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if he comes?”
       “’Course not. Now, what can I get you?”
       I ordered and took my time with my food. Most days I’d rush through lunch to get back to work, but today I watched unhurried as people passed by the windows of the cafe, carrying on with their lives. A story hid behind every face, and I couldn’t help but wonder if I could ever trust someone outside of our team again. Naively and against Blake’s warnings, I’d trusted Max—enough to consider giving him ownership in my company before Blake funded the business instead. And Risa... she’d been hungry, eager to learn and take on all the responsibility that I desperately needed to delegate, only to use all of it against me today.  
       I fought the tears that threatened. If I’d let them free, they’d be full of anger at having let myself learn this lesson the hard way.  

CHAPTER THREE

    I scanned the bar for Simone. Not finding her, I chose a seat beside an empty stool. I flagged down the bartender, a little too eager for a cool drink to wash away the bullshit of my day.  
       As I waited for my drink, the five o’clock news played out in silence on the screens above the bar. My heart thumped as Mark’s face appeared, followed by footage of Daniel, presumably on the campaign trail. Along the bottom of the screen, the segment was captioned “MacLeod death still under investigation.” A sick feeling writhed in my gut. I wanted that chapter closed maybe as much as Daniel did now. I couldn’t imagine what was still in question after Mark’s apparent suicide. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know either. I was about to ask the bartender to turn up the sound when someone came up beside me.    
       “Hey.”
       I jumped slightly only to find James there offering me a tentative smile. He was wearing one of his graphic T-shirts that seemed to perfectly fit the tattooed man beneath.  
       “Oh,” I said. “Hi.”
       He raised his eyebrows. We hadn’t really been alone, or remotely one-on-one for a long time. Work had carried on as usual, but we hadn’t talked things through the way we should have. Everything that had been left unsaid weighed on me sometimes. I’d been too wiped out from the drama of reuniting with Blake to really make time to sort it all out with James. Instead it lingered awkwardly between us, in the past but also never far from my thoughts when he was around.  
       “I wasn’t expecting to see you here, sorry,” I said, trying to excuse my awkwardness.  
       “Simone didn’t tell you I was coming?”
       I shook my head, hiding my surprised expression with a slow sip of my drink. I wondered where this was all going with Simone.  
       I shifted uncomfortably, as if I could feel his gaze on me, studying my reaction. Did he want me to be jealous? To show me that he’d moved on? If so, all I wanted to convey was how happy I was that someone amazing like Simone held his interest. I hated to believe I’d led him on in any way, encouraged feelings I had no right to encourage in my completely fucked up state of mind weeks ago.  
       “How are things with you two? Getting serious?” I avoided his eyes, as if that could hide the fact that I was clearly fishing for confirmation.
       He laughed quietly and shoved a hand through his wavy black hair, pushing it back away from his face as he stared down at the beer the bartender had just delivered.  
       “Sorry if I’m not really up for talking girls with you, Erica. It just seems a little...strange, I guess, in light of everything.”
       “You’re right, I’m sorry.” God, could this get any worse?
       He smiled, disarming the moment a little. “It’s fine. Anyway, Simone’s your friend, right? I’m sure she’ll give you the dirt.”
       I returned his smile, a little relieved. “No, I don’t really ask her about it. It’s not my business.”
       “Does she know about...us?” He motioned between us, that small gesture