A Cosmic Kind of Love(99)

“Maybe. Maybe not. The papers will say anything.”

Splashed across several New York gossip rags this morning were photographs of Chris and Darcy at his father’s event on Saturday night. Headlines speculated Darcy had broken her engagement off for Chris and the two of them were back together. An anonymous source said they’d been spending lots of time together these past few weeks and that his relationship with me had just been a casual thing. Boy, did that burn, even if it was bullshit.

That Darcy had one arm draped around Chris’s shoulder and her other hand resting intimately on his stomach, while his hand sat low on her spine didn’t help. Their whole body language was way too cozy for my liking. I could be forgiven for thinking they’d just met on the red carpet, but there was also a photo from inside the event, and Darcy was sitting next to Chris at a table I knew as a planner would be assigned.

Like she was his date.

Was I not good enough to attend a fancy charity award ceremony?

While he’d been much more present with me lately, I thought of his preoccupied behavior before that and how his excuse that it was because of his book never really sat right.

My old insecurities started eating away at me.

“Hallie?”

I blinked owlishly up at my friend. “The papers are wrong. At least . . . they’re premature.”

Althea bit out a curse.

“It’s okay.” I reached for her hand and squeezed it. “Let’s not jump to conclusions until I talk to him. Okay, until I yell at him and then talk to him.”



* * *





    By the time I got off the subway that evening, I’d worked myself into quite a furor. Chris hadn’t called all day, even though he must have been alerted to the online attention. I had six missed calls from my mom, but nothing from my boyfriend! That he was avoiding me panicked me into thinking maybe the gossip wasn’t far from the truth. I mean, Chris and Darcy had certainly looked the part of a couple.

Everyone and their grandmother seemed to think so.

It was a surprise then to find Chris in my apartment, typing away on my laptop. He lifted his head, wearing the reading glasses that made him even sexier somehow, and grinned in greeting. “Hey, gorgeous.” He got up from the couch, removing the glasses. “How has your day been?”

Because I was a masochist, I’d bought a physical copy of one of the more well-known papers. I smacked it against his chest. “You tell me!”

Chris’s eyebrows practically hit his hairline as he caught the paper. “What the . . .”

“Why didn’t you call me about this?” I slammed my purse down on my kitchen counter before opening the cupboard that housed my wineglasses. “Something to hide?”

“I didn’t call because I still can’t find my phone. I think I might have left it at your mom’s.”

I thought of those six missed calls. Maybe they were about Chris’s phone and not the articles. Or probably both. We’d had lunch with her yesterday and she’d been great. She made very few nitpicky comments about me and actually seemed to be protective of me, almost interrogating Chris. I’d expected her to be all over him and make me feel like he was too good for me. Afterward, I’d felt bad for thinking that of her because she’d been perfectly nice. That’s why I hadn’t answered her calls, because I didn’t want her to say something to me like, Well, I didn’t want to say it, but this was to be expected.

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh. Why are you so pi— Ah, I see.”

Grabbing a bottle of wine, I tried not to slam it and the glass down on the counter as I faced him. He scowled at the half-page article on him and Darcy. The pulse in my neck throbbed, and my palms were clammy as I tried to open my bottle of wine.

Chris looked over at me. “You’re upset about this? Hallie, I told you Darcy was there, and you know these New York gossip rags print bullshit.”

“Oh, you think I’m upset they’re insinuating you’re cheating on me?”

He shrugged, baffled.

Which just pissed me off even more.

“Chris, I know you wouldn’t cheat on me.” I rounded the counter, ignoring the relief that flickered across his face. “But you clearly lied about why I couldn’t attend this event. You blew off meeting my dad for this! Darcy wasn’t just there. You were her date. She’s at your table, and she was clinging all over you.”

Anger darkened Chris’s features as he threw the paper aside. “I did not lie to you. I didn’t know she’d be there, and we met outside and took some photos for the press because apparently that’s what happens at these events. And she wasn’t sitting next to me as my date. She’s pictured in my father’s seat because he was barely in it all night, schmoozing the room, so we hung out. Just like I told you, it was her first appearance in public since the breakup. I was just being a friend, having a care for her feelings.”

Ugly resentment filled me. “And it never crossed your mind that being pictured together like this might cause gossip?”

“Of course it crossed my mind, but it’s not like it’s true.”

I gaped at him. “I have been fielding texts and social media notifications and calls all day offering me commiserations.”

Chris blanched.