The Paid Bridesmaid(11)

“Yes, he’s very attentive.” Her cheesy grin told me exactly what she meant by that and this time I did sigh.

“Speaking of, did you tell Camden to flirt with me?”

Sadie frowned. “I didn’t. But he’s the reason why I wanted to talk to you. Camden decided to flirt with you all on his own.”

I found myself literally holding my breath. As if we were in high school and she was about to tell me that Camden had told Dan, who told her, that he thought I was, like, so cute and totally wanted to take me to homecoming. I forced myself to breathe out and pay attention.

“Why?”

“Because he thinks you’re a spy.”





CHAPTER FOUR


“I’m sorry . . . what?”

For a second I thought I was having an auditory hallucination, but it was such a weird thing to say that I knew I hadn’t made it up.

“A spy,” she repeated.

“Like . . . he thinks I’m in the CIA?”

“No.” She took me by the hand and led me away from the party and the cameras. “I told you about how he and Dan run that tech company. Dan’s designed this doohickey thing that makes computers go faster. The company’s going public next week and they’re going to make a lot of money. So apparently other companies are engaging in corporate espionage and trying to steal information.”

“Can’t they just patent their device? Doesn’t that protect it?”

“Not in some foreign countries, where the companies there will ignore patents and make stuff anyway. Plus, a patent is only good for like, twenty years, and then anybody can take your design. Dan says he’s thinking long-term, so they are keeping it secret.”

“Have people already tried to steal it?”

Her eyes lit up, like she was enjoying telling me this. “Definitely. It’s happened like, three different times. One guy went into a cubicle of an employee that was on vacation and tried to use his computer. Another got hired as an executive assistant and wasn’t aware that their keystrokes were being logged. The last one dated their lead engineer. She was the one who came the closest to getting what they were looking for.”

This had all taken a hard turn from what I’d thought she might say. Finance had so many rules and regulations we had to be careful to follow so that we didn’t end up in prison. I couldn’t imagine trying to steal something from another company. “This is all so ridiculous. That he would think that about me.”

“If anybody new comes into their circle, Camden’s suspicious. He even doubted me for a while, but my whole life is online and available for public consumption.”

None of mine was. Taimani had made sure to scrub every image and every reference about me off the internet. I wonder if that had set off alarm bells for him. “So, why would he flirt with me then?”

“To find out whether or not you are a corporate spy and get information from you.”

“What, like I’m a German soldier and he’s a hot French girl?”

She elegantly shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t pretend to understand everything that Camden is thinking. I’m sure it made sense to him.”

“That makes one of us.”

“You know, I set him up with my friend Sharlene and they dated for a hot minute, and according to her, Camden’s an amazing kisser. I mean, as long as he’s trying to woo you into admitting something that’s not even true, you should enjoy yourself.”

There was absolutely zero chance of that happening, and she could tell that from the expression on my face.

“Oh no, I’ve ruined things, haven’t I?”

“There was nothing to ruin,” I told her. “Nothing was going to happen, anyway. I’m here for you, and nothing else.”

“Okay.” Sadie looked unsure, so I put on my bridesmaid smile.

“Don’t worry about me. It’s my job to worry about you.”

She hugged me tightly. “Sometimes I forget that we’re not really friends.”

“We’re really friends,” I said as we released one another. That wasn’t always true; there were plenty of brides I was happy to put in my rearview mirror. But Sadie? I liked her and could see myself staying friends with her. Especially since we both lived in New York.

“I better go check in with Troy and my husband-to-be to see if there’s anything else I need to do. You are officially off duty for the rest of the night. We can catch up tomorrow at the fitting.”

I said I’d be there and watched her walk away to rejoin her fiancé. Even though she’d been gone for only a few minutes, Dan picked her up and swirled her around like she’d just returned from active duty.

Well, now I knew how to explain Camden’s treatment of me. He had been suspicious and the full-court press had come about because he thought he could romance me into telling him all of my secrets.

Of course he wasn’t really interested in me because, hello, my life.

“There you are.” Camden’s voice was low and warm against my ear, making me shiver slightly in response.

How could I still get tingly feelings when I knew that he was trying to trick me?

He thinks you’re keeping a secret. And you are.

I told my Mom Voice to shut up. I wasn’t interested in her opinion on this subject.