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Of all the things she could have said, I was not expecting that, and part of me thinks I may have hallucinated and heard her incorrectly. “Excuse me? Run that by me again?”
“She’s here in Paris. Tracked me down.” I hear the uncorking of a bottle through the phone and the sound of her pouring. “Outside our building.”
I immediately pull up my credit card app. I didn’t have alerts set up for the card Holly uses so I wouldn’t have necessarily known if she was out of the country, but normally she at least sends me a text when she’s traveling.
Probably not if she’s planning a trip for the sole purpose of accosting your girlfriend.
I scrub my jaw, my body feeling tense and anxious as I scroll through her last ten charges. She’d checked into the Four Seasons Hotel in Paris last night and done quite a bit of shopping today. Fuck.
I’m pulling up the feed to access the cameras outside of Marissa’s building when I realize I haven’t said anything. “Baby, I’m so sorry. What did she say? Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“Did she touch you?” Holly isn’t a violent person but if she flew to Paris, that means she assumes I’m still talking to Marissa and I am not sure how she’d react to meeting her in person.
“No.”
“I need more than one-word answers.”
“What you’d expect. She told me to stay away from you. Called me a whore. That I’m ruining my life by messing around with a married man I work for. Pretty much everything I already think about myself.” She sniffles and I wish I could crawl through the phone and hold her.
“Marissa, you are not a whore.”
“I don’t think your vote holds that much weight here. Also, I think she may have tapped your apartment or something so just be careful. She knew we were still talking and I don’t know how she’d know that unless you haven’t really moved out.”
I frown, wondering how in the hell Holly would know that. “I don’t lie to you. I’ve been at the penthouse.” I look around my office, wondering if maybe she’d been bold enough to leave something here and immediately call for a sweep of my office. I walk out of my office toward one of the conference rooms that has a balcony for the rest of this conversation to try and give myself some privacy. I close the door behind me, leaving me alone outside, and sit on one of the chairs. “I can’t lose you.”
“You were never free to have me, Chris.”
“Please don’t do this.” My hands begin to shake. I hear the sound of a door opening and when I look up, I see Beck staring at me. You good? he mouths and I shake my head before putting a hand up. He hovers in the doorway before going back inside. “I’m coming to Paris.”
“No, don’t!” she exclaims. “Are you insane? She’s probably still here! I’m sure she’s expecting for you to figure out—”
“I don’t care—”
“I do! You and Holly are hell bent on making each other miserable and I just can’t be involved in it anymore. There’s nothing about this separation that’s going to be amicable and you being with me is just going to make things harder for you.”
“I’ll deal with it.”
“Okay, but I can’t. And I can’t deal with any more run-ins with Holly. That was…” She trails off and lets out a breath. “Awful and I feel like shit. But I welcomed this, right? I did this to myself by getting involved with a married man. I deserve every single thing she said.”
“No, you don’t. I deserve whatever she has to say, not you.”
“I knew you were married. Maybe not the first time, but I eventually learned the truth and actively continued being with you. I’m just as guilty. I slept with her husband. I wronged her.” She starts to cry and I know there’s only so much I can do while I’m almost four thousand miles away.
“Please don’t cry. I’m so sorry, but you won’t have to deal with her again. I’ll be sure of that.” I have no idea how I’m going to deal with Holly because I am fucking furious at her for this. Part of me wants to turn off her credit card while she’s in Paris but I want her out of the same city as Marissa right now.
“Somehow, I doubt you can. I’m going to assume you had no idea that she was in Paris until I told you.” She sighs. “I’m not saying this is the end forever but you need to be single before I can go back down this road with you. Not separated either. I mean the ink is dry on your divorce papers.”
I was afraid things would come to this. I guess I was stupid to think that if Marissa was in Paris, Holly would assume we were over. Could she have really planted something in my apartment? When would she have even gotten in?
“I should go,” she says and I remember that she’s planning to go out tonight. A single girl with a broken heart, drunk, and in Paris sounds like a recipe for there to be a line of guys waiting to talk to her tonight and the thought makes me sick.
“Wait.” She doesn’t hang up but she doesn’t say anything either. “I’m sorry.”
“I know. I am too,” she says so quietly that I almost don’t hear the last part.
“For what?”
