I didn’t need until January first to get my answer; I had it by the time I returned to New York later that day.
However, I held off on telling Alex; I had another, much more urgent matter to attend to. My trial period with Sloane officially ended tomorrow, and I needed to get through to her before then.
My meeting with Alex had preoccupied me enough to dull the pain of last night, but when Sloane’s office building came into view, a gut-wrenching ache resurfaced.
I want to break up.
You love me, and I don’t feel the same toward you.
The ache sharpened into a knife and twisted. Other men might’ve given up after being so thoroughly dismissed, and I would’ve had I thought she meant it. But the only thing worse than hearing those words come out of Sloane’s mouth was seeing her face when she said them. Her anguish had mirrored mine, and I hated how much hurt she had to have experienced to be so afraid of love.
Or maybe I was just fucking delusional.
Either way, it wasn’t over yet. There were minutes left until the buzzer, but I still had a chance to turn the tide and score a comeback victory. That shred of hope was the only thing that kept me going because the thought of losing Sloane…
It’s not going to happen. You won’t lose her.
I couldn’t. Not when I’d just found her. Not when losing her meant losing a crucial piece of myself in the process.
My heart pounded painfully as I entered the building, but anxiety melted into confusion when I arrived at Kensington PR and found Jillian and several junior publicists crowded outside Sloane’s office, their ears literally pressed to the door.
“What…?”
“Shh.” Jillian placed a finger over her mouth. Perry, she mouthed.
Oh, fuck.
I came up beside her and snuck a peek through the window. Sloane hadn’t fully closed her blinds, revealing a glimpse of the drama unfolding inside.
Perry Wilson, the gossip guru himself, gesticulated wildly. It was only the second time I’d seen him in person, and once again, I was struck by how ordinary he looked.
Signature blond highlights and pink bow tie aside, he could’ve passed for any random man I passed on the street. He couldn’t be taller than five-five or five-six, his scrawny frame squeezed into a blazer and jeans. For someone with so much bravado behind the keyboard, he was awfully small in person.
His voice, however, was loud enough to bleed through the door. “I know it was you. You’re the one who planted those false tips for me.”
Sloane sat behind her desk, observing him with a bored expression. “Perry, darling, I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m a publicist with legitimate business concerns. I don’t have time to engage in the type of subterfuge you’re accusing me of.” She tapped her phone. “You’re already being sued for libel. Don’t add slander to the mix.”
Perry’s face turned the same color as his tie. “I have eyes and ears everywhere, Sloane. They told me Tilly overhead you discussing the affair at the Russos’ holiday party. Now Soraya’s stupid minions have gotten me banned from social media, and that libel suit is bullshit.”
“Good. Then you shouldn’t be concerned about it,” Sloane said. “As for your eyes and ears, perhaps they should’ve factchecked for you before you uploaded that post. This is the twenty-first century, Perry. If you can’t handle a twenty-two-year-old and her fans, you might want to switch careers. I hear Fast and Furriness is looking for a new copywriter.”
Perry quaked with indignation. “You won’t get away with this.”
“Please, spare me the cliché villain lines.” Sloane sighed. “I have clients to attend to, and you have advertisers to appease before they all flee your sinking ship.”
The blogger was so furious his voice dropped to near inaudible levels, and I only heard snippets of what he said next.
Bitch…check in with your star client…not talking about the one you’re fucking.
Jillian and the other publicists scattered from the door. A minute later, Perry stormed out in a tornado of pink and cologne. “Hey, man.” I clapped my hand on his shoulder hard enough to make him stumble as he passed. “Sorry to hear about your troubles. Good luck at Fast and Furriness.”
Perry squawked with outrage but was smart enough not to confront me physically. He stomped toward the elevator, looking not unlike a child throwing a temper tantrum, and I couldn’t believe this was the man who’d caused so many powerful people so much distress over the years.
It was like peeking behind the curtain and seeing the real Wizard of Oz. Disappointing.
Jillian giggled and didn’t stop me when I walked into Sloane’s office and closed the door behind me.
With Perry gone, the stiffness eased from her shoulders, but they tightened again when she saw me.
Sloane was obviously exhausted, but even with faint purple smudges beneath her eyes and lines of tension bracketing her mouth, she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. It had nothing to do with her looks and everything to do with who she was.
Smart, fierce, and so damn mine.
I should’ve recognized it sooner, and I would wait forever until she did too.
“So, Perry’s really done, huh?” I asked.
It was odd to talk about something as banal as Perry when the devastation from last night’s conversation hadn’t fully settled. The wreckage floated around us, each shard a silent reminder of what was at stake.
However, jumping right into the reason I was here would be a surefire way to make Sloane shut down. I needed to ease into things, and honestly, I’d take any excuse to talk to her again, no matter the topic.
“For now, but people like him always find a way to survive.” Sloane tapped her pen against her desk, her eyes wary. “We don’t have a meeting scheduled for today.”
“No, we don’t.”
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The nervous rhythm mirrored the tension dripping in the air. It was so potent I could taste it in the back of my throat, and while I wanted nothing more than to grab her and kiss the hell out of her, I had to be smart about this.
