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"Yes, but my breasts are completely covered,” I protested.
He smiled. "But it's the hint and the tease of it all. You're killing me."
The adoration in his face was enough to draw a genuine smile out of me. "I'm sorry. I'm here with you. I promise."
He traced his thumb over my knuckles. "Come on, Ness, talk to me. What’s that phrase you always say to me? Use your words."
I allowed him to pull me into his arms. "I'm sorry. You worked so hard to make tonight fun and nice, and I have been distracted."
"I don't care that you're distracted. I mean I do care, but I want to know why. What's going on? When I saw you last at the office, you were really excited about the latest progress that you made and with the lessons that Micah was giving you on the company holdings. I'm not sure how that's at all interesting, but you were happy. What happened between then and now? Is Jack being a pain in the ass?"
Jack now reported to me, which he didn't like so much, and it made him a bit slow to respond.
"I worked a little longer than I thought, and I was late heading back to the penthouse to change. And when I walked in, Lucy was there with Morgan."
He released me and took a shocked step back. "What?"
"Yeah, Lucy, your ex. The bitchy one from our engagement party. She was there."
He muttered under his breath and immediately pulled out his phone, but I stopped him. "No, it’s not like she snuck in there. Morgan's interviewing her. It's for a school project, something about the oldest charity foundations in the city that are still running. I don't know more details than that."
"Fuck. How was she cleared?"
I winced, not wanting to get anyone in trouble. “I think she's on the clearance list from before."
Another curse under his breath. "I'll fix it. I swear to God I will fix it. You shouldn't have to feel like that."
I released a sharp breath. "That's the thing. I'm not sure if she made me feel uncomfortable or if I felt that way out of pure jealousy about her being in my house, knowing she's been there before."
"She has been there before, but she never stayed over?—"
"No, I'm not saying that. I'm trying to get, you know, used to us, and it was a bit disconcerting to walk in and find her in our house. And when I realized I’d forgotten the tickets and went back to get them… I know I sound so silly, but she was in our bathroom, I think."
His furrowed brows turned into a deep frown. "What do you mean she was in our bathroom?"
"I sound crazy. I know I sound crazy. Well, crazy is the wrong word. Because I'm allowed to have an emotional reaction to seeing your ex in my house. I just didn't like how it made me feel. I'm sorry. It's made me weird, and I just keep stewing over it. Let's just forget it and have a good time."
He opened his mouth like he was going to argue. But then he closed it. And he nodded. The rest of the evening was spent mostly normally, as I tried desperately to focus. Because God, I did want to focus. It had been a long time since we'd had an actual date night that wasn't work or that wasn't at La Table Ronde with everyone else. Just us, with the intention of being fun and connected.
Atticus had attempted to give me some sense of normalcy, and for the most part, it worked.
As we made our way toward Serendipity, I said, "I think it's closed."
Atticus winked. "You underestimate me."
When we walked up to the door, the restaurant was in fact closed, but the owner unlocked the door to greet us. "Mr. Price, it's good to see you."
"Thank you. You know our order."
He nodded. "Coming right up."
I tugged on his hand. "What did you do?"
"Normally they would be open late tonight. But I bought out the whole place so that you could try as many desserts as you wanted."
"What?"
"Yeah, I was arranging it when you went to the bathroom at the gallery."
