The Rivals
“I have a sit-down scheduled for the end of this week.” I debated how to handle that. “If you’d like to join me, you’re welcome.”
Sophia smiled. “I’d like that. Oh, also, I have a friend coming in from London. Scarlett is staying here. She arrives this Friday, so your mention of the union meeting reminded me. If you see a woman with bright red lipstick that matches the bottoms of her shoes and looks like she stepped out of a Vogue magazine, that would be her.”
“Sounds interesting.”
“Oh, she is.” Sophia lifted her glass and tilted it toward me. “You know, now that I think about it, in a way, she’s sort of the female equivalent of you.”
“How so?”
“She’s arrogant and confident. The sea kind of parts when she walks into a room.”
I perked a brow. “You better watch it there, that almost sounded like a compliment.”
Sophia shook her head. “Let’s not go crazy. But since it seems like you’re in a pretty good mood, would it be okay if I kept the suite a few days longer than my week? At least until Scarlett leaves? Then we can switch, and you can keep it for as long as I did. Scarlett and I like to sit around and talk late at night, so it would be nice to have the living room while she’s in town.”
“No problem. I wasn’t planning on making you alternate with me anyway.”
“You weren’t?”
I shook my head. “I never even requested an upgrade when I checked in. I just said that to screw with you.”
Sophia’s eyes widened. “Oh my God. You’re such a jerk.”
I chuckled. “You say that like you’re surprised. But you can’t honestly tell me that’s news to you.”
“No, definitely not. But thanks for coming clean and letting me keep the suite while Scarlett is here anyway.”
After dinner, we walked to the elevator bank together. I kept my distance on the other side of the car and shoved my hands into my pants pockets. We’d had a nice evening. It was the first time I felt like Sophia had let her guard down. So as much as I wanted to back her up against the elevator wall and push the emergency stop button, she seemed vulnerable in a way that made it feel wrong to go there.
At the eighth floor, I hesitated as I got out—especially when I looked over at Sophia and could have sworn she looked a little disappointed about how our evening was ending. I had to force one foot in front of the other to make myself get off the damn elevator.
Looking back, I caught her eyes one last time. “Sweet dreams, Fifi.”
She shook her head. “Goodnight, Weston.”
Chapter 13
* * *
Sophia
I rolled over in bed, unable to fall asleep after half an hour.
It bugged me that Weston hadn’t even attempted to persuade me to go back to his hotel room or worm his way into mine. I knew it was stupid to lose sleep over it, but I couldn’t stop wondering why. He could have just been tired or not in the mood, but neither one of those seemed likely for Weston. So the only logical conclusion I could come up with was that he’d grown bored.
It shouldn’t have been a shock to figure out he was one of those types of guys—the ones who enjoy the chase more than the prize itself. In fact, now that I thought about it, that actually made a whole lot of sense. We’d had a nice dinner, good conversation—dare I say the evening was friendly? I’d mistaken Weston’s attraction to the chase for an attraction to me.
But that was fine. Really, it was—even if accepting it caused a weird ache in my chest. Absolutely no good could come from the craziness between us anyway. In my head, I knew we were better off keeping our distance.
Yet I still couldn’t fall asleep.
So rather than further analyze our dangerous attraction, I thought back to the things Weston had shared tonight. He was an alcoholic. And if I read between the lines correctly, things had gone bad after his sister died. Those two had been thick as thieves. I considered myself an only child, since I didn’t count my half-brother, Spencer, so I didn’t have any experience with a relationship like those two had. I would imagine growing up in either of our big, yet lonely families caused siblings to grow even closer—us against them. Then add Caroline’s illness, and I could see how Weston would’ve taken the protective, big-brother role, even though he was younger. Losing it after she died didn’t seem like a negative thing. There was something beautiful about him caring for someone so deeply that after she was gone, he became self-destructive. In a weird way, I was kind of envious of that kind of love and dedication to another person. I’d been close to my mother, but she’d died before I was even really an adult.