“I’m telling you now, aren’t I?”
“A little bit late for that.” Red couldn’t even look at her now. “Are you interested in him?”
“Interested in him?”
“Yes. As in, do you want to fuck Kane Wright?”
“Don’t speak to me like that, Red.”
He shook his head. “Well, what am I supposed to think? How did he get your hotel room number?”
“It’s our room, Red. And he’s a very rich man so I’m sure it’s not hard for him to pay someone off and find out what room we’re staying in.”
“What the hell did you two discuss?”
“Lower your voice. I’m serious.”
“I will not fucking lower my voice, Nicole. This is unbelievable. Do you realize that you’ve gone behind my back with my biggest enemy and kept it to yourself?”
Nicole felt the tears starting behind her eyes. This was a pattern with them, a disturbing pattern that kept repeating. She could sense Red growing more and more angry and knew she’d be unable to stop him from going down this same track, like a train heading into a tunnel with another train coming towards it.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “But the conversation we had wasn’t anything that hurt you in any way. I didn’t reveal any personal secrets or tell him something that would upset you.”
“I don’t want you speaking on the phone with a man who’s trying to destroy my life, Nicole. How can you not see that that was wrong?”
“I was caught off guard. I didn’t know what else to do, so I listened to what he had to say.”
Red sat back in his seat, one thumb rubbing his lower lip, the way he did when he was frustrated or hurt. “So what did the two of you talk about?”
“He was telling me that you were making a mistake by not coming to work for him. He said that he’d once lost his business and that it changed him—he warned me that if you lost your company it would be very bad for your mental health.”
“Oh, that’s rich, coming from him,” Red laughed. “He’s the biggest sociopath on the continent, but he’s worried about my mental health. And you believed him, you actually listened to him spouting that garbage?”
Nicole shook her head. “Please don’t do this.”
“What else did he say?”
“He suggested that I should talk to you about reconsidering his offer.”
“And that was all?”
“More or less. It wasn’t a particularly warm, friendly conversation, Red.”
“Could have fooled me,” he said, bitterly.
“Don’t talk to me in that tone of voice,” she said, her insides burning with fear and pain from what she knew was coming. “I don’t want us to fight.”
“And you think I do, Nicole?” Red said. “I’m not the one who got on the phone with your biggest enemy and then planned to make you do something you didn’t want to do.”
“I’ve apologized already,” she said. “What more do you want from me?”
He stared out the window of the car. “I don’t know. I really don’t.”
The rest of the ride was silent.
Nicole was having horrible thoughts about what might come next. She pictured Red sending her directly from the hotel to the airport, imagined herself alone on the flight home from Germany. She felt emptier than she’d felt in a long time.
Red was sitting as far away from her as humanly possible.
Soon, the tears started, and she cried completely silently, wiping them from her eyes as inconspicuously as possible.
And then, as the hotel came in sight, Red stretched his arm across the gap between them and his hand fell on her hand. He was warm and he gripped her hand tightly, squeezing with reassurance. “I’m sorry I yelled,” he said softly.
She turned and looked at him, still with wet eyes. “I’m sorry too.”
“I love you, Nicole.”
“I love you too.” She tried to smile.
She could see the strain behind his eyes and knew he hadn’t gotten past this completely, but she also knew he was trying very hard. Red licked his lips, took a deep breath, and smiled. “The good news is, we can go home.”
***
Later that night, Red was sitting on the bed in his sweatpants and a white t-shirt, reading a book and relaxing.
Nicole came out of the bathroom wearing garters, white lace panties, a white bra, and a pair of black stilettos.
He looked up from his book and his eyes got wider and wider. “What’s this about?” he said.
She bent down to her luggage and found the two scarves she’d brought along on the trip to surprise him. She hadn’t been sure there would be a time to use them, but here it was. She tossed them on the bed. “This is my way of saying sorry for earlier.”
For a moment, his expression grew pained, as though her reminding him of what had transpired earlier was already more than he could take. But that particular storm passed, and then he was smiling again.