THE SECOND TO last thing I needed was to see the news that Nicole was staying with Gabriel everywhere. Everywhere. Every magazine, every news outlet, even the major ones that were supposed to report real news were talking about it. Apparently they’d become the it thing to talk about since Nicole was being painted as the fan who caught the star. Bullshit. It was all bullshit. He wasn’t a star when she met and married him, but I guess they’d forgotten that bit, or they didn’t care since this sold more stories. I waited the week out. They’d gone to the premiere on Wednesday night and I’d been dealing with the gossip since, but I had more important things to do like finish up my other case, and it was like Corinne said, she’d only agreed to a couple of things, one being the premiere. As her attorney, I had no right to be upset about it. That didn’t mean it stopped the feelings of annoyance and discomfort from spreading and sticking, though.
I liked to think I was pretty good about leaving my work in the office, unless I had something major pending, but this thing with Nicole felt like it was taking over my life outside of work. On Sunday, while I was straightening up my house, it was all I could think about. As if on cue, my phone vibrated in the pocket of my sweat pants. I stopped washing the plate in my hand and switched off the water when I saw Corinne’s name on the screen. She rarely ever called me on weekends. If we had things to say to each other, it all went through email. I answered it quickly.
“Umm . . .” she said. “Are you watching the red carpet by any chance?”
It took me a moment to understand what she was saying. I didn’t remember what was on tonight, but I reached for the control and switched on the TV nonetheless.
“No. What am I looking for?” I asked as I flipped through channels.
“Golden Globes,” she said. I stopped on what I assumed was the event when I saw a woman wearing a fancy black dress holding a microphone and smiling. My heart dropped into the pit of my stomach when she held that microphone up to Gabriel Lane, who was standing beside her, looking larger than life, and then Nicole, who was standing beside him, wearing a red dress that hugged all her fucking curves, looking like she belonged in my bed.
“What the fuck?” I growled. The Globes wasn’t part of the agreement.
“I wasn’t sure if this was added to the original addendum,” Corinne said.
“Fuck no, it wasn’t.”
“Okay. Well, I’ll let you go. I just wanted you to see it just in case.” She paused. “Do you think they’re maybe getting back together and she’s unsure?”
I swallowed back my impending growl as I looked back at the screen, back at Nicole, who was now holding Gabriel’s hand as he looked down at her with a smile. I was going to kill her. I was going to fuck her and then kill her. What the fuck was she thinking? What the fuck did I want her to be thinking? I didn’t even know anymore. I couldn’t be sure. But the thought of those red lips on anybody else but me was enough to drive me fucking crazy.
“I don’t know. I’ll get to the bottom of it,” I said.
“May I make a suggestion?” she asked just as I was hanging up.
“What?” I said, my impatience clear in my voice.
“Maybe ask William?”
“What a great idea, Corinne. Let me call her father, who happens to be my boss, and ask him if he knows what the fuck is going on with my client. I’m sure that will bode well with the whole ‘maybe you can become partner when this shit is over, Victor’ thing.” I paused to take a breath. “I’ll handle it.”
I closed my eyes and started counting backward from ten. I felt like any moment a vein would pop out of my forehead, or my neck, or my fucking arm with the amount of force I was using on my remote control.
I called my sister to see if she was watching. Maybe I should watch this with other people present so I wouldn’t end up trashing my entire fucking house.
“Mia and Jensen are here,” my sister said upon answering the phone.
Shit. I’d forgotten our friends were coming into town.
“Are they there right now?” I asked.
“Yeah, they didn’t bring the kids, though. We’re watching the Globes. Want to come over?”
“Yeah, I’ll be there soon.”
I’d picked up the keys, a bottle of wine, and started walking to my car before we’d ended the call. When I got to my sister’s house the front door was slightly open, so I knocked loudly and stepped in, closing and locking it behind me.
“In here,” Estelle yelled.
“Oh God,” her best friend Mia groaned, and then caught sight of the bottle in my hands and perked up. “Oh. He brought wine.”
I scoffed as I leaned over to kiss her cheek, and my sister’s. “Now we know the way to Mia’s heart isn’t corny love stories, after all,” I said, referring to her husband, and my other best friend, who was a writer and had made it his life goal to write stories about Mia, even when they weren’t together. Fucking pansy. “Where is Jensen anyway?”
“Out back with Oliver, smoking a cigar.”
My eyes nearly bulged out their sockets. “Oliver is smoking?”
“No. Jensen is. Oliver’s probably lecturing him on how bad it is.”
I chuckled, handed over the wine, and headed that way, but stopped when I got to the door and turned back around. “What do you guys know about Nicole Alessi and Gabriel Lane?”
Mia’s smile widened. She tucked her short blonde hair behind both ears and sat up straight. “Well, aside from the fact that he’s so hot,” she said, and as soon as the words left her mouth Jensen opened the door behind me.
He looked at me and smiled, greeting me with our usual handshake and hug before looking at her again.
“I know I’m hot, babe, but you really need to stop telling everybody you see.”