Bryce: Ex-Business: An Ex-Club Romance

by Camilla Stevens

  “They have an anti-aging line of products, don’t they? I’m sure the guidelines are less stringent on that front. Perhaps enough to make an exception for your failings.”

  Now, she knows I’m insulting her.

  “Well, if it turns out you need a job, I’m sure I could look into something for you. Of course, there’s no nepotism at play in my company. Some of us can’t rely on Mommy to get us a job.”

  “I wouldn’t want to put you out. I know how stress causes wrinkles.”

  Another insult that isn’t lost on Lila. Fortunately, she looks as though she’s had just about enough of me. I watch her eyes wander around for more interesting fare to dig into. They light up, then narrow with cunning.

  “Oh look, there’s Bryce!” Her eyes slide to me and a cool smile appears on her face. “I suppose you won’t be going over to say high, not after the way he treated you back in school. Really, I could have told you beforehand he was a player, Edie. And to watch you make such a fool of yourself at the bar that night.” She purses her lips with a sympathy so fake I’m surprised they don’t crack from the effort.

  I feel the hand around my glass tighten as it itches to throw the contents right in her smug face. Instead, I count to five in my head and take a breath.

  After all, this is what I came for.

  I turn to follow her gaze as it lingers on him in a way that doesn’t even bother to hide the interest. Bryce is already chatting up a group of what appear to be new students, most of them female and giggling. An evil grin appears on my face as a thought comes to me.

  “You know, the real reason I was so upset back then is because he was only using me to get to you.”

  “What?” Lila says, snapping her head around to face me.

  “Oh yes, I couldn’t believe he paid me any attention at the time. I should have known something was up,” I say, lowering my eyes with regret. “He even told me…afterward…that he was glad for the release because he was holding out for something longterm with you and didn’t want to cheapen it with a one-night stand. In retrospect, I probably should have at least told you about his interest. But…I was just so bitterly envious of you.”

  I slow smile crooks one side of her mouth. She’s actually buying it?

  Oh this is too good.

  “I’m going to spend the night avoiding him, thank you very much. But…” I turn to look his way as his little circle bursts out in laugher at something he’s said. God, he really is good at this sort of thing. “I don’t see a wedding ring.”

  I turn back to face Lila, looking pointedly at her ring finger. “On either of you.”

  Her lips briefly tighten with displeasure before smoothing back into a mischievous smile.

  “I knew it was worth it to come to this thing. And here I thought it would just be fun to—” She cuts herself short and gives me a quick, guilty look, before rapidly turning her attention back to Bryce.

  I knew it!

  She probably had me in her sights as soon as I walked through the door.

  “You should probably pounce before one of those soon-to-be freshmen get a hold of him.”

  She sniffs and returns to smirking, looking for all the world like a lioness on the prowl. Bryce definitely had a point about females being magnificent hunters.

  I don’t know which of them I feel worse for.

  “Well, it was nice catching up with you, Edie,” she says in a distracted way as she continues to stare at him. She turns to give me one last malicious smile. “Good luck with Conniver!”

  “Thank you,” I say so endearingly she blinks in mild confusion before dismissing me.

  I watch her blaze a path through the crowd right for him, my lips sucked in to hide the guilty smile.

  I’m so bad.

  After observing long enough to see Bryce’s brow rise with unwelcome surprise, and a forced smile appear on his face, I twist around to people watch. This wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

  Until the second unpleasant surprise of the night catches my eye.

  If last Friday told me anything, it’s not that bad things happen in threes, they happen in twos.

  And number two for me has just realized we’ve inadvertently made eye contact.

  Reggie Holland.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Edie

  Reggie does that thing where his eyes blink as he wonders whether or not to avert his gaze in the hopes that I hadn’t noticed him.

  Don’t you dare, you son of a bitch.

  He’s tactful enough to realize it’s too late, and instead shifts gears so that his eyes are now wide with surprise and acknowledgment. I tilt my head and return an expectant smile.

  He damn well better not make me come to him.

  A sudden horrid thought hits me that he might be here with his wife. His pregnant wife. As much as I loathe the man, I really don’t want to go off in front of her.

  That same smarmy smile I see—or at least used to see—almost every Friday as I logged into Facebook and stared at his profile picture is plastered on his face as he approaches me. I sip my wine, to stop the shaking that comes from either controlled rage or sudden uncertainty about this.

  What the hell am I supposed to say to him?

  Based on the look on his face, he’s obviously asking himself the same question.

  “Edie,” he says, almost with resignation in his voice.

  “Reggie,” I reply in a perfectly neutral tone.

  “You…you look good.”

  ‘Thank you,” I say without returning the compliment.

  He brings one hand up to run through his hair before catching himself. I remember that, how he’d catch himself before he ruined his hair—hair that took longer to style than any man should waste—whenever he was irritated, or worried, or…flummoxed. Nonplussed. Befuddled. Perplexed. Discombobulated.

  I breathe out a silent laugh and take a sip of my wine, thinking about Bryce. My eyes inadvertently flit to him, still trapped by Lila’s womanly wiles.

  Reggie makes a sound that is a mixture of resentment and anger. I cast my eyes right back to him and find his lips tightened with displeasure as he stares at Bryce as well. He feels my gaze on him and a mask of pleasant indifference falls before he turns back to me.

  What was that about?

  “So, how are things with you?” I ask idly, avoiding the very large elephant in the room. He has no idea that he’s been the focus of most of my Fridays via Facebook since business school.

  His face brightens with genuine happiness just before realizing who he’s talking to, and returns to that mildly pleasant look. At least he has some tact.

  It doesn’t ease the sharp pain that hits my gut.

  That was the face of a man who wants to be a dad.

  That was the face of a man who wasn’t just going through the motions expected of him.

  That was the face of a man who has no intention of bailing if the worst happens.

  “I’m married,” he says, lifting his left hand and wiggling his fingers with a nervous laugh. There’s a long hesitation as he sips his drink before continuing. “We’re…about to have a baby—six months along now.”

  I’ve been sipping my drink as he gets it out, mostly so I can focus on it rather than what expression to paint on my face as he tells me the news I already know.

  “Oh really? Congratulations,” I say, pulling my drink away and greeting him with a smile that I make damn sure shows complete indifference.

  That thing that happened between us? No big deal. Water under the bridge. It certainly shouldn’t take away from your happiness and joy. It isn’t like I’ve thought about it far longer and more often than any sane woman should.

  “Thanks,” he says, hesitantly. “And…um…you? Are you—” His eyes fall to my ring finger, noting how bare it is and he goes silent.

  “I date,” I say quickly, then want to smack myself. Why am I trying to impress him?

  “That’s great!” he says in that overly en
thusiastic yet paternalistic way people who are embarrassed for you do, as though complimenting a five-year-old’s drawing.

  I want to kill him.

  But not as much as I want to kill myself.

  Reggie’s eyes begin to stray as though already moving on.

  So that’s it then.

  I don’t know what I expected, especially after so many years, but it isn’t this. It feels so…anticlimactic.

  He’s focused on something and I don’t need to follow his gaze to know it’s Bryce once again. The look on his face reveals it.

  I’m surprised when a long, heavy sigh escapes him and he turns back to me.

  “Listen, Edie, I…I never really apologized for what happened between us. Not properly. Being a Dad—well, almost a dad—” A fleeting smile appears on his face. “—I get it now. I never really understood how hard it must have been for you back then and…well, I don’t think there is anything I can say that can make up for it.”

  I’m back to my wine now, more determined than ever to hide my reaction, which is pure shock.

  “It’s just that—” His eyes dart back to Bryce and he frowns. “—everyone knew that you only picked me because of whatever happened between you and Bryce.”

  I gurgle my wine as I pull the glass away.

  “Wait…people talked about it?”

  Reggie hiccups a laugh. “Of course they did. You two…” he shakes his head. “You two just hit it off that night. We thought we had witnessed the first couple to form in the class. Truth be told, Edie, that was the main reason I got together with you in the first place. I was kinda flattered that you picked me over him, especially after that night. Honestly, it was more shock than anything.”

  He frowns, a cloud forming in his eyes as he continues. “Bryce pretty much confirmed it soon after we got together. He confronted me, telling me that I was nothing more than a runner-up, that I’d never be good enough for you and I probably already knew it.”

  I stare at him in shock. How did I not hear about this before?

  “Then the jokes started,” he continues a bitter twist coming to his lips. “Rebound Reggie. Everyone thought I didn’t know about the nickname, but I knew.”

  “Rebound Reggie?” I repeat in a cynical voice, coughing out a laugh that makes his face go red. “Our classmates? In business school? They called you Rebound Reggie? For heaven’s sake, we weren’t in high school, Reggie,” I protest, not believing it.

  Still, in retrospect, it does tickle me.

  “And I have a pretty good idea of who started it.” Once again he casts a quick, dirty look toward Bryce.

  Apparently, I’m not the only one with lingering wounds. The fact that Bryce is the scar that mars his memories is the icing on the cake.

  Now, I just want to laugh.

  The humiliated look on his face as he turns back to me erodes that idea. He stares at me as though I’m a prize from his past that he never really won, but in hindsight, it turned out for the best. “It doesn’t matter. It just wasn’t there for us, Edie. You and me? Even you know we just kinda stuck it out because it seemed like it should be right, but it really wasn’t.”

  Now that he says it, I know it’s true. He was a rebound, not the “safe bet” that I always told myself he was. Hell, we probably would have been divorced by now if we’d ended up getting married, which is a sobering thought.

  “It’s going to sound like a dick thing to say but, maybe that miscarriage was for the—”

  “Don’t. You. Say. It,” I seethe, gripping my glass hard. “Don’t you dare say that, Reggie. You don’t have the right.”

  He swallows hard and nods. “You’re right. That was…I shouldn’t have even—”

  “No, you shouldn’t have.”

  And to think I once thought about marrying this man.

  But this confrontation, as painful as it’s been, is surprisingly therapeutic. It’s like a band-aid that’s been ripped off, only to find the sore underneath isn’t as grotesque as it’s been in my imagination.

  It is definitely for the best that we didn’t end up together.

  And bringing a child into that? What a disaster it would have been for him or her. At least my parents, as platonic as they were, actually liked each other.

  Right now, all I have is disdain for this man. Something that would have reared its ugly head soon enough.

  “You know what, Reggie?” I say, feeling myself once again. “You’re right. We shouldn’t have been together.” I turn to look at Bryce, then back to him. “In fact, if I had it to do over, I never would have ended up with you in the first place. That was my mistake.”

  His mouth drops open, appalled at my frankness. It’s almost enough to add a bit of aloe to the tiny wound that he’s just reopened.

  “Congratulations,” I say, then add with more color in my voice, “I hope you’re better to her than you were to me.”

  I walk away without another backward glance.

  Suddenly, I don’t give a shit about Contempo Woman, or this new venture with Bryce, or putting up a front, or anything except maybe a warm shower and my bed.

  Screw this.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Bryce

  This is getting ridiculous.

  I’ve tried being diplomatic with Lila, mostly to avoid embarrassing her in front of the next generation of Columbia alumni. She has yet to take the hint, even when most of them eventually made a quick exit, mostly from the sheer awkwardness of the situation.

  Not to mention that overwhelming ocean of perfume surrounding her.

  “I think some sort of partnership between Estée Lauder and Ideal Gentlemen would work wonders for keeping you—” She drops her eyes to my crotch with a not so subtle suggestion, then pulls them back up and smiles. “—afloat?”

  “If you’re going to throw out innuendos they should at least make sense, don’t you think?”

  Her face falls so fast it’s almost comical.

  “I get where you’re going, Lila, and I wasn’t interested in business school and I’m even less interested now.”

  She sniffs, straightening up with indignation. “I don’t know what you think I’m trying to get at, Bryce, but it wasn’t what you’re implying. I was simply suggesting a business idea.”

  “Great,” I say with transparent relief. “In which case, the point remains. I doubt our readership is interested in make-up and…whatever that godawful cloying scent is you’re wearing.”

  She glares at me. “I should have remembered what an asshole you were.”

  I shoot her a boyish grin. “But a lovable one.”

  “You keep telling yourself that, Bryce,” she spits out before turning on her heels and walking away.

  Thank God.

  My eyes search the room, seeking out Edie, if only to visually communicate the nightmare I just escaped, and have a silent laugh. To my surprise, I find her storming toward the exit as she quickly finishes off her glass of wine, practically slamming it down on a random table on her way out.

  It’s only been about half an hour. Why the hell is she leaving so early?

  I know we’re supposed to be keeping our distance, but the look on her face has me worried. Obviously, something happened while I was trying to disengage myself from Lila’s claws. Rather than wait it out, keeping our distance like we’re supposed to, I follow her.

  The doors to the elevator have just opened by the time I reach Edie.

  “I don’t blame you for leaving. The Pinot Noir was really not a good year. You’d think Columbia would know better,” I say, sidling up next to her.

  Edie snaps her head around to face me. I see the instant panic on her face as she worriedly darts her eyes back to the venue then to me again. Right now, I don’t really give a shit that we’re supposed to pretend not to be acquainted with one another. Her panic quickly evaporates under whatever burden has caused her to leave early.

  “It wasn’t the wine,” she says bitterly as she enters. I follow her and sh
e doesn’t bother to object.

  Now, I’m really worried.

  “So what was it? Afraid of the Dean eventually making his way around to you with his hat in hand?”

  “It was nothing,” she says with a tired smile. “I’m just…” She perks up a bit, obviously putting on a façade as she changes the subject. “How did it go with you? I noticed Lila seemed to be thoroughly engaged.”

  “Yeah,” I say, shaking my head with wonder. “She seemed to have it in her head that I’ve been carrying a torch for her or something. I would have thought I made it clear back in school. And that perfume? Good grief I feel like I’ve been baptized to the gods of Pepé Le Pew.”

  “Youth Dew, Eau de Parfum,” Edie says in a sarcastic voice.

  “Is that what it was? Good Lord, what a name.” I turn to her suddenly. “Wait a second, did you send her my way?”

  A reluctant smile finally breaks through that frown, and then a giggle.

  I shake my head in disbelief, but eventually, I break into a laugh. I lift my arm and sniff. “I don’t know, Edie, do you think I smell ten years younger?”

  She erupts with laughter.

  I fall back against the wall of the elevator and watch her, glad I’ve finally massaged away that frown from her face. “I just hope I don’t get carded the next time I go to a bar and they get a whiff of me.”

  For some reason this has Edie laughing even harder. I like to think I’m an amusing guy, but this is a bit much, especially from someone who is usually such a tough audience.

  “Looks like I’m on a roll tonight,” I say, giving her an uncertain look.

  She laughs a bit more, then it eases away and she just stares at me. Before I can offer so much as a grin or another word, she falls into me, pressing her body into mine. She reaches up on her toes and crushes her mouth against mine.

  Who knew that lame attempts at jokes was all it took?

  But I’m certainly not going to be the kind of idiot who questions it. I bring my arms around her and pull her closer, allowing my mouth to naturally take the lead.