Page 36 of A Deal with the Devil

Matt’s smile fades as his gaze flickers back to Hayes’s arm around my waist, but he extends his hand. “Nice to meet you,” he says.

“A pleasure,” replies Hayes in that way only a British male can—he sounds polite and dismissive simultaneously.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” Matt says, turning to me, looking…amazed, as if this is some incredible stroke of luck. He seems to have forgotten how ugly it ended. “I texted you so many times and you never replied.”

Ah, yes, all those rambling texts, half of them drunk. Always looking for forgiveness. I will never cheat again, I swear. Can we just talk? You’re still my best friend. It’s weird not speaking to you at all.

I really have no response. I’m not sorry I ignored him. He deserved worse.

“How’s the book coming?” he asks, as if everything that went wrong between us never happened. As if he isn’t the person who tried to squash all my dreams in one fell swoop—not two weeks after my father died. I’m not about to tell him it’s still a disaster. I’ve made some progress, thanks to Sam’s suggestions and the addition of Julian, but I still need to spit out about two hundred pages in two months’ time.

“It’s great,” I lie. “They gave me an extension…because of my dad.” I’m grateful my voice doesn’t sound as shaky as I feel.

His smile flickers out. “I heard about Charlotte,” he says. He appears earnest, but who knows? He’s an actor, after all. “I’m sorry.”

I know I should ask him how he is or mention his movie, but small talk doesn’t interest me. What I really want to say to him right now is how could you? How did I never see it coming? And how much of our relationship was a lie? A part of me still can’t believe it turned out the way it did. This is the boy I attended prom with, graduated college with. I still remember our first apartment, how walking through IKEA with him felt like the start of a grand adventure. I thought I’d gotten so lucky, and I wasn’t lucky at all. I was just fooled. But even looking at him now, I can’t find it, the sign he’d betray me.

Hayes’s arm tightens, pulling me closer. “Sorry, Max,” he says, sounding anything but sorry. “I need to steal her away for a moment. Excuse us.”

He pulls me down the hall, his arm still around me. My body moves on auto pilot, relieved one of us knows what to do right now. I don’t look back at Matt, but I can feel his eyes on me as we walk away.

When we’re finally out of sight, I suck in a few desperately needed breaths as Hayes leans me against the wall, his hand on my hip as if I might not be able to support my weight. I focus on Hayes’s chest, right before me, trying to get my heart rate back under control. When that doesn’t work, I close my eyes, resting my head against the wall behind me.

“I would never have asked you to come if I’d known he’d be here.” His voice is soft and apologetic.

My eyes open to find him standing far closer than I realized. I reply to his chest instead of his face. It’s easier that way.

“I still don’t see it,” I whisper. “I thought maybe, in person, I’d see whatever I missed before, how I could have been so blindsided. But he looks exactly the same.”

He pulls me against him, and he’s so big it feels like I’ve half-crawled inside him when his arms go around me. “He was an idiot. Anyone who’s met the two of you already knows. Jonathan said, and I quote, ‘Matt’s the stupidest SOB who ever lived. He’s never going to do better than Tali.’”

I blink back tears. I wasn’t going to cry over Matt, but Jonathan’s loyalty is worth more than gold to me. “Jonathan’s a good friend.”

“It had nothing to do with being a good friend. It was just common sense. I’d never even met Matt”— he says the name with a sneer—“and I knew he couldn’t do better than you.”

It’s sweet, but I know he’s just saying that to make me feel better.

“Did you see the girl he’s with?” I ask. “I’d say most people think she’s an upgrade.”

His hands cradle my jaw, forcing me to meet his eyes. “You have the purest face I’ve ever seen in my life,” he says quietly. “A face I couldn’t possibly replicate, and if I could, she and every other female here would ask me to.”

I stare at him. He’s so earnest right now I almost think he means it. “She looks like all the women you bring home,” I reply.

“Yes, well, one drinks wine from a box when Chateau Lafitte isn’t available,” he says briskly, releasing me. “As you are clearly in no state to remain—”

“I’m fine,” I cut in. I’ve suffered worse losses than Matt. I’m not letting him run me out of here. “Really.”

“You’re a terrible liar,” he says. “There’s not anyone here I want to talk to anyway.”

He wraps an arm around me, tucking me close to his side as he starts making his way through the crowd. It makes me feel small and safe and cared for, a sensation I like a little too much.

We are halfway to the door when he stops suddenly, pressing me to one side of the circular bar, his hands cradling my face once more.

“Matt’s looking,” he says softly. “Just go with it.”

And then he kisses me.

He has the warmest, softest, most perfect lips I’ve ever felt, and he kisses exactly the way I imagined he would...unhurried but as if he’s already a step ahead, already planning to pull my dress over my head and take me right where I stand.