I glance toward the bathroom. I don’t want to leave London on her own for too long, but based on Trent’s expression, something is going down and it doesn’t look good. I follow him out of the crowded ballroom and down the hall. He makes a right into a small, empty alcove.
“How did you know this was here?” I ask.
“That’s not important. So you know how I said I would tell Selene about you and London being a thing?” He makes a face I don’t like.
“Please tell me you actually had the conversation you said you were going to. She’s been dodging me for weeks.”
“Well.” He scratches his jaw. “I tried.”
“What does that mean, you tried?”
“I just couldn’t go through with it. She was asking all these questions, wanting to know if this was just you doing another favor for London. She got emotional, and I thought she was going to cry, and you know how bad I am with women and tears, so I wasn’t quite honest about how involved you were.”
He jokes about being allergic to tears, but he quite literally breaks out in hives when women cry. It’s a stress reaction, but still, it’s a hell of a reaction. I knew I should have dealt with this myself. “So you said nothing?”
“I told her that you were bringing London, which she knew since she heard your voicemail, but I didn’t mention the girlfriend part, which is how you’ve been introducing her all night, and the PDA has been pretty over-the-top.”
I don’t acknowledge the last part. “Why didn’t you tell me this until now?”
“Because I didn’t realize how upset she was going to be.”
“I don’t get why she’s upset at all.”
“Well, she was pretty much fuming all through dinner. It’s a wonder she still has teeth in her head with the way she was grinding them. I tried to pull her aside and talk to her, but she’s mad at me now too. Saying I had to have known and now she feels like an idiot.”
I blow out a breath and look up at the ceiling. “I don’t get it. Why aren’t I allowed to have a life or a girlfriend?”
“You’re allowed to have both, but Selene feels blindsided.”
I throw my hands in the air. “Why would she feel blindsided when we already agreed that it was better to be friends ages ago? She’s been avoiding my calls ever since the Colorado event. How could I have a meaningful conversation with her when she won’t even respond?”
“I don’t know, but based on what she said, it seemed like she thought you would come to her eventually if she ignored you long enough?”
“What the hell is the point of that? Since when does she play these kinds of games? This isn’t her style at all.” At least not that I’ve experienced before.
“I wish I could explain it, but I can’t. I’m worried about the optics of this. The way she’s acting sets up London to look like the villain.”
“That’s the last thing London needs, especially after Selene’s fans went after her.”
“I agree, which is why I think you need to talk to Selene and figure out what the hell is going on.”
“How am I going to do that? It’s not as if I can leave London to fend for herself while I deal with Selene.” I rub my temple. “I still don’t understand why she’s so upset about this. This hasn’t been an issue before now.”
“I know you said you agreed to stop sleeping together before you went to Peru, but what did that conversation actually look like? Who initiated it, you or her?”
I frown and think back, trying to remember. “I think I did? It had just started to feel like we were a habit neither one of us was willing to break and I didn’t want to put our friendship at risk. Plus with the Teamology start up, we were working together a lot more. I didn’t want it to complicate things.”
“And she was fine with that?” Trent asks.
“She agreed that it was the right thing to do.”
“Maybe she didn’t think it was permanent? Maybe she thought after the roll out things would go back to the way they were?” he suggests.
“What am I supposed to be? A mind reader?”
“Did you ever sit down and talk about the limitations of what you were doing? For a long time it seemed like you two were blindly trucking along, using each other for comfort. At least that’s how it looked from the outside.” He rubs the back of his neck. “I’m not trying to overstep here, but maybe you need to give her some closure so you can both move on?”
“What is this, high school? Things were always very clear between us, so I don’t know how I got here.” I tap on the wall, trying to get my head around this whole thing. “Why wouldn’t she say something?”