Page 68 of Blue Gold

But when our eyes met, a weird expression crossed his face, and he seemed to hesitate over whatever he was about to say. Honestly, I didn’t care to hear, so I didn’t push.

Swallowing hard, he dropped his stare to the floor and nodded to himself. “I’ll call you, okay?”

Pinching the cigarette between two fingers, I rolled my eyes.

“Sure.”

I couldn’t fall asleep after he left, so instead of wasting time trying, I washed up, put on my workout clothes and running shoes, and went out to clear my head. I ran until the sun came up, yet my mind was anything but clear. In fact, the more time that passed since he left, the angrier I became, until my rage was so vibrant I wanted to destroy something.

But what can I possibly destroy?

A thought occurred to me, and I stopped running to pull out my cell phone—the same one he got me back then. I clicked through the contact list until I found the number I was looking for. The phone began to ring, and I waited for the call to be picked up as I looked around the bridge I ended up running to. I’d just read a sign with the name Brooklyn Bridge on it when they answered.

“Hello?”

“Bonjour, Claudia, c’est Elliot. I call to ask about dinner. Is the offer, euh… Still stand?”

23

DANIEL

“When will you get here?” Claudia asked as soon as I picked up the call.

With the phone pressed to my ear, I looked around the busy street. “I’m almost there. My meeting dragged on longer, but thankfully, it was just uptown.” Which was good, because it meant the restaurant was only a few blocks away.

“Hurry up, okay? I don’t want us to lose the table,” she said, her voice mixing with the background noises.

“Remind me again why we couldn’t just stay home to eat?” I asked, a frown on my face at the thought of this new restaurant she’d insisted we go to tonight.

“Just be happy I managed to get a table here, and besides, I wasn’t about to cook dinner. Were you?”

I sighed. “We could have ordered takeout like we always do.” Neither she nor I ever bothered with cooking. “I’m sure Maya would like some pizza⁠—”

“Just a second, honey.” She put me on hold as she spoke to someone else. “I’ll hang up now… but you’re almost here, right?”

Typical of her, she didn’t wait for my response and had already ended the call. In every way that counted, Claudia was the perfect opposite of me. Ever since we met, she had been the popular party girl, the one who was always up-to-date on the coolest trends and events, while I most definitely was not. Preferring to spend my free time at home or working out, I wasn’t much of an outgoing person. But our odd dynamic often worked, as we both had just enough going on in our lives not to mind it, with Maya being the common ground. But occasionally, Claudia made sure I accompanied her. This evening was one of those times.

Another example was the other night when she took me to one of her shows. I couldn’t care less about fashion, but I was beyond eager to join her on that special occasion. After all, it was a perfect opportunity to see him—my French prince—once again. After a whole year of regretting a moment of shameful cowardice and gut-wrenching longing, I thought that seeing how well he was doing would help me accept reality and move on. Only it didn’t. Instead, seeing Elliot in all of his glory, walking down the runway like a living, breathing masterpiece, fueled me with the unsettling need to have him. Keep him. Hold him.

Therefore, like a primitive fool, I went over to his hotel, despite knowing I wasn’t at all invited, and knocked on his door. Never once on my way there did I dare to imagine he’d open his door—and heart—for me again. But he did. And when I saw him there, wearing nothing but a bathrobe and a priceless expression, I couldn’t control myself, and I took him. I took him because I needed him more than I could ever say in words. And I still do. Which was a horrible thing to admit, considering the fact that I’d just walked into a restaurant where I was meeting my wife, who was innocent in it all. Yet none of those things stopped me before I fucked Elliot like it was my last day on Earth. And now, looking Claudia in the eyes was a task of its own.

“Do you have a reservation, sir?” the young hostess asked, her dark eyes checking me out from head to toe. Tall and beautiful, I wondered if she was a model, too.

“Yes. It should be under the name Williams.”

Peeling her eyes from me, she went back to check the list.

“Are you sure that’s the name for the reservation?”

I scratched my jaw. “Perhaps it’s under my wife’s name… Could you look for Claudia?”

“Oh, there it is.” She tapped the list. “A table for three under the name Claudia L. Williams.”

My brows drew closer because did she say… three? Was someone joining us tonight? That was odd, as I didn’t recall Claudia mentioning a word about it.

“Would you follow me, please?” the hostess said, and I nodded before she began leading the way through the busy restaurant. It was one of those big spaces with high ceilings that was trending now, and I must say the music was way too loud for my taste. It felt more like a club than a place for fine dining, but I presumed that was the whole point.

“There you go, sir. I hope you’ll enjoy your dinner,” the hostess said, and I looked ahead to see Claudia sitting at our table in front of⁠—