Mirage - Alice Tribue Page 0,30
my chair. Ivy saunters in with a cup of coffee in hand just as I’m powering up my laptop.
“Bad night?” she questions, putting the cup in front of me and taking the chair opposite my desk.
“Typical.”
“Well, a typical night for you lately is spent with a hot guy.”
“Nope, no hot guys for me. I had dinner with my dad and went home and watched movies.”
“Where was Nathan?”
“I don’t know, probably getting cozy with the girl who answered his phone last night.”
“No way. Victoria, no way. He’s so into you.”
“He’s into her, too.”
“I’m sure there’s an explanation.”
“Well, I’m not sticking around to hear it. I’m done being a fucking fool; he can go get his kicks somewhere else.”
“Well, did he call you? Did he try to explain?”
“I have one stupid missed call from him and one text message. He hardly made an effort.”
“Is that what’s bothering you? You want him to grovel now?”
“No. Groveling isn’t necessary because I’m done with him. He could say whatever he wants; it makes no difference to me.”
“You’re so stubborn.”
“I didn’t get this far in life by letting people walk all over me.”
“Victoria.”
“Speaking of which, are you ever going to get back to work?”
She looks at me for another moment, knowing that this conversation is officially over. She nods her head before getting up and walking out of my office. The look of pity on her face makes me want to throw something. The last thing I need is her or anyone else’s pity.
I resolve to push all negative thoughts out of my head and focus on work. That’s exactly what I do—for all of ten minutes. That’s because that’s how long it takes Nathan to show up here and barge into my office. I look up from my computer, my eyes going wide at the sight of him. He looks pissed—wait—why in the hell does he look pissed? I’m the one he just screwed over. I glower at him and open my mouth to speak, but he beats me to it.
“Do not ever do that shit again.”
“Excuse me? You are unbelievable. I can’t believe you actually showed your face here,” I say outraged, putting both hands flat on my desk and pushing back my chair to stand.
“Sit down,” he commands, and I do because there’s something raw in his voice that I’ve never heard from him before. I’d be lying if I said that it didn’t scare the shit out of me. It’s not the first time I’ve heard men sound that angry, and in my experience, it never ended well.
He shakes his head at me. “Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Look at me like that. Like you’re fucking scared of me. You know I’m not going to do shit to you.”
“What do you want, Nathan? I’d assumed you figured out the fact that I don’t particularly want to see you. Ever.”
“I called you and texted last night and you ignored both.”
“You called one time. You weren’t exactly falling all over yourself to reach me, and by that time, I’d had heard all I needed to hear.” I shrug my shoulders. “I had absolutely nothing to say to you.”
“Well, I had something to say to you,” he shoots back.
“Well, then you should have answered the fucking phone when I called.”
“Victoria.” His tone sends a chill through me. It’s a tone of warning, but I give nothing away. My face is impassive even though inside I’m raging, gearing up to do battle.
“Say what you need to say so that I can get back to work.”
“Did you enjoy hanging up on Jennifer last night, babe?” he asks smugly.
“Jennifer?” I repeat her name with venom.
“Yes, Jennifer, my sister.”
My entire body goes completely rigid at his question because, if he’s telling the truth, then I’ve seriously just fucked up.
“Yes, you heard me right. My sister is in town until tomorrow afternoon, and she surprised me with a visit. Well, actually, she came out to visit NYU—see, she’s checking out their master’s degree program and the reason I only called you once is because I was dragged into work last night.”
“Oh.”
“Yes, oh. Big fucking oh.”
“Nathan…” I’m at a loss for words. I want to come up with an excuse, a reason for my behavior, but I have nothing.
“I get it,” he says, stalking forward, putting his hands on my desk and leaning forward until his face is merely inches away from mine. “I really do. I’m sure I wouldn’t like it at all if some strange man answered your phone, but you