Page 28 of Face Off

“If you want more time—”

“Bliss.”

She stopped.

“I’ll have a cocktail with Ryan.”

Aura reached for her purse. “That sentence sounds like the first line of a police report.”

“Only if he starts something.”

“And if he does?”

I picked up my phone and checked the picture I had posted earlier. Comments already gathered beneath it. Friends, customers, people I attended school with, and women who followed the boutique filled the screen with hearts and compliments. Bliss had added three fire emojis despite sitting less than six feet away.

I liked the picture as much now as I had when Aura took it. My hair was bright. My body was soft. My smile belonged to me.

Ryan might look at me and remember everything I had done. He might see the woman from the study no matter how openly I stood before him now.

But if Ryan gave me one opening, I wouldn’t waste it waiting for him to cross the distance again.

“If Ryan starts something,” I said as I slipped the phone into my bag, “he’d better be prepared for me to finish it.”

3

Ryan

Oheka Castle looked like the kind of place Bliss would’ve designed if someone handed her an obscene amount of money, a Pinterest account, and permission to become emotionally attached to a building.

Pale stone stretched across the Long Island estate beneath a clear May sky. Towers rose above acres of green lawn beginning to recover from winter, while gardens spilled around the entrance in white and blush flowers that matched the wedding invitations Bliss mailed six months ago. Staff crossed beneath the covered entry with luggage carts and garment bags as luxury cars curved through the drive, unloading enough beautifully dressed people to make the entire place feel less like a hotel and more like a private world Bliss had rented for the weekend.

I stepped out of the SUV in dark jeans, a black shirt, and sunglasses while Briggs unfolded his six-foot-five frame from the back seat. His girlfriend and I say that without an ounce of respect for the pinche culera, Lyric remained inside, staring at her phone.

Briggs held the door for her. “You getting out?”

“I’m answering something.”

“Whatever is so important will still be there. This castle is incredible, come see babe.”

Her gaze lifted slowly. “It’s a building, Briggs.”

The excitement in Briggs’s face dimmed before he covered it with a grin. “Excellent you acknowledge it’s a building. I was worried the towers might confuse you.”

She climbed out without acknowledging the joke, smoothing both hands over the fitted cream dress she had spent most of the drive protecting from imaginary wrinkles. Briggs reached for her bag, but she pulled it from the seat before he could take it.

“I’ve got it.”

“I was helping.”

“You hover.”

His hand dropped.

Rider closed the driver’s door and looked across the roof at me. He didn’t say anything, though his expression carried the same question he’d worn every time Lyric cut Briggs for trying to love her too openly.

Why the fuck does he stay?

I didn’t have an answer that didn’t make me think about the amount of damage a person could accept when leaving felt worse.