Page 37 of Reckless

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I made it back to my office with my jaw tight and my patience gone.

Roman looked up when I came in.

“How bad?”

“So very bad.”

I ignored that and crossed to my desk.My phone buzzed.Then buzzed again.Then again.

Hope, in the group chat my mother believed she’d named something normal and not completely obscene:

FAMILYI glanced down.

Hope: What color should I wear to Adrien’s dinner thing Friday?

Miley: No one say black because you always say black.

Maman: Kelly joon?Are you free for lunch tomorrow?

I needed to talk to Kelly first.We should plan the weekend.

My thumb moved before I thought better of it.

Me: She’s busy.

I set the phone down.

Roman looked up from across the room and said, “Tell me you didn’t just read you telling mom no when involving Kelly.”

I sat behind my desk.“Don’t say a word.”

“So you want to die a slow death.”

My phone buzzed once more.Private text.

Kelly: Stop answering for me.

I smiled before I could stop it.Maman had added her into the chat last night.

I typed back to Kelly: We need to talk.

Kelly: Why?I hate you.

I looked at the screen for one beat longer than necessary.

Then I typed fast.No, you don’t.You want me naked.

I set the phone down before she could answer, because there were certain patterns I was not going to indulge while I was still trying to think.

Roman watched the whole thing with the expression of a man who had been handed gossip better than work and intended to enjoy it.

“You’re an idiot,” he said.

I believed him.

The next three hours were pure discipline.Meetings and contracts.A call with Singapore.A product issue that needed immediate decisions.A legal question Jeff routed up through counsel.By the time noon hit, I’d almost managed to forget the feeling of Kelly’s door shutting in my face and replace it with more manageable annoyances.

Then my mother sent me a photograph.

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