“It’s a long story, but the gist of it is I played into a misconception from a client and then I may have led her mother to believe we were getting married, so she’d be okay with her moving in.”
“What. The. Fuck? Back up for a minute. Izzy is living with you? Since when?”
“Since yesterday.”
“You had her under your roof for one night and you already slept with her?”
“It’s not like that.”
“I know it’s not. It’s Izzy. Was she wasted? Please don’t tell me you took advantage of her.”
“We were drinking, yeah, but it wasn’t like she didn’t know what was going on. Neither of us were that plastered.”
“How in the world did this happen? I mean, she has kept you an arm’s length away for years. It was almost like it was her mission in life not to let you get into her pants. Damn, man, you can’t fuck this up.”
“Don’t you think I know that? I mean, it was just last night, and I thought I had everything figured out. Then I came out to the kitchen, and she’s already gone. She left me a note and breakfast. She made me breakfast, man. I seriously don’t deserve this woman.”
“So you haven’t even talked to her?”
“No, the last thing I remember was kissing her goodnight. I woke up this morning to a cold bed and a letter. Her things are still here though, so at least she isn’t running on me.”
“Micah, I don’t really know what to say. Izzy is... well, she’s like family at this point. I think you should talk to her right now, not me.”
“But I don’t know what to say to her. I know what I want to say. I want to tell her she is a fucking goddess and I want to keep her as my own, but I can’t. Luca, you made a clean break years ago from all of our family shit. I still have Dante up my ass, and I can’t let her get involved with all that. Hell, I have one of his idiot guys on my payroll right now because he needed somewhere to stash him. Until I can really break away from him, I can’t get involved with her. I won’t.”
“I thought we paid him off last year.”
“We did. I paid off the last of Dad’s loans from the family a year ago, but Dante is still a client, so he thinks he’s still involved.”
“You’re not trading money from the business, are you?”
“No, of course not. Only his personal investments that are tied to his real estate. Izzy doesn’t even know about it all. I handle all of his trades myself.”
“I had no idea.”
“Yeah, probably not the best decision, but you know how Dante is. He doesn’t like taking no for an answer.”
“You need to talk to Izzy. Don’t tell her about Dante yet, but figure out where her head is. She deserves at least that much, and in the meantime, keep your dick in your pants. I don’t care what she tells you, fake relationship or not, she doesn’t deserve you cheating on her. I still can’t believe she agreed to this mess.”
“I didn’t give her much choice.”
“Why does that not surprise me?”
“I’ve got to get going. I should have been at the office a half hour ago. Tell Jenny I love her.”
“I will. Good luck, Bro.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
Isabel was a nervous wreck. She had been since she climbed out of Micah’s bed at two o’clock in the morning. He had just fallen asleep and her mind was racing a million miles a minute. There was no way she’d get any sleep laying next to him, so she carefully grabbed her things and made her way into the guest bedroom. The space helped, but didn’t resolve her anxiety. Anxiety had crippled her for years and knowing Micah was just two doors down didn’t help. She wanted to be with him, but knew she couldn’t. If he found out about her past, she wouldn’t survive. She had kept it all from him for longer than she had expected and if he found out now, he would look at it as a complete betrayal. Agreeing to be in a fake relationship was the dumbest thing she had ever done, until she let him fuck her mindlessly. Now that was the dumbest thing she had ever done. Hours later, she sat at her desk trying to concentrate on the numbers she needed for their next appointment, but it all looked like a blurry mess. He was late, and she was terrified he wouldn’t show up. Which was her irrational mind imagining the worst-case scenario, but even though she knew it didn’t help. Micah never missed a meeting in the seven years she had worked for him. Sure he’d shown up hungover before, sometimes even in same suit as the night before, but never had he missed an appointment.
She looked up as the elevator door opened and immediately wished she hadn’t. He was on the phone as he walked by her office, but one look at him brought a fire to life that she had done her best to tamp down all morning.
“Yeah, okay. Listen, I just walked in to the firm. I’ll call you back later when I know more.” He turned the corner to his office, and she heard his door close at the same time her cell phone buzzed on her desk.
Micah: Come see me when you are free.
Well, it was probably easier getting this over with before they met with their client. She still had no idea what to say, other than thank you, and it can’t happen again. As she approached his office, she noticed he had closed the gray shades that provided a bit of privacy when needed. They were basically see through, so he never seemed to bother with them. It seemed this morning he was needing a few less eyes on them than yesterday. She stepped inside without bothering to knock.