Flawless Ruin

David shakes her hand, holding it a beat too long. “Wait. I know you. You’re on social media… Right?”

“TikTok!” The girl giggles more.

“Darcy is an influencer,” Caleb says. “We’re in talks for a sponsorship deal.”

“Oh, really?” David says, looking interested. “You’ll have to loop me in. We’ve been looking for ways to utilize social media better.”

Caleb nods. “It’s pretty new. As of this weekend, new.”

“But, like, so exciting!” Darcy is gazing up at him adoringly. I have to wonder what happened this weekend. Did he seduce her, take her to a secluded cove off Southampton and drive her wild?

Did he lay her across his bed and make love to her while she lost her mind from the pleasure?

“I thought Sterling Cross catered to a… Different clientele than the type of people who care about TikTok,” I can’t help but say.

I wince when all eyes flash to me. God, that just slipped out, didn’t it?

“You have a point,” David says, “But the platform is more universally embraced, these days. So I think it’s a brilliant idea.”

Caleb doesn’t look at David. It’s clear he doesn’t care what David thinks. “Did you two go out on the lake yet?” he asks me, his tone impossible to read.

Us two… ?

I realize that Caleb thinks we’re together. Like, an item.

Good. Let him believe that. I move a little closer to David and smile. “No, but what a great idea. Thanks, Caleb.”

I beam at him, just like his new girlfriend. Two can play this game.

Caleb presses his lips together. I can’t tell his mood. “The next neighbors aren’t for miles. People have been known to go out there and skinny-dip,” he says, looking at Darcy with a smirk.

Darcy giggles. “Ooh! Can we?”

I swallow hard. Try as I might not to think of the cool water, in the cove that day, when I clung to him, naked, until he made me come… Soon, that’s all I’m thinking of.

“Maybe later,” Caleb says with a wink. David laughs along, oblivious to the tension.

“You might want to wait until after we all clear out,” he says, “I’d imagine HR might have a thing or two to say.”

“You’re right. It’s more of a private party,” Caleb says, his gaze fixed on Darcy.

I can’t listen to this anymore. “Excuse me,” I mutter. “I need to, uh, find a bathroom.”

“There are plenty inside,” Caleb says, off-hand. “Thirteen, to be exact.”

Of course there are. I turn and hurry back towards the house. Inside, I make my way past catering staff, and the Sterling Cross people oooh-ing and ahh-ing over the classic architecture, looking for a moment of peace.

I turn another corner and head down a long corridor until I find a flight of stairs, leading up to the first floor. There’s a velvet rope fixed across the threshold, marking it off-limits, but there’s nobody around to see as I quickly hop over it and scurry up the stairs.

Here, at last, I can breathe.

Upstairs, the hallway is lined with plush Persian rugs, with art and old photographs on the walls. I peek through a few doorways, and find immaculately cozy guest suites, decorated with patterned wallpaper and antique furniture. It’s the opposite of Caleb’s usual décor, which is so sparse and modern. This has history, a sense of his family, and I can’t help imagining the house full of life, back when Caleb was a kid.

Finally, at the end of the hall, I see a library with the door ajar, inviting me in. It’s lined with bookcases, with a stone fireplace, a comfortable old leather armchair. The windows are open, overlooking the party on the lawn, and I hear conversation and laughter drifting up as I move to the mantle over the fireplace to examine the family photographs standing there.

There’s the picture I saw before, of the Crosses and the Sterlings, outside the flagship store. Snapshots of Caleb’s parents together, in their youth. Young Caleb, beaming by a holiday tree.

Caleb’s father, Charles, smiling and laughing on a beach somewhere—