Someone I Used to Know - By Blakney Francis Page 0,81

in whoever my bed partner might be?

Cat-green eyes were narrowed at me, explaining how much she didn’t buy my bullshit.

“Do not fuck this up for me, Davies. I need this.”

And then she was done. I could say nothing, do nothing. All I could do was watch her walk away.

Her shadow remained though. Fran didn’t take the place Madeline left unoccupied, and instead sidled up to the place beside me. She’d heard everything.

“Does everyone think we’re rooting?” I asked casually. My fingers tapped the arm of the chair. My other hand resisted the urge to ruffle my hair, mindful of the hairstylist milling about, ready to jump out and scold me at any moment.

“You are sleeping with her, and believe me, if the princess of unobservance has picked up the scent, then pretty much anyone who cares enough to know, does.”

She made an excellent point.

My gaze sought Adley across the beach. I’d been placed under a tent earlier, with Georgia screeching about my complexion and the sun’s aging properties, but Adley was free to stand out of the shadows. She was dwarfed at Alfred’s side, speaking to him with exaggerated facial expressions. The exotic bodyguard looked as blank as always, but I couldn’t imagine how. Her hair, which had been pulled into a ponytail all day, was a mess, windblown and wild. Her cheeks were chapped, peach-colored, and lips entirely too kissable.

“Why does she even care?” I took the subject and my eyes off of Adley.

“Exactly the reason she told you. Never doubt Madeline’s capability for self-preservation. She needs Adley for this film. If you hurt Adley, and she leaves, then Madeline’s screwed.” She paused and I let the silence stew because it was clear she had something more to say. “I’m also going to choose to believe, somewhere deep down, even though she’d never admit it, that Madeline actually doesn’t want Adley to be hurt either. Maybe, it’s just some residual effect of pretending to be her so much, but maybe, just maybe, she actually cares for her on some human level.”

“Why is she so convinced that I’ll be the one doing the hurting?” Okay, so I didn’t specialize in long-term relationships. I wasn’t a root rat. For a man in my position, I thought I’d done a reasonable job of not abusing my power. Their assumptions niggled at me.

“I really do like you, Declan,” the words were promising, but her tone lacked encouragement.

“But?”

“But I like Adley too. She’s…” I couldn’t fault her struggle for words. Adley was hard to pin with a label, “unintentionally likeable.”

I smiled at that. It was an oddly fitting description.

“Don’t look so charmed. I’m not finished.” My grin deflated. “Adley’s not The Girl in the Yellow Dress. At least she’s not anymore…But that doesn’t ease the burden of the scars that are still hers to bare. She doesn’t need someone like you in her life. She needs people who are going to stick around, and you and I both know, you’re not a stick-er. You can’t be the kind of person she needs.”

“Why not? Why are you both so sure that I’m not exactly what she needs? Who are you to make that kind of decision for her?”

She said nothing, scrutinizing me as if she was learning something new. It made me wish I’d kept my mouth shut.

“You actually care about her, don’t you?” There was no attempt to disguise the utter disbelief that she felt.

My composure frayed at the edges, and with clenched fists and eyes straying everywhere but her prodding caramel irises, I had no response. It was one thing I wouldn’t lie about. My silence was telling enough.

“Well then, you really don’t have a choice at all…You have to let her go.”

***

I sat there the rest of the day, distracted by the words left echoing in my head, bouncing off the cavernous hillsides of my empty mind.

To distract myself, I turned my phone on. The number of missed calls didn’t even eclipse the triple digit mark – an improvement.

I really needed to make a final decision on an assistant. Everyone we’d met had been qualified, but none of them jumped out at me as the obvious choice. Maybe I was expecting too much. I wasn’t holding auditions for my new best mate. I just needed to choose.

Adley had told me to pick the little blond Barbie, Candace Harris. She said it was obvious from the interviews I’d connected with her the most, and I couldn’t exactly share that I’d only been ‘connecting’