“Chloe?” It’s KT.
With a sigh, I step away from the door and pull it open.
KT looks at me, then Chloe. A quiet moment expands before KT presses her hands against the jamb. “It’s about fucking time you two got together.”
“We’re not together.” The words are out of Chloe’s mouth before KT can finish the sentence.
Then Laiyla is here, and Levi’s behind her. He offers me a fist bump over the girls’ heads. “About fucking time, you two.”
“There’s nothing happening here.” Chloe releases all her air and gives me a see-what-you’ve-done look.
“All right, boys, out,” KT orders. “We need some girl time.”
5
Chloe
I can’t stop pacing.
While I shake out the tingling in my hands—something that comes with intense stress—Laiyla pulls a case of water from the bottom shelf and sits. KT leans her shoulder against the wall and crosses her arms.
“What’s going on?” Laiyla asks. “Who is that guy?”
“I can’t believe this,” I say. “I can’t fucking believe this.”
“That’s Bodhi, isn’t it?” KT says.
“What?” Laiyla says to KT. “How did you know that?”
“How did you not know that?” KT quips back.
I tent my fingers over my nose and mouth and close my eyes. The pain in my torso deepens, threatening to double me over. “Jesus Christ.”
“Talk to us,” KT says.
I heave a sigh and drop my hands. “He booked the retreat under a new company name and his given name. God, I feel so stupid. I didn’t even know his given name. Xavier did. I checked out the website and, yeah, maybe I thought it was a little weird there was no picture of this Shannon person, but everything looked like it was in order, so I let them book. There’s a big fat lesson in all of this—dig deeper.”
The shock and anger are starting to wear off, and the pain is sinking even deeper.
“Shit,” Laiyla says.
KT looks at us both, “We’ll pull the plug.”
After a beat, Laiyla says, “Definitely.” She takes a deep breath as if it’s hard to pull air, then confirms with a nod. “We’ll cancel the whole thing, return everyone’s money. I’ll start making calls tonight.”
“Stop, stop, stop.” I pull out another case of water and drop to a seat, resting my elbows on my thighs and my head in my hands. I know how hard those words were for Laiyla to say. She has the best business head out of the three of us. “Slow down. Let me think.”
We all go quiet, but my mind spins, unable to complete a thought.
“Can I just say,” Laiyla says, “how thrilled I was to see you kiss Xavier? God, you two are so beautiful together.”
I groan and cover my face.
“Can’t you just see their kids?” Laiyla says to KT. “They’ll be stunning.”
“I did not kiss him.” I drop my hands. “He kissed me. And it’s immaterial because it’s not real. You should know it’s not real. I’d never not tell you something like that.”
“The way you kissed him back sure looked real,” KT says.