“There’s a gap in the messages before they started up again. What happened there?”
I winced. “I told her I was seeing someone else. You. I figured we were already playing the role for Finn and Cillian, that it might as well benefit me in another aspect of my life. I thought it would make her back off. Which it did for a while, and then they started up again.”
Laurent skimmed the rest of the messages before handing my phone back, dark eyes fastening on my face. “The ring?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen it. She probably bought it herself. Or it was her mother’s ring or something.”
“The proposal was really romantic, according to her.”
“What did she say?”
“That you took her to her favorite restaurant. Did the whole flowers, dinner, candlelight thing, and then got down on one knee.”
“Does that sound like me?”
Laurent gave me a long look. “Honestly, no. It sounds rather mundane. You’d be more original.” He leaned his head back against the wall, his eyes closing.
“What are you thinking?”
“That you’ve brought a stalker to my door.”
Relief washed over me. “Thank you for believing me.”
He opened his eyes. “You should have told me what was going on with her.”
“You had enough to contend with. Besides, I thought she’d get bored once I stopped replying to her messages.”
Laurent’s lips curled into a smile. “Seems you are needy, after all. I should have guessed that when I was drawn to you.”
“You should have done.”
He jerked his head toward the closed door. “What are you going to do about it?”
“Talk to her, I guess.” I couldn’t have sounded any less enthusiastic about it.
“I should go out somewhere and leave you to it.”
“But you won’t.”
“It’s your mess. You should be the one to clean it up.”
“But you won’t.”
“What makes you so sure?”
It was my turn to smile. “Because you’re a good man, Laurent Dupont, and cleaning up messes is what you do best.”
“Other people’s. Not my own.”
“Which is why you needed help.”
Laurent shook his head, his jaw tight. “You pissed me off.”
“I know. You got that message across loud and clear.” I stepped closer to him, Laurent keeping a watchful eye on me but doing nothing to stop me until I was close enough to press him against the wall. “I missed you. Did you miss me?”
“Not even slightly.”
“I don’t believe that.”
