How to Marry Your Frenemy - London Casey Page 0,94

leaking from the top. And even in the shower… the soap and shampoo and conditioner lids… they were all opened.

Was is that hard to close a fucking lid?

I exited the bathroom and had to step over two more pairs of shoes on the floor.

She had a hook on the wall near the door for keys and yet on the table against the wall, there were keys.

I was pissed.

Anger filling my heart.

Blocking my… my love for her…

I opened the fridge.

It was almost empty again.

A half-gallon of orange juice rested on its side with a small pool of orange juice around it.

The dishwasher was mostly full but not run.

It smelled like whatever the last meal that I cooked for her was.

I slapped my hands to the counter.

How did someone live like this? She couldn’t even take five minutes and clean up her clothes? Make the bed? She couldn’t even get groceries delivered to her apartment?

But, sure, she could find time to handle all of her mother’s personal financial issues, right? She could take care of her mother, yet she struggled to take care of herself.

Then she could show up to the office and act like nothing was ever wrong.

“Who does that?” I growled.

I pushed from the counter and looked up.

The kitchen ceiling brought back the memory of me and her on the kitchen floor.

The night I cooked the stir-fry and she started touching me… so I stripped her, tasted her and then fucked her on the counter. Then we fucked on the floor. And we stared at the ceiling…

“Fuck,” I said.

I swallowed hard.

I looked around the apartment again.

And that’s when it hit me.

I wasn’t mad about the bra, the high heels, the messy bed, the toothpaste missing the lid, or the dishwasher that was full and smelled like old food.

I was mad that I’d never get to complain about it again.

Everything that made me want to hate Callie was the same thing that made me love her.

I loved her.

I was so fucking wildly in love with her…

I groaned.

I ran to the apartment door and left.

I knew right where to find her.

And I knew what I had to do - and say.

When I got to the office, I paused at the main doors and considered what I was about to do.

This was really it for me.

It was all or nothing now with Callie.

The marriage. The bonus. Being frenemies. All of it was gone to me.

This was about the truth and being honest with ourselves.

It didn’t mean we were going to move in together and make the marriage real, then buy a house and have kids or anything crazy like that.

It was about feelings. It was about letting the rest of our walls down to one another.

I was sorry for snooping in on her mother’s business. I shouldn’t have done that. It wasn’t about learning Callie’s secrets or figuring out who she was. I did that out of love. I saw a problem and for the first time in my life, I wanted to fix that problem even though it didn’t help me financially.

My entire life revolved around finding the next deal - in business and in the bedroom.

With Callie, I just wanted to make her smile.

Shit, this is what love feels like?

I felt like I was going to be sick.

I opened the office door and started my charge to her office.

The office was dark and quiet.

Just a few hallway lights were on.

It felt almost ominous as I walked toward her office with speed.

That was okay.

I’d tell her I loved her. She’d confess the same to me.

Then my tongue would write the same message between her legs.

And then I’d-

I stopped when I smelled something familiar.

Vince’s cologne.

“I’m writing the bonus to you. Right now. And when I sign my name, that’s it. Then I get what I want. From you. Everything you ever did for my nephew, you’re going to do to me.”

I heard Vince’s voice.

I inched forward and made sure not to be seen.

Vince was in Callie’s office.

Standing at her desk.

“There,” he said. “The check is written. Now let’s finish what we started here, Callie. This is about us now. Not Jackson. It was never about Jackson.”

I watched in almost a state of horror as Vince touched Callie’s face.

She reached up and grabbed his hand.

There was a moment when they both froze.

Then he moved in for a kiss.

They were setting me up all along?

That was the plan?

To fuck me over?

Vince wanted to cut me out of the company my father started… and Callie would