Blurred Lines 1: CHASE novel Chapter 8

~Sofia~

Thirty minutes and counting. That’s the running time of my call with Jessica. Half of which we spent in silence, crying.

Crumpled tissue littered my bed. Jessica moved to her couch, nursing a glass of lemon water. And just the same, tissue could be seen everywhere on her end.

“When is the wedding?” I asked, wiping my puffy cheeks.

Jessica sniffed. The lemon swirled with the ice cubes as she sipped her drink. “A month from now. Katerina wants to get married before her belly swells.”

My throat tightened. “How far is she?”

Jessica hesitated. “Six weeks.”

The time frame fits Katerina’s story perfectly. “Huh,” I huffed, “I bet Serafina couldn’t wait to announce his son’s engagement with Katerina Simone.”

She snorted. “You guessed right. And she’s another source of my headache. She was the one who tweeted about Kyle and Katerina’s ‘secret’ relationship.” Lips pursed, she made an air quote. “She tagged Katerina with a quote, ‘soon, we’d be mother and daughter.’”

‘Why am I not surprised?’

“I asked Katerina to bring her to the office tomorrow. She needs to be debriefed on what not to do if she really wants an ‘intimate’ wedding,” Jessica continued.

“Kyle…” I choked on his name, “is he coming with her too? To talk about ‘their’ wedding.”

Jessica paused, considering her reply. “I asked Katerina to bring him too,” she said, face turning sour. “Not to kill him, but you know how we do things at LBPR. We need to speak with everyone involved in this kind of situation. Even if I don’t want to see that moron’s face, I need to suck it up, endure breathing the same air as him, and control the itch of cutting his balls off… Being a decent human had never been so challenging, Soph.”

It was nice to know that Jessica’s professionalism is winning over her loyalty to me. She’s on my side, there’s no doubt about that, but compromising her job because of my personal issue will not improve this situation.

“Thank you, Jess,” I said, sniffing. “And sorry for putting you in this position. Katerina was supposed to be my client.”

She shrugged. “I’d take on Katerina for you anyday, babe… anyway, speaking of clients. Rio, hm? How is our mysterious billionaire client treating you?”

Chills blanketed my feet. I tucked it beneath my bum insearch of warmth, confused about this sudden shift in the air.

Jessica’s brow tipped to the ceiling, regarding me inquisitively

“Everything is fine,” I murmured. My heartbeat was gaining speed. “Mr. Montiero provided me with this crazy beautiful penthouse….”

My best friend’s eyes slanted, scanning my entire face. The intensity of her gaze alighted my chest in strange warmth.

“Why are you blushing over a penthouse? I mean, I get it. Luxury is hot, but that’s not you.”

I hate that she knew me too well. It’s true, though. Even if Kyle pampered me with expensive gifts and took me to places I only saw in magazines, that’s not the reason I loved him. I saw the good in him, how he cared for me and how he treated me when we were together. ‘Where’ doesn’t matter to me; it’s ‘who’ I spend my time with that matters.

I groaned internally.

“And you’re groaning….” Jessica insisted.

I ran my palm over my face.

“Is he hot? Coz Georgia won’t give me details about your new client. You want a rebound, and this client could be it. Fuck professionalism, yeah? Boss Lewis would forgive you for fucking a billionaire once-“

“It’s Chase,” I blurted out.