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“Super helpful. Thanks.” I hang up.

I pull at a carpet fiber until it’s a long loose string. I have no idea whose office this is. I have no idea what time and place I’m in. Perhaps we’re in, like, a space bubble, in that blue phone booth that’s has to go 88 miles per hour to send us back into orbit.

Lizzie is done falling apart, it’s time for Bette to figure things out. I’ll go back in there with all the BPE I know I can muster. I fix my lipstick, straighten my skirt and check my hair, then glide into the room like I own it. Hayden, I mean Danny, puts his phone back in his jacket pocket.

I say, “Sorry, I must have swallowed a whole bunch of bullshit last night and it wasn’t sitting well.”

Rinaldi winces and puts his fingers up in a cross. “No sickies in here.”

I grin. “I’m not sick, just disappointed. I promise.”

Rinaldi pulls out a scarlet silk mask from his pants pocket and places it over his mouth. Eva pats him on the back and says, “It’s reveal time!”

I’ll say it is.

I have extreme emotions and a touch of nausea to contend with right now. My ears are pounding with my own heartbeat. My nose is filled with his maddening citrus musk, and I want to kill him for being both these people. How dare he fucking hide from me for the last five years of corporate bullshit and two years of constant Zoom meetings? If he’d shown his fucking face, we could have avoided all of this. Imagine if I’d shown mine and he didn’t show his.

Rinaldi says, “Bette? Can you hear us?” He snaps loudly and I come back to my body.

I turn to Danny, I mean Hayden, and put out my hand. He shakes it and that fucking electric touch—I hope it’s torturing him as well. His eyebrows raise and we hold hands longer than we should.

“Nice to put a face with a name,” I say and the muthafucker scoffs at me. I hate him so much for being the love of my life and I strain to push down my desire.

“Likewise. Elizabeth, is it?” he says.

“Formally, yes.” I pull my lips into a tight grin.

“And Miller?” he asks, as if that makes any sense to anyone in the room but us.

“My married name.” He goes pale and I don’t want to tell him it was a thirteen-week lark six years ago. Fuck him.

But Eva ruins my fun. “Married?!”

Hayden says under his breath, “I was unaware you actually went through with it.”

I grit out a fake grin and take a seat. How did he know I was engaged?

“Annulled long ago. Two kids trying to outrun heartbreak.” I stare at him and all the anger and rejection build to a fine point. All the frustration and heartache that disappeared last night in his arms is right here in this room. I feel the tension coming off him in waves. He’s cracking his knuckles and making fists.

This asshole ditched me a decade ago and he’s spent the last two years making my life a living fucking hell. Before that, in my first three working at the company, he was a minor annoyance, but there’s no world in which Hayden Corelli is my Danny.

He grins at me and flashes his eyebrows. I turn towards our bosses.

“Am I here to claim my job?” I pat Hayden’s arm and unfortunately, his bicep is fucking ripped. “There, there, Hayden, there will be other jobs.” I pull on my Bette mask and try to resume who I am. How our relationship should be or how I know—OH MY FUCKING GOD. HOW DO I DO THIS?

Rinaldi starts talking to Eva and the two of them chatter and barely paying attention to us.

I whisper out of the side of my mouth, “How did this happen?”

He leans forward, as if he’s tying his shoes. He turns his heads slightly and whispers his reply, “I don’t know. How the fuck are you here? And why are you so goddamn beautiful?”

I lose all my breath. And damn, how does he look so good? His suit matches his eyes. I look forward, then glance down at his chest and my mouth falls open. His tie is the color of my eyes. His lips pull into a slight smile, then looks straight ahead as he whispers, “Yes. It’s my Lizzie tie.”

Eva clears her throat and we both snap to attention again.

Hayden crosses his legs and I hear him breathe in slowly. He used to do that to calm himself down. I don’t know if it’s from anger or if he gets excited from being insulted.

“You have a month to create an original pitch for Boast deodorant soap. They’re doing a rebrand and want your best ideas. You’re going to be a fab team.”