“Excuse me?” I said, taking the bait.
“I hear you have a girlfriend,” she said, and her tone shifted slightly. “Or at least, I hear you had a girlfriend.”
“That’s none of your business,” I said immediately.
She smiled, and I knew instantly that she wasn’t just going to let this topic go. “Nothing is ever really my business,” she said. “I make it my business.”
“Yes, I remember,” I nodded. “That’s why I avoided you when we were kids.”
Emma sat up and crossed her legs. Then she fixed her dark hazel eyes on me. “You and Molly, huh?” she said. “At long last.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Oh, come on,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You’ve always held a candle for Molly. Don’t even bother denying it.”
“What makes you think I did?” I demanded.
“I may be seven years younger than you, but that doesn’t mean I’m stupid, Tristan,” Emma said harshly. “Or blind, for that matter. I just noticed things.”
“You’v
e seen Molly and I interact all of what…two times?”
“It was enough,” she said, with a shrug. “Remember that big party that your father hosted to open one of his many hotels?”
“Yes.”
“You invited me to that.”
“I didn’t invite you,” I reminded her. “You begged me to include you.”
“Whatever, same difference,” she said dismissively. “The point is I was there, and so was Molly and her family. I watched the two of you the whole night. At first it was only obvious to me that Molly was infatuated with you, but as the night progressed, I realized you had feelings for her, too.”
“Based on what?”
“The way you looked at her,” Emma replied. “The way your eyes lingered on her when she spoke. The way you made excuses to touch her throughout the dinner. The fact that you barely noticed the cocktail waitress who was flirting with you.”
“I noticed her,” I said defensively. “I slept with her later that night.”
“And did you think of Molly the whole time?”
“I knew letting you have a suite here would come back to bite me in the ass,” I groaned.
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Do you deny it?”
I sighed heavily. “No.”
She smiled smugly at me. “I thought so…. Now, what happened?”
“Nothing,” I said, trying to brush it off. “She was here for a few months, we got involved, and now we’re not involved anymore.”
“Why?” she pressed.
When Emma got like this, she was like a dog with a bone. She wouldn’t let go until she had dug deep. “This thing with Molly was…it was just a fling.”
“Bull.”
I raised my eyebrows. “It’s true.”