The Man I Thought I Trusted - E. L. Todd Page 0,60
are clean. Calm down.”
“You were walking all over Manhattan in those. Bullshit, they are clean.”
I rolled my eyes and put my feet back on the floor. “Simon Prescott.”
“What?” he asked in shock. “When?”
“Yesterday. I got into a taxi, and he was already sitting there.”
Charlie sat up in his chair and leaned forward so he could get closer to me, so he could lower his voice and I would still be able to hear. “What did he say to you?”
“That I’d made the right decision by abandoning the article. I corrected his assumption and told him I had other obligations that were more important.”
“How did he even know you weren’t on the story anymore?”
I shrugged. “No fucking idea. I warned Arthur about it, though. Told him not underestimate Simon.”
“Is he still going to take the assignment?”
“That’s what he said.”
Charlie sat back in his chair and propped his chin on his closed knuckles. His gaze drifted away as he considered everything I’d just said. Then he shifted his eyes back to me. “How do you feel about it?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve never been this harassed by the subject of an article before.”
“I was thinking the same thing.”
“Normally, it would just make me go after him harder, but now that Dax and I are in this place in our lives, I realize his request wasn’t unreasonable. My line of work really is dangerous, and it’s smart for me to leave it behind.”
He nodded. “I agree.”
“I guess I feel pretty good about it. It’s the first time I really feel like I have a family. Evan was just a mistake, but this is real. It’s my priority now.”
“That’s a really mature way to look at it.”
My phone vibrated in my pocket with a call, so I quickly pulled it out to make sure it wasn’t important.
Charlie kept talking. “You weren’t giving up anything by stepping aside. You’re preparing for your future—”
“Oh my god, shut up!” I shoved my hand over his lips and silenced the words before they left his mouth. “Kat is calling me.”
He pushed my arm down and leaned forward to look at my screen. “Jesus, it is her.”
“What do I do?” I held up the phone to him like I had no idea how to use it.
“Just answer it.”
“What if it’s a butt dial?”
“You won’t know unless you answer it, right?”
I finally took the call and pressed the phone to my ear. “Kat?”
After a long pause, she spoke. “Hey…can we talk?”
I sank into the chair across from her in the bar, unable to believe I was really looking at her in the flesh.
I just sat there, completely still, unable to believe she’d actually called.
She stared at me too, like she didn’t know what to say. She looked down at her hands a couple times and didn’t reach for her wineglass.
I could use some wine right now.
Kat glanced at my left hand where my engagement ring sat and looked back at me again. “Charlie told me that Dax proposed.”
From the second I’d put the ring on, I never took it off, and I’d gotten so used to wearing it that sometimes I forgot it was there. I turned my hand over so I could look at the ring. “Yeah. I moved in last weekend.”
“That’s so great…happy for you.”
“Thanks.”
She continued to stare at me, but she didn’t know what to say, where to start.
I don’t know what to say either. I’d already done everything I could to repair this friendship. It was up to her to accept my apology and move on…or not move on. “Wait, you talked to Charlie?”
She nodded. “He said I’d probably want to know that you’re getting married.”
He didn’t even tell me about it.
“This has been so hard for me, and it’s just less painful if I don’t see you guys anymore. When he told me you were getting married, I realized how much it would hurt if I weren’t there. Not just hurt you, but hurt me too. I’m sorry that I overreacted so much…I just haven’t been thinking clearly.”
My eyes started to water because I finally felt at peace again, finally had my best friend back. “You didn’t overreact. You’re really hurt right now, and when we’re hurt, we respond emotionally. It’s fine.”
“I know I put you in the middle, and I’m sorry for that. There really was no right answer for you, and I understand that.”
“It means the world to me to hear you say that.”
“You’re a good person, Carson. I know you would never stab