over. And even then, you may have to hide your relationship with her."
"Why would I have to hide it?"
"You want Sophie to lose her job? Because you know Celine will go after Sophie when she finds out. You know how jealous she gets."
"Celine's not going to get Sophie fired. She wouldn't do that."
"Aiden, seriously?" Pete turns to me. "This is Celine we're talking about. She got that girl at the shoe store fired for not ordering the right size."
"She didn't get her fired. She just complained to the manager."
"And the girl got fired. You don't think the two are connected?"
"Okay, fine, so maybe I'll hide it until this dinner is over, but after that, there's nothing Celine can do to get Sophie fired."
"She could hire them for another event. And you know she would. She'd do it just to get Sophie fired."
I hate to agree with him but he's right. If Celine was angry enough, she would totally do that.
"And what about your job?" Pete asks. "You just broke up with your boss' daughter."
"Roger isn't going to fire me for that. I make him a lot of money. I'm always bringing in new contracts, more than anyone else there."
"It may not matter if you've upset his little girl."
"He's not like that. He doesn't let his personal life interfere with his business." I slide my empty whisky glass to the side and replace it with the full one. "I'm not worried about my job, but I do think there's some truth in what you said about Celine going after Sophie. Maybe I could talk to her. Stop her before she does anything."
"Aiden, she's not going to listen to you. She hates you for leaving her, and when she finds out there's someone else, she's going to hate you even more. And to get back at you, she'll go after the person you care about."
"Sophie." I blow out a breath, frustrated and angry because I know that he's right. Celine doesn't handle rejection well, and her way of getting back at me is to go after what matters most to me.
"So what are you going to do?"
"I don't know, but I have to at least let Sophie know what's going on."
"You can't see her. You know that, right?"
"Maybe not in the city but..." I don't finish the thought, knowing he'll be against it.
"But what? You'll arrange to see her somewhere else? Like where?"
I don't answer him, picking up my whiskey and taking a drink.
"That place in Vermont?" he says. "The inn?"
I look at him. "It's the perfect place. I have to go back there anyway for work and Sophie has to go there to do her community service."
"Do you know when?"
"No. She hasn't told me."
"I don't know, Aiden. It seems risky."
"Why would it be risky? There's no way Celine would ever drive up there and find us together."
"She might, if she really wants to prove she was right about you having someone else."
"When is the last time Celine left the city? Like ten years ago? And that was for her aunt's funeral. Her mom forced her to go. And it was only two hours away. This is four, and Celine doesn't like driving. There's no way she'd show up there."
Pete shrugs. "If that's what you want to do." He motions the bartender over. "I'll have another."
"What are you saying? You don't think I should?"
"No matter what I say, you're going to do what you want."
"You think I should stay away from Sophie."
"For a few weeks, yeah. There's too much at stake. Your job. Sophie's job. Your friendship with Tanner."
"You just said Tanner would get over it."
"He will, but that doesn't mean he'll like it. And I know you think your job is safe but there are plenty of good sales guys out there. Roger could replace you with someone else if that's what it takes to get Celine to quiet down. I know you say he puts business before his personal life but Celine's going to demand that he fire you and she won't give up until he does. As for Sophie's job, she's just an assistant. It'd be easy for them to let her go."
I finish my drink. "Let's talk about something else."
"Aiden, I'm serious. You need to—"
"I got it," I say in an angry tone. "Just let it go. Talk about something else."
He tells me about work and a story he's doing for the magazine about a new type of road bike.