Chapter 31: Liar

JAMIE

Ethan and I were walking out of the coffee shop after having lunch.

It had been almost two weeks since the speed-dating event, and I hadn’t seen Ethan for our usual Friday night drinks last weekend.

A catch-up was much needed.

“So maybe it wasn’t as bad as I thought,” Ethan shrugged. “At least I got something out of it.”

“Uh, yes! The date!” I was excited that my best friend had put himself out there and it had paid off. “When are you seeing this new girl?”

There had ended up being a mutual interest between him and a woman; now they were going on a date.

“Maybe Saturday, not sure yet. It’s going to happen—we just have to work out when’s good for both of us.”

We crossed the road to the other side.

“Something good came out of Carmen pushing you to do things you didn’t want to do.” I chuckled. “She is so taking responsibility for this setup, you know that, right?”

He glanced at me sideways. “How could I not?”

“Jamie!”

A familiar voice called my name, and I turned around.

“I thought that was you. I recognized the hat.”

He pointed to the gray cable-knit hat I was wearing.

Sure, he would recognize it. I don’t go anywhere without a hat and woolen scarf in January weather.

“Ryan. How are you?”

He looked really well, definitely better than the last time I saw him at least.

“You look great!”

“Better than the last time you saw me, I’m sure.” He winced at the thought of it.

He isn’t the only one haunted by that night.

“I’m sorry again about that. I did text the following evening to apologize, but you never replied. I figured you were too angry to talk to me.”

He texted me?

I don’t remember that!

“I never got a text from you.”

I pulled my phone from my bag, scrolled through it, and didn’t see any recent texts from Ryan.

“Yeah, sorry, I don’t have a text from you.”

Ethan shrugged. “Maybe it didn’t send.”

That’s the only reasonable explanation I can think of.

Ryan removed his phone from his pocket and showed me the text himself, sent the evening when we were at speed dating.

“That’s weird. I never received it.”

I was feeling guilty again. He’d thought I was ignoring him when that wasn’t the case.

“I would have replied if I’d gotten your text. I promise, Ryan.”

“Don’t worry about it, Jamie. I’m just glad I ran into you so I could apologize for the way I acted. Also, thank you for taking me home. It wasn’t your responsibility, but you did it anyway.”

My lips curved into a smile. “Of course.”

We’d ended things on a bad note, but it was nice to see that the anger he’d been feeling was gone.

Ryan looked between Ethan and me. “Well, I’ll get going, have a work thing to get to. Nice seeing you again, Jamie. Maybe we’ll meet again soon.”

“Nice seeing you too, Ryan.”

I watched him as he turned and walked in the opposite direction.

I wonder if I’ll ever see him again.

“Weird,” Ethan said, his eyes exactly where mine were.

We turned around and walked together.

“He seems a lot better than what you described at that restaurant.”

I shrugged. “Maybe he’s moved on. After what happened, he knows he was out of line and he’s pulled himself together.”

I slipped my gloved hands into the pockets of my wool coat.

I still had no answer to the case of the missing text. I knew my phone was working since I was chatting with Mum.

Ethan sighed a breath of cold air.

“About that text—you’re not going to like this—what if Mason deleted it? I remember him at the bar that night, he could have seen the message and deleted it when you weren’t looking.”

Mason? No! Would he do that?

“No, no, he wouldn’t.” I shook my head in disbelief. “He’s not that sort of person.”

“Well, he wasn’t too happy about Ryan showing up at dinner, or you going home with him.”

“I didn’t go home with him, I brought him home because he couldn’t have done it himself. Big difference.”

Ethan folded his arms over his chest to keep out the cold and shook his head.

“I don’t know. Mason could have deleted the messages because he felt Ryan was getting in the way.”

Could he be right?

Mason can act very possessive over me…but would he really stoop that low?

***

I opened the door to Mason’s office, more enraged the more time went on.

I really hope Ethan is wrong about this. I need him to be wrong about this.

Would Mason even tell me the truth if he had done it?

Mason was sitting in his leather chair behind his desk, looking at the screen in front of him. Dressed in a white shirt and a check-style waistcoat over it.

Looking hot.

I must not let his hotness cloud my judgment!

“Get over here, Jamie,” he demanded without taking his eyes off the screen.

I did as I was told and walked his way, resting my bum on the desk beside his laptop.

“How was your lunch?”

“It was…very interesting. I had a catch-up with Ethan. He has a date with a woman from speed dating.”

I know he doesn’t care about any of this—he isn’t interested in hearing about my friends. That’s not part of the deal we made.

“Oh, and we ran into Ryan on the way back.”

He glanced up.

“Did you now? And what did he have to say for himself?”

“He’s doing better. He apologized for the way he acted at the restaurant.”

An angry exhale was what I got in reply.

“It’s odd, Ryan said he texted me the next day. The next night, in fact, while I was out. I never got that text.”

Mason shrugged.

“Maybe he didn’t send it. Probably mortified about his behavior. He just told you he texted because you ran into one another.”

Liar.

I placed my hand on his laptop screen and pushed it closed.

“You’re lying, Mason. You deleted that message before I saw it, didn’t you?”

He sat back in his chair with a cheeky smirk. A fucking smirk!

“I didn’t think you needed to hear from him again. I have no regrets.”

No regrets!

“He texted to apologize for the way he acted.” I folded my arms. “You had no right to delete my messages. You had no right to go through my phone.”

“Relax, beautiful, don’t get yourself into a huff about this.”

Mason put his arms around my waist and pulled me closer. His way of solving the problem was giving me the affection he knew I craved.

“No. Stop.”

I pulled away and stood up from his desk.

“You think this is some kind of joke? You can’t do things like this, Mason. Just another way of trying to control me.”

I turned to walk out of the office, but it didn’t take long before he was up and grabbing for my arm.

“Don’t go. Not like this. You told him how you felt and he was still around, getting in the way—”

I removed my arm from his grasp and put my hands up to keep distance.

“Ryan knows how I feel about him. I stopped seeing him so I could see you and only you. But you’re still trying to cut him out of my life. I can’t talk about this.”

As I turned to open the door, it opened suddenly and Harry walked in.

He looked between us, sensing the tension in the air.

“Everything okay here?”

Mason released a frustrated sigh.

“Everything’s fine. We were just in the middle of something. Can you give us a minute?”

No! No talking! I’m too angry to talk to him right now.

“Actually, I should get back to work. There’s a lot that needs to be done for the meeting with Mr. Rogen on Monday.”

“Well, I wanted to talk to Mason about the beach house,” Harry said, drawing our attention.

“The cleaner noticed some maintenance issues that need attention sooner rather than later. Since I’ve got a meeting early tomorrow morning and can’t get down there, I was hoping you could.”

Mason leaned on the edge of his desk and folded his arms. “You have workers coming in to do what needs doing?”

“A couple men are scheduled to arrive tomorrow morning and stay until the job is done. I advise that you leave this evening and be there to let them in.”

Harry pulled up the sleeve of his shirt and glanced at his expensive watch.

“You can go whenever suits.”

He was gone before either of us could say a word.

Mason turned his attention to me, playing it cool. “What do you say to accompanying me?”

Goddamn, he’s put me on the spot.

He knows exactly the reason why I wouldn’t want to be alone with him right now.

He knows Harry wouldn’t want to hear I’d turned down an offer from my boss!