn’t have to cut Cara out because —”
I grunted. “We’re not talking about this.” I’d made Cara off-limits for subjects Jenson and I could talk about. Lucy, fine. Lisbeth,fine. But I couldn’t hear Cara’s name without my pulse skyrocketing.
