Page 108 of Good at Being Alive
Her eyes widen, and she sits up a little straighter in her chair. “Hello, Miss Daniels,” she says with a degree of respect I definitely don’t deserve. “Were you here to see Theo? I’m not certain when he’ll be in, but Peter’s here. Let me just—” She makes a fluttery motion with her hands and starts to rise but I wave her down.
“Actually,” I say, “I thought maybe I could just leave my bag here and go get some lunch until Theo’s meeting is over?”
She swallows. “I’m not certain he’s coming back. Let me just—”
Before she can continue, Peter appears. “I thought I heard your voice,” he says. His smile doesn’t quite cover his surprise. “Theo never mentioned you were in London.”
The old version of Bex, the one who managed to awkwardly show up where she wasn’t welcome, still lives on, apparently. “It was sort of last-minute. I was hoping to catch him before my flight leaves tonight.”
“I doubt he’ll even be back,” Peter says. “His lunches tend to last hours.” He and the receptionist share an uncomfortable glance, and I think of the night I arrived at my dad’s house and discovered they were having a big party without me. The way they all looked at one another, tripping over themselves to come up with a reason I’d been excluded. Because these lunches clearly entail something Theo doesn’t want me to know about, and I’m the only one in the dark.
“My flight doesn’t leave till seven,” I reply quietly. “Are you sure he won’t be done?”
Peter shoves his hands in his pockets and shakes his head. “Getting back through security at Heathrow is…” He shrugs.
“I know.” It’ll take an hour to get to Heathrow, and it could take another hour to reach my gate. Which means I’ve probably stopped here for nothing. “It was a stupid idea. I suppose I’ll head back.”
“I’ll walk you out,” he says.
We head toward the elevator and he steps inside with me. He’s just being kind, but I sort of feel as if I’m being escorted out by security.
“I wish you could stay longer,” he says, hitting the button for the lobby. “I’d really like to take you out to dinner the next time you’re in town.”
I raise a brow. It’s an odd thing to say to his friend’swife,even if he thinks we won’t last. “You, uh, know I’m married, right?”
He laughs. “Come on, Bex.”
I stiffen. There’s not a single reason Theo would have needed to tell him, especially if he thought Peterlikedme. “What are you saying?”
The elevator reaches the ground floor. Peter holds the door and follows me into the lobby. “I knew it was fake the minute I met you, and he admitted it when I asked.”
I tug my jacket around me, chilled. I can’t believe Theo told him. Peter was in both London and Paris, toasting our marriage while he knew exactly what it really was, and Theo let me sit there like an asshole, the only one who wasn’t in on the joke. No wonder he didn’t want me having drinks with them.
Peter shifts his weight, flinching a little. “Look, I’ve known half the women the guy’s dated, and they’re all…” He trails off,clearly searching for a euphemism. How fortunate that I excel at that.
“Quiet? Sophisticated? Elegant? Refined?”
He sighs. “Yes. But that doesn’t mean everyone agrees with him. I’d take you over a thousand Wendys.”
I stagger backward as my stomach goes into freefall. “Wendy?”
He blinks. “Fuck.You didn’t know.”
I didn’t know. But now Ido.
Wendy is the complication. The woman he was with, whose story wasn’t his to tell. Because she’s fuckingmarried.That night at the pub when she was so smug and so bitter…It’s because she knew it was fake and maybe theyallknew it was fake, and Theo let me sit there doing my best to persuade them otherwise. “MarriedWendy?”
He grimaces. “To be fair, I think Wendy led him to believe the marriage was a little more done than it was. But she’s always been willing to say what she had to say and accept the little that Theo has to offer, for some reason.”
What was it Kylie and Jasper said? That he’d been with someone for decades. It had seemed ridiculous at the time. Maybe it wasn’t.
“The little he has to offer?” I ask quietly. “It seems to me thatshewas the one with little to offer, given she already had a husband.”
He shrugs. “I just meant that he was never going to want a relationship, and it’s all around his schedule. He’s gone so often and is dealing with the U.S. office at night because of the time difference. A long lunch here or there isn’t enough for most of us.”
My head jerks up at “a long lunch.”
He wouldn’t. Theo would notfabricatea work meeting so he could rush back here to have sex with Wendy. I know him, and I know he wouldn’t do that, and yet…he’s been secretive allalong, never giving me a moment of reassurance or discussing the future, and now he’s off on a long lunch, one everyone’s being awkward about. One he himself was awkward about. He wouldn’t do that and yet…I’ve been wrong about people before.
