In A Fix - Mary Calmes Page 0,34
where Kent was still pouring. It wasn’t going to be pretty.
Astor stood, with all the purpose and dignity she possessed, and walked toward the room she was supposed to share with Brig, and I followed, making it to the room just as she began grabbing things out of drawers and packing her suitcase.
“You lied to me,” I said, instead of hello, instead of asking if she was okay, going to the closet to retrieve her garment bag for her.
“I’ve been doing it a long time, playing this game,” she agreed, smiling sadly, her tone rueful, resigned. “But I did make it clear that he wasn’t my fiancé.”
“Yes, you did,” I agreed.
“I told him that I would play my part as long as he never made a fool of me,” she explained, her tone stoic, flat. “Well, now he has, so I’m done.”
“I don’t think everyone noticed.”
“I assure you it’s being shared and tweeted about as we speak.”
“Probably,” I conceded, because there were no secrets anymore.
“I’m done pretending, anyway.”
“Why do it?” I was interested. People did all manner of things for money, power, but Astor didn’t need Brig’s money, and I’m sure she possessed a certain amount of power in her own right.
“First,” she began, waiting as I laid the bag down on the bed, unzipping it before returning to the closet, “being with Brig put me in contact with a slew of influential business people I wouldn’t have met otherwise. People with money to burn, who love to throw vast sums of cash at causes, in the name of altruism. I’m not ashamed to admit that the organizations I oversee benefitted immensely from that.”
I was quiet, wanting her to go on.
“Second,” she continued, placing clothes in the suitcase, “I gained even more solid social contacts than business, and you know as well as I do, it’s not always what you know, but who.”
“Yes.”
“Third…we met not long after I’d gone through an ugly breakup. I was at the point where I was just done, you know?” I nodded to let her know I got it. And then she grimaced, like what she was about to say next tasted bad on her tongue. “It was actually my idea to be his cover story.” The look on my face must have registered as shock, because she hurried on. “Brig would become CEO of Stanton-Downey, I’d reap the various benefits of his network of connections, and as long as we were both discreet, we could present as the happy and committed power couple while still leading our own private lives. But things have changed in the last six months,” she said, pensive as I removed her dresses from the closet and rehung them in the garment bag.
“What things?” I asked, because I had an idea what she could be alluding to.
“Nolan,” she replied flatly, resuming her packing. “The more time we spent together, the more I realized that perhaps I’m not as selfless, or as done with the idea of a relationship, as I thought I was.”
I was quiet, letting her talk.
“Every time I see Nolan,” she said wistfully, “he’s kinder, more attentive and thoughtful than the time before,” she said, her voice strained, the smile she tried to give me, watery. “I’d have to be blind not to see his interest, and it made me wonder, you know?”
“About what?”
She shrugged. “What he sees.”
“In you, you mean?”
Quick nod.
“Probably what most people do,” I replied, gesturing at her. “A bright, beautiful, funny woman who’s easy to talk to.”
She bit her bottom lip. “You see?” she choked out. “That’s what I mean. Apparently I’m not great at seeing that in myself.”
“Brig takes you for granted, and you’re not even really friends.”
“No,” she agreed, “we’re not.”
“So there’s no support system there.”
She wiped at her eyes quickly. “No, not in the slightest.”
“And so hanging around, after the way he blew you off out there, because he couldn’t see anyone but Eric…that broke the rules of your arrangement.”
“It did,” she confirmed. “You and I both know that was impossible to miss. An entire room full of people ceased to exist when Brig caught sight of Eric.”
“It was unmistakable, you’re right.” I cleared my throat. “You have every right to feel embarrassed.”
She nodded, tipping her head to the side. “Do I?” Her voice held a note of daring, and I realized what I’d said.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply––”
“No, I know,” she said, dismissing my apology with a wave of her hand. “It’s not like I couldn’t have predicted