What is she talking about?
“I’ve met Annelise. He’s definitely not talking to her after the way she treated him.”
“Not her. That one was a stone-cold bitch. I’m talking about Selina.”
Who the hell is Selina?
“He hasn’t told you about her, has he?”
Cecily tried to recall if she’d ever heard him mention that name before but drew a blank.
Brenda nodded, as if her silence confirmed it.
Her automatic indictment of Reed annoyed Cecily. “I haven’t given him a rundown of all my exes either. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Are you all buddy-buddy with any of yours?”
“Well, no, but—”
The older woman rolled right over her protest. “If I were you, I’d want to know what they talk about.”
Annoyance and sympathy stirred in equal measure. Cecily wondered if Brenda would ever get to a place where her ugly divorce didn’t color everything in her world. She hadn’t yet gotten to the point where she realized her over-sharing on the topic made everyone uncomfortable. “Well, that’s understandable given your experience. But Reed’s not like that. We’re good.”
“Suit yourself.” Pausing in the doorway, she added, “But I didn’t think my ex was like that either.”
Cecily stared at the door for several moments after Brenda had gone back down the hall.
I will not let her make me paranoid. I’m not going to be that girl.
She got back to work. But as she finished with the A-B newsletter groups, what Brenda said continued niggling at her.
Other than Annelise, he’d never mentioned any ex. Certainly he’d have dated people in the intervening years, but no one of any particular significance. He’d have mentioned that. Wouldn’t he? As far as she knew, he hadn’t been involved with anyone between their almost fling in the summer and now. And even if he had been, they weren’t together before, so he had every right to have dated whoever he pleased.
But she couldn’t help remembering Jefferson, who’d had a woman on the side. In the grand scheme of things, that’d been the least of his betrayals, so it wasn’t something she thought much about. But he’d cheated. People cheated every day. It was a sad fact.
Oh, don’t be ridiculous. Reed wouldn’t do that.
Even as she thought it, iMessage dinged.
She wasn’t going to look, but she saw the name Tony Becker, the author for the big signing. Could be a bump in the road she’d need to smooth out quickly. Just in case, she clicked over.
“Son of a bitch.”
Becker was canceling due to a family emergency. Shit. Shit. Shit. And all the publicity is already out there.
A part of her brain was already calculating how to deal with that, when she saw the name Selina Kyle in the list of iMessage contacts. The latest message was from earlier that morning. Wish you’d been able to hear last night’s talk from Barry Hanna. He was amazing.
That was hardly a smoking gun. But she just couldn’t stop herself from looking, calling herself an idiot the whole time. She clicked over to the conversation.
Holy shit.
Reed and Selina talked a lot. The conversation scrolled back pages and pages. Nothing strange or incriminating, just friendly chat about books and daily life stuff. He’d even talked about her.
Cecily smiled a little. “Master of my craft, huh?”
But as she went back further, she could tell that they were clearly involved at some point. And there was never any change in the tone of their chat to indicate a break up.
Don’t be stupid. Reed is absolutely the type who’d break up with someone in person.