I’d spent the past few days between the two gyms. The renovation was moving ahead of schedule, and Cameron and I were suddenly busy with the finer details of getting the gym functional and ready for members. I also had a ribbon-cutting to coordinate so we could announce to the neighborhood that we had officially arrived and were ready for business.
Through it all, I’d seen Will regularly enough. As promised, he heard my opinion from time to time. As promised, he bent to my wishes. When he pushed back, I never hesitated to make my case, which seemed to intrigue him as much as it irritated him. By the end, I could tell he wanted to resolve the matter once and for all back at his apartment, and most of the time so did I. But the tension that strained his interactions with Cameron made me want to focus on the task at hand—getting this done so we could all move on with our lives.
In the meantime, being with Will had created a different kind of tension in me. An unsettled edgy feeling had gnawed at me ever since I’d originally agreed to be his no-strings-attached fuck buddy. Except new strings were popping up all the time. Exclusivity, except when it came to his head-to-toe gorgeous roommate. And his fiercely passionate style of fucking that pushed me past all my boundaries and resulted in a seemingly never-ending stream of sheet-tearing orgasms.
I needed to burn off some of that tension, so after a long day filled with details and a level of multitasking that challenged even me, I found myself on the treadmill, eager for the burn in my muscles. I set an aggressive program on the machine, put my headphones in, and began.
Only a few minutes in, my phone rang, and my mother’s name appeared on the screen.
I turned off the treadmill and slowed my pace as the machine did. “Hi, Mom.”
“Olivia.” Her tone was tight, which wasn’t unusual for her, but most of the time she called me after a couple of lunchtime cocktails, a regular indulgence that she and her socialite friends shared on any given day of the week.
“What’s going on?”
“I’d like to ask you the same thing. What do you think you’re doing, seeing Will Donovan, and why am I only now hearing of this?”
I collected my water bottle, stepped off my machine, and walked away from the noise of the gym as quickly as my feet would carry me. Cameron was in the back office and all the rooms were occupied with classes, so I went outside.
“Who told you that?”
“Everyone knows everyone, and there’s certainly nothing more interesting to talk about up here. You will end this at once. I’ll not have you married off to the son of a convict.”
I rolled my eyes so hard it hurt. “You’re getting a little ahead of yourself, Mother. I’m not marrying anyone, and as far as I know, no one’s been convicted of anything. Even if charges come down on Will’s father, it has nothing to do with him.”
“Rumor says he’s going to take over his father’s hedge fund. If that’s the case, he is involved enough. We invested a million dollars with Reilly and Donovan.”
My jaw fell. “What? When did this happen?”
She sighed. “Back in the spring. You know Vanessa used to work there. Darren lost his temper and got into some trouble with Reilly. Frank did what he felt was best to de-escalate the situation. At the time, it seemed like a sound investment.”
“How come no one ever told me?”
“Why on earth would your father keep you informed of his investments? You left here with hardly any notice. You still haven’t explained why. We thought things were going well with Rob, and suddenly you’re packing your bags and running off to the city with your brothers.”
I clenched my teeth. Everything about this exchange was upsetting and hurtful. I loved my mother, but her claws were constantly out. She rarely cared about how her words fell or how her cold demeanor affected those around her. I’d adopted her coldness because it protected me from people I needed to keep at a distance. But I’d never been able to lash out with words quite the way she could. Watching from the sidelines as she shredded my family and those close to us was one thing. Being the target of her discontent was another.
“I told you I was done talking about Rob.”
My father’s rising star had been a distant memory well before Will had entered my life, and I had no desire to relive my time with him. The one night I’d let him get too close still made my skin crawl when I thought of it.
“He’s handsome, comes from a great family, and your father is bringing him up through the company, mentoring him. He could be a partner at this rate. It would have been a good match.”
“You pushed me at him! You both did. Do you want to know the truth? I slept with him, and I hated every minute of it. I woke up in the morning, and I didn’t recognize myself. I had to leave.”
She made a sound of disgust. “I don’t want to hear about those things. You know that, Olivia.”
“Then you don’t want to hear about what’s going on with Will, either. Stay out of my love life, and I’ll spare you the details.”