Carter’s spoke softly. “If you’re afraid to admit you’re in love with me, you can just say that.”
She scoffed. “Don’t pretend like you don’t understand exactly what I’m saying.”
“This hot-and-cold game has an expiration date. You were just fine meeting my parents. In fact, the whole meeting went great.”
“That’s what you think.”
Carter blanched. “Then enlighten me. What’s changed?”
But she dug deeper into her defiance. “That’s the problem, nothing’s changed. I told you I’d disappoint you, and now I’m sticking to my word. You should’ve listened when you were warned.”
“Bullshit. Answer the question.”
And tell him what? That the conversation she’d had with Jesse had put things into laser focus: she couldn’t commit to him. She would never be enough in the end. Not enough for a perfectly kind, perfectly beloved man like Carter. The disparity was too great and the risk of losing her heart too high. In comparison to him, she felt like orphan Annie. Like somebody’s discarded lunch. They could never be equals. Better to end things now before she got in even deeper. Before she drowned. She lifted her chin to stop her lip from quivering. “Your good looks are like hypnosis. I fell for it. But we don’t have anything beyond the physical.”
Carter’s nostrils flared. A stretch of silence passed before he spoke again. “That’s a really fucking shitty thing to say.”
She’d been willing to take risks for this man, but now she was at a tipping point. No, passed her tipping point. He’d pushed her too far, and now she’d fallen off the ride. She shrugged. “Hmm. I guess it is.”
Carter’s voice was hoarse. “Don’t do this. Don’t fucking do this. Not now.”
She’d believed the lie that work kept them apart. She’d blamed Jennifer and Sophia and Frank and the law firm and rules and propriety. But that’d been a farce. A red herring. Too easily resolved. Too simple. Her problems were deeply rooted within her, and they wouldn’t be fixed by a lunch with the parents. What choice did she have? She elbow-dropped the halfway-stuck armrest, locking it firmly between them.
“I’m sorry, it’s over.”
He wanted eggs, and all she had were Pop-Tarts.
Perdie leaned against the door once inside her house, toeing off her shoes, dropping her jacket and luggage to the ground. Bananas didn’t greet her, which meant he was asleep with Lucille.
She climbed the stairs, legs like boulders, heart like a rock. She knocked softly on Lucille’s door and then cracked it a little. “Hey, Luce.”
Lucille rubbed her eyes, voice thick with sleep. “P? That you? What’s wrong?”
“Can I sleep in here with you and Bananas tonight?”
“Yeah. Yeah, of course.”
Perdie crawled in next to Lucille, pulling Bananas to her chest. He didn’t stir when she moved him, just settled in against her. So frail. She was frail too.
“You wanna talk?”
Perdie pulled the blanket over her shoulder. “What difference would it make?”
Perdie took a deep breath and made her way to the seventh floor for her meeting with Charles Joy, Frank, and Carter. She looked like shit, and it didn’t matter.
She’d awoken late. Lucille had already left for an early shipment from the wholesalers, but she propped a little card covered with watercolor bluebirds on the nightstand.
Sweet Pea, Whatever it is. We’ll get through it. Call you later <3—L
In some kind of blissful cosmic reprieve, Perdie didn’t feel sadness. Nor did she feel hurt or despair. Instead, mercifully, she felt nothing at all. An empty, all-encompassing nothingness.
She rounded the corner to the sole office on the floor, where an assistant at a desk notified Charles Joy that Perdie had arrived and then motioned for her to head in.
When she entered, the wall-to-wall window overlooking the harbor practically blinded her with sun. Frank and Carter were already seated in front of the large oak desk with Charles Joy reclined behind it, like she had walked in on a meeting already in progress.
“Perdita. Thank you for joining us. Have a seat.” Charles indicated the empty chair next to Carter’s.
It brought her no joy to see that he looked like hell. Dark stubble framed the stiff line of his jaw. His eyes were droopy, his hair an uncharacteristic mess. He stared ahead, one leg stretched out with his hands folded in his lap.
“So, we’ll make this a quick one.” Charles leaned back in his large, leather chair. “Right, now that we’re all present, first off I want to thank you both for your excellent work. The Fletcher Group had a great time, and that means we had a great time, if you know what I mean. Well done there.”
“That’s what I’m talking about, Charles,” said Frank. “I knew I trusted the right lawyers with this client.”
Perdie bit her tongue.
Charles Joy’s eyes cut over to Frank, shutting him up in a heartbeat. He cleared his throat “Now onto the bad news. And by bad, I don’t mean bad bad, I simply mean we’ll have to do some adjusting, that’s all. As you know, Fletcher Group has been acquiring a great many companies lately as part of their growth structure. And it has been brought to our attention that one of their recent acquirements is none other than Zelen Corp, the pharmaceutical company.”
Perdie’s senses tingled. Zelen Corp, the company she was preparing to sue for patent infringement with Noah. Oh no.
“I don’t need to explain to you that this has become a conflict of interest in your patent case, Perdita.”
Oh no, no, no.
“As such we’ve decided to go ahead and pull out of the patent case against Zelen.”
Carter sat up. “You can’t be serious?”
“But the Fletcher Group can waive the conflict.” Perdie frowned.
