The Fixed Trilogy: Found in You(25)

I headed up the ramp toward the main part of the club, hoping to somehow escape my anxiety attack.

“Laynie?” Celia pressed, following after me.

I shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You could cut the tension with a knife.”

I opened my mouth to deny it but what was the point? “Was it that obvious?”

“Yeah. It was. Wanna talk about it?”

I stopped walking and paused.

“Ooh, there’s hesitation.” Her eyes twinkled with the anticipation of gossip. “Let’s talk about it. But not here. Over coffee.”

I rubbed my fingers over my brows, trying to alleviate the throbbing behind my eyes. “All right.” I didn’t have the energy to argue or make up an excuse. Besides, I needed a drink, and since it was too early for liquor, coffee would make a fine replacement.

“Great! I’m sure you need to lock up. I’ll head to the coffee shop next door and get us a table.”

Fifteen minutes later, Celia and I were seated at my favorite cafe in Columbus Circle. I’d already downed a third of my iced double espresso and was realizing that maybe caffeine was exactly the opposite of what I needed because now my shakiness had increased to full-on jitters.

Celia had so far filled the conversation with easy topics that I was able to respond to with only one-or two-word sentences. Meanwhile, my head spun, unable to concentrate on any one thing for any length of time. The one thing I was sure of was that I shouldn’t be having coffee with Celia Werner. Should. Not.

“So who was the guy?”

I rocked back and forth in my chair. “No one. A client.”

“That’s a lie and you know it. There was all that weird vibe stuff going on.”

Her eyes bore in to me, but I was unwilling to give anything except a one-shouldered shrug. What would I tell her, anyway? Hudson didn’t even want me talking to her, let alone telling her big important things. And if I did explain about Paul, what if she told Hudson?

Shit, shit, shit. Hudson.

I had the distinct feeling that he would not approve of my working with Paul Kresh. And it wasn’t like it was something I could necessarily hide. Hudson did own the club, after all. Fuck, f*ck, f*ck.

Unaware of the turmoil in my mind, Celia tried another method of getting the dirt. “I mean, I get it. He’s yummy, as in I wouldn’t mind having him in my bed for a night or twelve.”

I chortled. “Good luck with that. His business partner is also his girlfriend.” Of course, Paul had been engaged when he hooked up with me. “On second thought, you probably still have a chance.”

“Obviously you speak from experience.”

No shit, Sherlock. I was about as experienced as you could get when it came to Paul Kresh. I knew his habits, his patterns, his workout schedule. Details of his life I’d committed so deeply to memory that they were impossible to forget. Keeping it all bottled up wasn’t helping. I’d learned to cope through talking. I needed to talk.

“Tell me. You know you want to.”

Celia was right. I did want to tell her. So I did.

Hudson had told Celia a few things about my past, but I wasn’t entirely sure what so I told her everything. When I finished she was silent and wide-eyed for several seconds.

“Damn,” she said finally.

“Right?”

“Like, ugh. I don’t even know what to say.” She took a deep breath and straightened from her leaned-in position. “Does Hudson know?”

“He knows about the restraining order, of course. He told you about that, didn’t he?”

She nodded. “He mentioned something about it.”

I tried not to be embarrassed that he’d shared that with Celia. I’d already guessed she knew that much. It made sense why he’d told her. She was in on the scam we’d tried to pull on Sophia and it was important that Celia knew all the details, I supposed.

Whatever. It didn’t matter what Hudson had said or why, because now I’d told it all to Celia myself. “But he doesn’t know I met with Paul today. I didn’t know I was meeting with him until he showed up. Now I don’t know what to do.”

I sipped at the straw of my iced espresso that was mostly water by that point. “The obvious answer is to not work with him. That’s what I have to do. And Paul can say whatever he wants, but I can’t put myself and The Sky Launch in that kind of jeopardy.”

“There you go! You got it worked out.” Celia’s eyes narrowed as if she were considering. “Except…”

I had a whole bunch of “excepts” running through my mind. Except working with Paul would be good for the club. Except I owed him. Except he might get mad and cause me trouble if I didn’t go on board with his scheme. Except I really wanted Hudson to think I could do good things with his club.

I wondered what Celia’s “except” was. “Except what?”


“Party Planners Plus is getting a really good name around town. It’s impossible to please my mother and she was almost happy with what they did at the MoMA. That’s saying a lot. They’d do great things for the club.” She took a sip of her nonfat latte. “And Hudson would be proud.”

“Are you reading my mind?”

She smiled. “I’m just thinking logically.” She set her drink down and seemed to go into planning mode. “Would you have to work with Paul hands-on?”