This was definitely Jenny’s doing. She must have told Damon about this restaurant because a guy who had been subsisting on nothing less than a Michelin five-stars restaurant could not have possibly known about a quiet, cheap place like this.“Stop staring into space and disembark from the car already.”Damon did not leave the car at all. Instead, his eyes were simply nailed forward.Elias Burnham and Mimi Norton!Mimi caught sight of Damon just as well, and she quickly approached him with a
“I think I must have really fallen in love with you, Elias,” she started without preamble. Her dour tone was a jarring departure from the giddy, bubbly one she used just minutes ago. “Because I’m done.”“W-What?”“I can’t have fish, Elias. I’m allergic to seafood,” she gruntled.He froze. Combing through his memories, all he remembered was just how happy she was digging into her meal.Mimi pulled the sleeve up one of her arms. Bright, red rashes had reared their ugly heads all over her skin.
On the other side, Damon’s car was tearing through the asphalt. He was only going faster.“What are you d-doing, Damon? Damon! S-Slow down right now!” Jeanette cried, tucking on her safety belt even more tightly as the car continued to veer.He had flouted the speed limit at least a few minutes ago. Despite driving in a rather packed road smack-dab in the city, he lurched in careless abandon, seemingly deaf to the cacophony of angry honking he had helped orchestrate around him. Did he think he
“No.”“Oh, riiiiight! Gotta’ go back to your own place after staying at mine for two days. Wouldn’t seem right otherwise, right?” the older woman said, before adding, “Damon, dear, please take care of my little Jeanette for me, okay? She’s a really good, honest, upright young lady. I know for a fact that she truly cares about you deep in her heart—”Damon hung the call up in the middle of Jenny’s meandering and turned the car around, retracing his trip. But by the time he reached the spot wher
Despite coming fresh out of a break-up, Elias sounded more helpless than upset and even lightened up enough to tease Jeanette in their banter. His attitude was making it hard for Jeanette to squeeze in a few words of comfort.“Now, now. Whatever happened between my ex-girlfriend and me has got nothing to do with you, okay? So don’t worry about it.” He chuckled. “But! If you insist on wallowing in guilt, well! I wouldn’t say no to you treating me to dinner.”“Me? Treating you to dinner? You mea
“But what good can my words do, sir?”Mr. Linden leveled a serious expression at her. “You are Mr. Godfrey’s wife, right? You can stop all of this with just a word, Leighton. Question is, will you do it?”“It’s not like I don’t want to, b-but—”He was not going to listen, was what she wanted to say. After all that had happened, how much weight would her words hold?Damon was doing this on purpose! He might have planned to intimidate her and attack her for her choice from the beginning!Jean
“Sorry, ma’am. No can do if there’s no reservation made.”In truth, Jeanette had come here once a few months ago. She had wanted to see Damon, but she did not get to do that without a spectacular row in the secretary’s office. Despite that infamy, the young lady behind the concierge desk still did not seem to recognize her as Damon’s wife-on-paper.Owing to that last debacle, Jeanette was reluctant to be candid about her identity. But now, there was no way she could see him if she kept waiting
“Who says anything about a divorce?” Damon cut her off, his eyebrow cocked.She was startled. “But that’s what I heard…”“Not everything Mother says deserves your unquestioning belief, Miss Olivia.”…Jeanette returned to The Birch Advertising Agency and returned the document, untouched and undiscussed, to her boss. “I’m sorry, Mr. Linden. I can’t do anything about this contract after all.”“Why? Aren’t you his wife, Leighton? This should have been an easy task for you, and you can’t even d