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“Of course. I…” He struggled to remember the letter. “I… I might have forgotten… Shit.”
“For god’s sake, Chris. How can such a smart guy be so—” She inhaled, cutting herself short. “Okay, that doesn’t help.”
“I thought I was being supportive,” he said weakly. “I know she can do this, and I want her to take the credit she deserves. She wrote an amazing book.”
“She did. And she chose not to come out as the author. That’s why she hired you. It’s not your place to decide when that ends, just like it’s not the place of an asshole publisher or a bratty teen blogger. Supporting Daphne meant listening to her and helping her work it through. Did you try that?”
Daphne had tried that. She’d wanted to talk about it, and he’d refused and told her what to do.
“I screwed up, Gem,” he said, his heart pounding. “I screwed up so bad.”
“Yes, but not so badly that you can’t fix it. When’s the event?”
He checked his watch. “Just over an hour.”
“Call her. Now. Work this out.”
DAPHNE
The event was in one hour, and Daphne needed to pull herself together and decide how she was going to handle it. Pulling herself together meant she had to stop beating herself up for the mistake she’d made the previous night. For the mistake she’d been making for days now. Falling for Chris Stanton.
She thought she’d been careful, protecting her heart, but she’d let her emotions run roughshod over common sense. She’d told herself there was no place for love in her life right now… and then proceeded to fall in love anyway.
She’d blame Chris, whether he deserved that or not. He was too good-looking, too smart, too sweet, the whole damn package. Maybe it wasn’t love after all. Maybe it was lust and ego. A guy like that wanted her? Swoon.
He wouldn’t be the first person to claim he totally supported his partner’s career and then decide she didn’t know how to handle it. Just like Anthony wasn’t the first person to say he valued his partner’s close family ties and then get angry when those ties diverted her attention.
Was Chris gone for good? She had to presume so. Like her, he’d been swept away in the moment.
They’d enjoyed their time together. Had some really great sex. And then went their separate ways. Which was what she wanted from the start.
Someday she’d be ready to share her life with someone. For now, she had to focus on her career.
And that really was what she needed to focus on tonight. She’d heard briefly from Lawrence. She’d told him what Milner proposed, and he’d said to leave it with him. She’d wanted more, but asking for reassurances felt weak and needy.
Tell me there’s another option. Tell me I won’t lose my career over this.
Lawrence was working on it, and she had to let him do that while she concentrated on the event. She hadn’t told Lawrence that Chris was gone. That wasn’t an agent issue; it was a publicist one. She needed to speak to Sakura. But first, she had an event to prepare for.
Daphne climbed into the car and was relieved to find Sakura there. She’d realized she hadn’t spoken to Sakura since that morning, and it was entirely possible she didn’t have a publicist anymore, especially since she’d turned off her phone after calling Lawrence. She’d needed her head clear, and had been afraid Chris might call… and equally afraid he wouldn’t. Better not to know.
Yes, the head-in-the-sand strategy wasn’t very mature, but she had to protect herself right now.
Daphne closed the car door, and Sakura frowned over at her.
“Where’s Chris?” Sakura asked.
“He’s… not with me,” Daphne said.
She tensed for Sakura to ask whether Chris was meeting them at the bookstore, but Sakura only gave a distracted nod.
“We need to talk anyway,” Sakura said. “You and me. Without him.”
“Sure.”
“I want to know why you did it.”
“Why I…?”
