“I’m getting married in a few weeks,” she said, smiling. That smile…I remembered that smile, the one that made others want to smile along with it. “What’s there to be sad about?”

I nodded. If she was happy, I was ecstatic for her. Okay, maybe not ecstatic. Not in the least.

Run, Red, run!

I pushed out a broken grin as I slid my hands into the pockets of my slacks. “Good. I’m glad. The best of luck with everything.”

“Thank you.”

I turned to walk away and was surprised when she called out my name. I looked back to her, and her eyes held a bit of worry. Did she know? Did she know she was about to make a big mistake?

“Yes?” I asked.

“Can you, um…it sounds silly, but can you make sure Jason doesn’t drink too much the night before the wedding? He doesn’t really know his limit at times, and I’d hate for him to be too hungover. Ya know, big day and all.”

Fuck. She was really going to marry that man.

I gave her that fake smile again. “Of course.”

Relief hit her, and at least I was able to give her some comfort. “Thank you, Connor. That means a lot to me.”

Are you happy, Red?

I wanted to ask her again, but this time, I wanted to really focus on her eyes because those eyes had a way of telling the stories her lips seemed to refuse to reveal.

As she turned to walk away, without thought I reached out and grabbed her by the forearm. “Red, wait.”

She appeared confused by my sudden action. I was confused by it myself, but I didn’t let go. My fingers stayed glued to her arm as my lips parted.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Please don’t.”

“Please don’t what?”

“Marry him.”

Her eyes grew dull as the words hit her ears. She stumbled back and pulled her arm away from me, staring as if I’d slapped her right across the face. I didn’t want to make her feel that way. I didn’t want her to look at me as if I were a complete stranger, but she did Because I was a stranger.

That hurt more than I could’ve expected it to.

“Aaliyah, come on, we’re leaving,” Jason called out with a tone I didn’t like. Shit. I hated all of his tones, but I loathed how he used them to order her around.

She kept her stare on me, appearing hurt by my insane, but warranted, request. Her eyes stayed with me as she spoke to him. “I’m coming.”

And with that, she left.

11

Connor

It had been two weeks since I told Aaliyah to not marry my business partner, and I still stood by my request. The day before Jason’s wedding, I learned that he was even more of a trash human than I could’ve imagined. I wasn’t able to stop him from drinking because he showed up to my house already drunk and high. He came five hours later than he was supposed to and crashed in my guest room.

Then came the morning, when I realized how much I truly hated him.

Jason Rollsfield was, without a doubt, a piece of shit. That was nothing new to me. Still, when I woke on his wedding day, I was somewhat shocked at the level of shittiness he’d proven himself to be.

I woke up early in the morning to the sound of something shattering. I sat up straight in my bed, shaken up a bit from the sudden crash, when I heard two voices. That was almost more alarming than the sound of the crash.

“Shh! Don’t wake him,” Jason said, causing me to wonder exactly who he was speaking to in my house. What kind of person invited others into a home that wasn’t theirs? Jason, of course. I couldn’t wait until this man moved out to California to run the branch there. Sure, I had my fears of him screwing up, but I wanted him as far away from me as possible.

My curiosity pulled me out of bed, and I walked into the living room space, where I found three things that stressed me out. First, my top-of-the-line bottle of whiskey that’d cost me hundreds, the one I was saving for when I closed the deal on my passion project, sat on the kitchen countertop, opened and almost empty. Second, an expensive lamp a client had gifted me for our closing deal on their property was on the floor shattered into a million pieces. Lastly, Rose.

Yep, that was right. My new intern, who was pretty much a day over nineteen, was standing next to the broken lamp in my living room. When she looked up and noticed me noticing her, she froze like a deer in headlights. Her eyes bugged out and her skin paled. I wasn’t sure which looked more damaged—her or the lamp. Her brown hair was tangled and wild. She was wearing Jason’s blazer from the night before, and if she was wearing shorts of any kind, they were too short to notice. All I saw was bare legs—bare legs I had no want or need to witness because she was my fucking intern.