can bet I will.”
His smile got larger. “And why don’t you warn your boss—tell Monique she’ll stay a small potato. I don’t care if she went down on Miles under the table at Brigstons, she’s not getting that account.”
“You sexist jerk,” Tess growled, disappointment flooding her at his presumption of how Monique… or any woman did business. “You think women earn business by getting on their knees? We don’t have to give sexual favors to get accounts. Our work speaks for itself. How dare you imply such a thing?”
His expression shuttered. “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”
“You used the words.”
“Don’t slant the intent. I wasn’t implying Monique offered sexual favors for Oedipus’s business. My point was no matter how good the offer from Upstart, you aren’t getting the account. Period. I’ll do whatever it takes, but the longstanding agreement between Ullo and Oedipus will stand. I’ll bet my job on it.”
Tess lifted her eyebrows. “We’ll see. And it might literally be your job on the line. You forget how well I know my father. He won’t suffer you to lose Miles’s business. Paired with the other losses…” She trailed off with a shrug, feeling a little ugly, but a lot powerful.
But she didn’t want to see Ullo lose business, even if she herself was making moves toward accomplishing just that. Why did Graham and Ullo have to lose in order for Tess to win?
“I’ll see you tomorrow night, Tess,” Graham said, his tone detached. A pang of regret flickered inside her at his coldness. This was what she wanted, right? They were on the opposite sides of a river with no bridge in sight. It was Ullo versus Upstart. Graham versus Tess. With no real winners.
She nodded and lowered herself into her car. “Yeah, I’ll see you.”
Graham walked away and Tess told herself she was glad. But she wasn’t. Her heart hurt for what had been between them… and what would never be again.
The other side, a place where hope lay.
And that place felt very far away.
TESS WALKED INTO the Oedipus May Madcap Mixer with Nick on her arm… or rather she was on Nick’s arm. Either way, she’d conceded to a date with her ex and had selfishly used this annual fete hosted by the Oedipus Social Club as the one-more-shot merely so she wouldn’t have to attend alone.
It had nothing to do with Graham and everything to do with looking confident and successful.
And for all of ten minutes she’d convinced herself Nick deserved another chance… until he’d shown up all tanned from a week of golf on the Gulf Coast, dressed in an Armani suit, smelling like new money, and she’d felt zero attraction. In fact, seeing him so loose, smiling, and making flirty jokes made her somewhat disdainful. He kept trying with little brushes of his arm and casting meaningful glances, but the effect fell flat.
Graham had ruined her for all men… or maybe what little she and Nick had once had together had dried up like Granny B’s estrogen.
“Get you something to drink, babe?” Nick said, wrapping an arm around her waist. She waited to feel warmth, some flicker of something at Nick’s touch, but there was nothing.
Pulling away, she smiled. “I’ll take my usual.”
Nick brushed back his golden hair. “Aye-aye, captain.”
“Hey, I’m the captain around these here parts,” Miles Barrow said from behind her.
Tess spun with a grin—how could she not? The man was hard to dislike. “Miles.”
“Ah, Tess of the Ullos,” the captain of Oedipus joked, kissing her cheek and giving her a brief squeeze. “You’re looking ravishing, as usual.”
“You flatterer,” she murmured with a smile. Miles Barrow had been the captain and art director for Oedipus for as long as she could remember. Flamboyant, loud, and slightly annoying, he loved his position of power within the super krewe, but there was something decidedly lovable about the overweight man with a gray-streaked beard.
“Of course I am, but I ain’t no liar, neither, darlin,’” he said, his New Orleans East accent thick as gumbo.
Nick stuck out his hand. “Miles.”
“How ya been, friend?”
“Good. I’m here with Tess, aren’t I?”
Miles nodded. “Damn straight. Go get you some food. We got everythin’ you want. Have a ball.”
Nick slipped away and headed to the bar. Tess nodded at Miles, knowing Monique expected her to help bring in his business. But he wouldn’t be easy to pull away from Ullo because he was the kind of guy who respected tradition. Frank Ullo had been a friend as