Page 88 of Manhattan Bossholes

“I’m not sure you want to hear what I have to say to you,” he fumed. “But fine. Come up. I’ll give you five minutes.”

His radio silence had clued me in that he might be avoiding me, but I never imagined it was my fault. We rode up to his apartment in an ominous silence.

Whatever was coming was going to be bad. Paul never got this upset. Aiden was the fighter out of all of us, with a temper that was quick to flare up. Trent was more of a silent simmer kind of guy. When he went quiet, we knew things were about to go to hell. But Paul? He was the golden retriever of the bunch, always managing to find a reason to be cheerful no matter how dark things got.

I braced myself for what was to come. Maybe he and Chloe were separating already? Given how rough things had been for them, it wouldn’t surprise me.

Nearly all relationships were doomed to fail, and they were just facing the inevitable quicker than usual.

He unlocked his door and strode in. I’d half expected to find the place a mess given his near-bachelor state, but it was as perfect as ever, with fresh flowers in vases scattered around the place and the throw pillows on his couch perfectly karate-chopped. My nose was so keen that I could tell which bouquets of roses were nearly ready for the trash bin even though they all looked gorgeous from a distance.

“You’re an asshole, you know that?”

“I’m sorry, what?” I asked, incredulous.

“Do you know how much you hurt Piper?”

I sighed. “Okay, that’s what this is about. I get it.”

“Do you though?” he asked, a note of frustration in his voice. “Because it sure doesn’t seem like it.”

Well, damn. Paul was pissed.

“I’m sorry, but it’s for the best. Piper is better off without⁠—"

“You broke her heart,” he cut me off. “If I’d had any clue that’s what you were capable of, I would’ve warned her to stay the hell away from you. I mean, I had my doubts. Look at your track record.” Paul’s voice was full of venom. “But I thought this relationship could be different, because Piper’s real. She’s not one of your social-climbing supermodels, she’s a decent, kindhearted, loving person. I thought maybe if you got involved with her, you’d understand what an actual, loving relationship could be like. And maybe she could melt that cold heart of yours.”

Every word cut into me, but I didn’t respond. There was no need to fight back because he was right. Piper was all of that and more.

“Well? What do you have to say for yourself?” he demanded.

“Can we sit at least?”

“No. I don’t want you to get comfortable,” he fumed.

I couldn’t even make it past the front hall? This was bad. But was it decades-old-friendship-ending bad?

“Paul,” I sighed. “Okay, I admit it, I fucked up. But it’s over now, and the truth is, I’m not cut out to be what she needs. I’m not good at all that stuff. I’m better solo.”

He made a face at me. “Yeah, right, says the guy with a giant group of friends you’ve maintained since college. You being here now proves my point; you took time out of your busy work day to figure out what was going on with me. You told Piper that business is all that matters to you, but that’s obviously not true. You know how to step up and put people first when it’s a relationship that is important to you, so why didn’t Piper make the cut?”

I opened my mouth to answer but was interrupted by the front door opening. Chloe walked in loaded down with bags and froze when she saw me.

“What’s he doing here?”

“Hi Chloe, nice to see you too,” I deadpanned.

“Vincent stopped by to see where I was,” Paul explained. “And now I’m trying to make sense of how he could be so goddamn stupid as to break Piper’s heart.”

“Well, at least invite him all the way in,” she said as she bustled by. “Because explaining that much stupidity is probably going to take a while.”

We stared at each other in silence, neither one wanting to break first.

“Fine,” Paul sighed. “Come in.”

At this point, I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to continue the conversation. Paul had clearly picked sides, and now an angry Chloe was also going to confront me.

I followed Paul to the sitting area outside the open concept kitchen where she was bustling around.