I nodded, afraid to speak in case I screamed at him.
He sighed. “I know it was rude of me not to introduce you but I was going to before my mother said they had to get to their table.”
My answering smile was tight.
“Is it because of my mother? Because I told you not to worry about that.”
In that moment, I wanted to claim a headache and leave him there but that would mean doing so in front of his mother, and I didn’t want her to think she’d won. Instead I said, “No, it’s not that. I just have a bit of a headache.”
“We can leave.”
“No. Finish lunch.”
Afterward we strolled out of the restaurant with Henry’s hand on my back, and he nodded at his mother and her companions as we left.
“Why don’t I drop you off at my apartment? You can get some sleep, get rid of that headache, and I’ll take care of you when I get back from the office.” He kissed my hand as we sat in his car outside the hotel restaurant.
His words were sweet but I was still pissed way the hell off. I shrugged my hand out of his. “You know I really just want my own bed.”
Henry searched my face and I did my best to keep my expression neutral. With a heavy sigh, he drove out of the hotel driveway and joined the traffic, heading toward Lower Roxbury.
Outside my apartment I gave him a quick peck on the cheek and jumped out of his car before he could question why I was acting so strangely.
Once inside I leaned against my door, trying to catch my breath. It felt like I’d sprinted home. I was jealous and hurt over Henry’s flirting but did I have any right to be? Surely he didn’t mean anything by it. But me? I was keeping the truth from him.
I was all wrong for this man.
He needed a woman who accepted him for who he was.
He needed a woman who could be totally open with him.
Ten minutes later, my phone beeped. It was a text from Henry.
Are we okay?
I wanted to tell him no. We weren’t. And we probably weren’t going to be.
Then I thought how wonderful it felt when we lay in each other’s arms at night and talked until we fell asleep.
So I replied:
Of course. I’m just tired. We’ll talk soon. xx
One of the best things about dating Henry was the fact that he’d introduced me to Alexa. It would be an understatement to say that she and Caine had been through the ringer over the summer. If I told you what had happened to her, to them, you’d think I was making the whole thing up.
Alexa—or Lexie, as I called her—was fully recovered from the disaster, thank God. Even better, she and Caine were a real couple now. It turned out Caine was head over heels in love with her. I didn’t think it was possible for Carraway to love anyone more than business, but after witnessing him with Lexie these last few months, I knew it to be true. He stared at my friend like there was no one else in the world like her.
And he never flirted with other women.
Ever.
He didn’t even look at other women!
Suffice it to say, I was envious.
Things had been strained between Henry and me since our lunch. I’d put off seeing him before the weekend, and I had my quiet Saturday at home while he was at the game. I couldn’t shake him on Sunday without causing drama, and honestly, as much as he’d pissed me off, I missed him.
And that’s why I found myself having dinner with Henry, Caine, and Lexie at Caine’s penthouse. It wasn’t the first time I’d been in the amazing space but it was my first dinner there. The penthouse was on Arlington Street, a two-minute walk from Henry’s apartment. There were floor-to-ceiling windows everywhere, giving him awesome views of the city. The apartment was open-plan living and on a raised platform was a stylish eight-seat dining set so we could enjoy that view while we ate.
Conversation was going well—we were bantering back and forth—when Henry ruined it.
“I bumped into Edina Hamilton and her daughter June the other day,” he said to Caine. “June is starting Harvard Law in the fall. She’s going into corporate law and I promised I’d introduce you.”
“Why?” Caine frowned.
Yes, why, Henry?
“She wants to start making the right connections now. You know how these things work.”
“And does she seem like the kind of thick-skinned, hard-nosed lawyer I’d have at my firm?”
Lexie snorted and shot me a smirk.
I didn’t pay much attention to her amusement. I wanted to hear Henry’s reply.
He shrugged. “It was a two-second meeting. She graduated from Yale and got into Harvard Law. Clearly she’s smart.”
“And beautiful.” The words were out of my mouth before I even knew what was happening.
Everyone looked at me because I’d not only said the words, they were so filled with resentment, even I flinched.
“What?” Henry said.
Well, it was out there now. “That’s what you said to her. You told her she was smart and beautiful and then you winked at her.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lexie and Caine shift uncomfortably. Shit. “Never mind.”
“Oh no.” Henry sat back, dropping his fork. He crossed his arms and grinned at me as if he was actually enjoying my bout of jealousy. “Please, go on.”
Hurt scored across my chest like whiplash. He thought this was funny? He thought this was a moment for our playful banter where we pretended to be irritated with each other? My expression smoothed to politeness. I didn’t want to cause a scene in front of our friends.
I turned to Lexie who was staring at me in concern. “Did you say Mrs. Flanagan gave you the recipe for this?” I indicated to the paella. Mrs. Flanagan was Caine’s neighbor and a good friend to both him and Lexie. She was all I could think of in the moment to talk about.
“Yes,” Lexie answered slowly. “Would you like it?”
“That would be great.”
I could feel Henry staring at me but I refused to look at him. Instead I gave Lexie a somewhat tremulous smile. “Have you managed to talk that banoffee pie recipe out of her yet?”
“No,” Lexie said, thankfully going along with me. “I beg and I beg. If Caine asked, she’d probably give it to him but he won’t.” She threw him a teasing look. “He does it to torture me.”
“No. I keep telling you Effie guards her pie recipes with her life. You’ll get them in her will. You just have to be at peace with that.”
When Caine was relaxed, making jokes, I could definitely see why Lexie fell for him. The man had a quick, dry sense of humor, and he stared at my friend like she was a miracle.
I understood that too.
I had a woman crush on Lexie. She was funny, smart, determined, loyal, and truly kind. She was everything I hoped I could eventually become.
A little while later, I excused myself to the bathroom, mostly to get away from the tension Henry and I were causing at the table. The lower-level bathroom was getting a facelift so I climbed the spiral staircase that led upstairs. I was walking down the hall when I heard my name murmured below. Like a big kid, I tiptoed back down the hall to eavesdrop.
“It was nothing,” I heard Henry say.
“It’s not nothing, Henry. You called a woman smart and beautiful in front of Nadia. And winked at her,” Lexie huffed.