Page 24 of Desk & Deception
I looked up.
The security guard near the gate watched me with concern.
“Yeah,” I answered automatically.
He hesitated. “Your guy looked pretty worried.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“He got here almost two hours ago.”
I froze, my eyes widening. “What?”
“Sat over there most of the time.” He pointed toward a shaded bench nearby. “I almost told him to go wait in his car.”
That was a long time for someone who usually treated every minute like it mattered.
“He kept checking that cooler,” he added with a grin. “Asked me three times if he could take a quick peek in the lot to make sure you hadn’t left already. When he first arrived and then again each hour, like clockwork. Gotta admit I’m glad you gothere when you did, or else I would’ve been tempted to let him in.”
“I’m not sure anyone could blame you,” I reassured him. “He can be persuasive.”
When I got inside my car, I finally gave in to temptation of my own and opened the cooler. Reid had downplayed what he’d brought. Two containers of his mom’s chicken salad were inside, with crackers and sourdough bread to go along with it. There were several smaller packages with avocado, baby arugula, and beefsteak tomato. All of my favorite sandwich toppings. Plus, a giant pickle, fruit salad, and potato chips. And a stack of the pretty napkins his mom used, with tiny yellow flowers printed on them.
He’d gone all out but hadn’t asked for anything in return. I wasn’t sure what to do with that. It seemed so out of character for the man I’d fallen in love with, but in a good way because he’d put what I needed ahead of what he wanted.
Unfortunately, the small lift in my spirits only lasted until I got back home because my family decided it was the perfect time to start pestering me.
My phone buzzed with text notifications.
Mom
Have you talked to Reid yet?
Sienna
Don’t drag this out forever. You’re only hurting yourself.
I stared at the screen before locking it again.
My family wanted me to take Reid back because of what he represented. His career was easier for them to understand than me being a makeup artist, no matter how successful I was. They’d never expressed any interest in what I did, but Reid hadwaited in a parking lot for two hours because he’d remembered I forgot to eat when I was in charge of last looks.
Knowing that, a tiny crack formed in the anger I’d been holding on to so tightly. And I wasn’t happy that he still had that kind of power over me.
12
REID
Ipushed my cart through the bright aisles of Erewhon on a quiet Saturday morning, eight days after I’d last laid eyes on the woman I loved. Therapy had been forcing me to sit with uncomfortable truths these past couple of weeks, and today, my mind wouldn’t let me escape them.
I kept catching myself reaching for things without thinking. A jar of sea moss gel I thought Lila would like because she had mentioned wanting to try it. The blue goop was supposed to be great for skin and hair health, something about collagen production if I was correctly remembering what she’d said. A bag of chili lime dried mangoes she always kept in her pantry for late-night cravings. A small bottle of raw honey I knew she wanted to try for her morning tea, but she’d always rolled her pretty hazel eyes over the price.
Each item felt like evidence of how much space she had taken up in my life without me fully realizing it until she was gone. I’d always known she was important, but I had also convinced myself that being constantly available for work made me a good provider. A responsible man. Someone Lila could count on.
Therapy was stripping that illusion away, one painful layer at a time. I had treated her needs as background noise. Something I could address later when the next big deal was closed or after the next crisis was handled. I had minimized her discomfort because it was easier than confronting how much of my energy I poured into the firm instead of us.
Now that Lila was no longer there to absorb it, the pattern felt glaringly obvious.
I stopped in front of an absurd facial wellness display, staring at an edible face mask that somehow used magnets to mix the ingredients. The packaging was sleek, and the product was wildly overpriced. A month ago, I would’ve made fun of it and rolled my eyes at the latest LA wellness trend that had gone viral on social media.
