“Just had to go out for a bit.” I leaned back into the couch. “Brandon was here last night.”
“I kinda heard.” Meg laughed.
“Oh.” I blushed. “Sorry.”
“Are you guys back together again?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I can’t deal with him anymore. I know I’ve said this many times before, but this time I’m really done.”
“It’s just all so weird.” Meg’s eyes grew round. “You get a job at his company and begin a whirlwind sexual adventure with him so quickly.”
“Oh, Meg,” I giggled. “I don’t know that I would say we began any sort of sexual adventure. We had some hot sex a few times and I felt like a fool.”
“You’re not a fool.” She shook her head.
“I’m a fool in love.” My phone beeped, but I ignored it and turned to her. “There’s something you don’t know.”
“What?”
“When Brandon bought Marathon Corporation, I wasn’t in as much shock as I’d thought.”
“What?”
“I kind of knew he was going to buy the company.”
“What? How?” Her voice rose.
“Don’t judge me,” I groaned and leaned back. “This is going to sound crazy.”
“Oh my God, Katie. Tell me.”
“So you know how much I loved, Brandon right? How much I thought he was the one.”
“Yeah.” She nodded.
“Well, I guess I never really got over him. I never forgot about him.”
“He was a douche, Katie. For what he did. And for leaving you like that. All the things you had to go through by yourself.” Meg’s voice was passionate. “I’m sorry, but I kinda hate him.”
“He didn’t know about everything.” I bit my lip as I stared at her.
“What do you mean?” She blinked rapidly.
“I mean, I never spoke to him after that day at school. The day he found out I was eighteen. I was hoping he would contact me, but he never did,” I sighed. “So I just did what I had to do.”
“Oh my God, Katie.” Meg’s hand flew to her mouth. “But you told me you told him. You told me that he didn’t care and he wanted nothing to do with you because you lied.”
“I’m so ashamed of myself, Meg.” I stared at the wall to avoid seeing the shock in her eyes. “I never told him. I figured if he had loved me he would have contacted me. He would have begged me to come back to him. And so I was young and selfish and immature, and I made a rash decision.”
“Oh, Katie. Does he know?”
“How could I tell him, Meg?” I shook my head. “There hasn’t really been a chance.”
“Oh.” Meg grabbed my hands and squeezed. “Don’t beat yourself up. We all make mistakes.”
“Yeah.” I gave her a small smile. “So a few years ago, I started really looking into what he was doing. Reading every article I could find about him. Tracking his business stuff, and I even called his office a few times to hear his voice.”
“Wow.”
“I know, I know. It was crazy. At one point, I almost thought he knew it was me.” I sighed. “But I think it was just wishful thinking. I started following a journalist who had written a lot of pieces on him and went to a party that his newspaper was hosting. I knew his photo from the paper, and when I saw him, I accidentally bumped into him.”
“Oh shit, not Matt?” Meg was bug-eyed now.
“Yeah, Matt.”
“I knew you didn’t like him!” Meg exclaimed.
“What?”
“He just never really looked like your type. I mean, he was nice and all, but he wasn’t really exciting, and you guys never really seemed to have chemistry.”
“Yeah, well, get this. So I became friendly with him to try and get more information on Brandon, but...”
“Oh my God, but what?” Meg looked at me with excitement on her face. I knew that she was loving every minute of this scandalous conversation.
“Matt”—I paused dramatically—“is working for Brandon.”
“WHAT?” Meg screamed as she stared at me in shock. “Brandon Hastings? Are you telling me that Matt, your boyfriend, works for Brandon, your ex?”
“Yup.” I nodded. “Crazy, right?”
“What the f**k?” Meg shook her head. “So was Matt working for Brandon when you met him or more recently?”
“No idea.” I bit my lower lip. “That’s what I want to know as well.”
“This is crazy. You played someone, but maybe you were played from the beginning?”
“Yeah,” I sighed. “It’s so confusing.”
“This is like a frigging movie.” Meg jumped up. “I need a glass of wine. Want one?”
“Yeah, go on.” I sat back in the couch and waited for Meg to come back with the wine.
“Here you go.” She handed me a glass and sat back down. “Okay, okay, so let me get this straight. You tried to find Brandon ‘cause you still missed him? Why didn’t you just go straight to one of his offices or something?”
“I wanted it to be an organic meeting.” I rolled my eyes. “Don’t ask. At the time, I thought it was a good idea to make it seem like a chance meeting.”
“So you bumped into Matt so you could get insider information on Brandon. Which you got. You then got a job at a company you knew he was buying so that you could pretend to be worried when he was back in your life, but really you were excited. You hooked up with him, hoping that meant that he wanted you back, but instead he treated you like shit again and you found out he had a fiancée and a son. Then you slept with him again and he treated you like shit again. And now you want to leave the job and forget any of this ever happened.”
“I guess that’s why you’re the lawyer.” I gave her a half smile. “You got it all in one paragraph.”
“Well, I’m no longer employed as a lawyer.” She made a face. “But this is one hell of a story.”
“I know. I feel like a bit of a psycho,” I muttered, thinking about everything. “I can’t believe I’ve wasted so much time on this guy and he’s just an ass**le.”
“I agree that he’s an ass**le, but I think he deserves to know the truth,” Meg said softly, and I looked up into her earnest eyes with a frown. “I know it’s hard, Katie. And you probably try not to think about it, but I think you need to tell him what happened. Maybe that’s part of the reason why you can’t move on.”