Want Me (Mess with Me 4)

The next two days feel like two years. All I want is to get through the weekend. The GlowUp official launch event looms before me like a spectre. Mya’s team has been running full speed ahead preparing for the gala. I still can’t believe they pulled it off but then again when you have pockets as deep as Seth Barrington, you can do whatever you want. Even plan a black-tie event in the nation’s capital with only two weeks of lead time.

The thought of Seth Barrington makes me scowl. I don’t know if Anya has seen him again since their coffee date but my money is on yes. Barrington is known for being like a dog with a bone when he’s after something.

Now Anya is the bone.

I slam the lid of my laptop.

“Are the numbers not playing nice?”

When I look up, Elizabeth is leaning against the doorjamb. She chuckles at my shock.

“You were always in your own little world when you were working on something. I used to think a bomb could go off and you wouldn’t even notice.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to see you.” She says it as if it should be obvious. As if she didn’t have to get on a plane and fly two thousand miles to make this little rendezvous happen.

“I see you’re still the Queen of Understatement. How did you know I would even be here?”

“Once a workaholic always a workaholic. Good Ole’ James. Some things never change.” She runs a finger over the nameplate on my desk.

“Where’s Gareth?”

Liz looks at me with those gray eyes that used to fucking slay me. “I left him. I told you what I want.”

It’s suddenly a million degrees in the room and I tug at my tie. Hearing that she wants me back was one thing on the phone and another thing entirely when she’s standing right in front of me.

It would be poetic if she looked terrible after our five years apart. A unibrow or a sudden wart on the end of her nose would feel justified. Except she looks the same as always with long blond hair and the artful spray of freckles on the bridge of her nose that I used to find so charming.

“You can’t just show up here after five years and think that nothing has changed.”

“I know that. But still, we were married for ten years. All that history, James. No one ever knew me like you do.”

“Knowing you didn’t seem to matter much in the end.”

Abruptly, I stand. I carelessly toss my laptop into my messenger bag. I have to get out of here.

Elizabeth moves back as I continue gathering things off the desk, trying my best to ignore her.

“If I could go back, I would change so many things. Especially the part where I hurt you. I am so sorry.”

Seeing her like this has thrown me off my game. I’m so used to hating her that I can’t handle hearing her say she’s sorry.

“You didn’t deserve that. All you ever did was love me,” she whispers.

Then she wraps her arms around my shoulders and presses her lips against mine.

18

ANYA

You know how when you tell yourself not to think about something, it’s suddenly all you can think about?

Dinner with Seth has been on my mind for the past few days. Before we parted ways at the coffee shop we exchanged numbers and as he warned me, he’s persistent. He asks me out everyday and manages to make it funny instead of annoying.

The first night he texted asking what I was doing. Since I’d just seen him that afternoon I hadn’t expected to hear from him so soon.

SETH: What are you doing?