Chapter 29

CHAPTER 29

Evie

“That’s the last of it.” I collapsed onto my new couch on Sunday afternoon after crushing the last box we’d unpacked. It had taken two days for Greer and me to find a home for everything that had been delivered from my storage unit to my new apartment, which was a fraction of the size of the place I’d moved from.

“You know, there’s a great singles’ bar down the block. I went a few times before I met Ben,” my sister said.

I guzzled the last of a bottle of water. “I have zero interest in dating for a very long time.”

Greer frowned. I’d told her what had gone down between Merrick and me last week. “I know, but that’s usually when you meet someone. I met Ben less than a week after Michael and I broke up, remember?”

Christian and I had been together for years and been engaged, yet I didn’t think it would be nearly as easy to get over Merrick as it had been with him. It made me realize that time together didn’t matter. Some people just work their way deeper into your heart.

I shook my head. “It would be easier to move on if I understood what happened.”

“It sounds to me like he saw that little girl, and it reminded him of what he didn’t want—commitment and a relationship.”

Of course, that was entirely possible, but I didn’t think so. “I don’t know. But I think I’m going to start looking for another job.”

“What? You love your new job.”

“I do. But I reopen a wound every time I see him down the hall or pass by his office. And half of my sessions involve talking about him.” I sighed. “I’m in love with him, Greer.”

She smiled sadly. “I know you are.”

My doorbell rang. “Is that Ben? I thought he was going to pick you up later this evening?”

My sister shrugged. “He is. He went to the office for a few hours.”

It wasn’t my brother-in-law at the door when I opened it. Instead, it was a guy in a uniform holding a clipboard. “I’m here to install the alarm.”

“I think you have the wrong apartment.” I shook my head. “I didn’t order an alarm.”

“Oh, sorry.” He lifted a page on his paperwork. “It’s for an Evie Vaughn. Do you happen to know what floor she lives on? I pushed the only button that wasn’t labeled.”

My face wrinkled. “I’m Evie Vaughn. But I didn’t order an alarm system.”

The guy looked as confused as me. He shuffled through more of his papers. “Well, it says here someone prepaid for installation and a three-year contract.”

Then it hit me. Merrick had been adamant that I have an alarm. He could have ordered it before we broke up. “Can you tell me who ordered it?”

“If it was paid with a credit card. Most orders are placed over the phone, so the office gives me the receipt to give the homeowner when I do the job.”

“Could you tell me the name on the card?”

He scanned more papers before pulling one from his clipboard and holding it out to me. “Looks like it was paid for by a Merrick Crawford.”

I looked down. The amount was shocking. “Forty-three-hundred dollars?”

He shrugged. “He bought all the bells and whistles—window security, doors, even two panic buttons that silently call the police in an emergency.”

I shook my head. “I’m sorry. I can’t afford this. The person who paid for it… Well, we broke up.”

“Did you break up with him?”

“No.”

He smiled. “Then why not take it as a parting gift?”

“I can’t do that.”

“It’s not refundable. The guy signed an electronic contract, and it’s only cancelable for three days. New York requires a three-day right of recission. That was up yesterday. Trust me, the company I work for doesn’t let anyone out after that, so you might as well use it.”

My forehead creased. “The contract was signed three days ago?”

He looked down at the paperwork once more. “Order was placed four days ago. It was a rush request. This is the first day we would do an install since customers have the right to cancel the full contract within three days.”

That made no sense. Merrick and I had broken up more than a week ago. “Could this date be wrong?”

“I don’t think so. Everything gets printed the date the contract is signed.”

Greer came to the door. “What’s going on?”

“It’s an alarm company coming to do an install. Merrick prepaid it for three years.”

“Nice. At least he did something right before he broke your heart.”

“Actually, that’s the strange part. It seems he placed the order after we split up.” I thought back to the other day at the office, to the conversation I’d had with Andrea in the break room. “Now that I think about it, his assistant asked me if I was working today. I thought she was just making conversation, but I told her I’d be home unpacking all weekend.”

“Awesome.” My sister smiled. “You should have an alarm on the first floor anyway. I didn’t even think of that.”

“But I can’t let Merrick pay for an alarm. I wouldn’t have let him even if we were still together.” I shook my head at the installer. “I’m sorry you wasted a trip.”

• • •

The next morning, I went to the office early so I could speak to Merrick about the alarm, but he wasn’t around. For the rest of the day, he was in a meeting whenever I was free. Then he was out of the office Tuesday and Wednesday. When he returned on Thursday, I was determined to get in to see him at some point, because the alarm company had called me twice to follow up after I didn’t allow their installer in. At six, I’d just finished up with my last patient and readied myself to go by his office when my phone rang. It was my lawyer, so I swiped to answer even though anything to do with Christian’s lawsuit gave me an instant headache.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Evie. It’s Barnett Lyman.”

“Hi, Barnett. How’s it going?”

“Good. Listen, I just wanted to check in to see if you’ve given any more thought to Christian’s offer.”

“You mean his ridiculous bribery attempt? That if I have dinner with him, he’ll drop the lawsuit?”

“I know it’s ridiculous. And I’d never advise a client to meet with someone who is actively suing them. But his lawyer says they’ll put it in writing so he can’t back out.”

I leaned back in my chair and sighed. “Can’t we just tell the judge what he’s trying to pull to prove Christian’s acting in bad faith?”

“We can. But we’d have to file motions and take more time in court, and there’s a good chance the judge won’t kick the case even if he doesn’t like it. But the bottom line is, I’m five-fifty an hour, and I don’t like to waste a client’s money. Filing a motion is an hour prep, then going to court… That easily racks up to a few thousand dollars. I’ll do whatever you want, but if you can save all that and get rid of it, why not try? Let me ask you, are you afraid to meet with him?”

“You mean like in a physical sense?”

“Whatever.”

Christian was the world’s biggest jerk, but I wasn’t afraid of him physically, and he couldn’t hurt me emotionally anymore. I shook my head. “No, I’m not afraid of him at all.”

“I could try to negotiate it from dinner to a lunch, if that would help.”

It was the last thing I wanted to do, but Barnett was right. I didn’t have thousands of dollars to waste, and all I really wanted was to put the last of it behind me. I hated it—but it was the right move. I sighed. “Okay. If you can get him to agree to a lunch, that would be great.”

“I’ll get back to you soon.”

After I hung up, I sat at my desk for a while, staring out the window. A knock on my office door interrupted my thoughts. Merrick stood in the doorway.

“My assistant said you came by and asked if I was in?”

He looked only minimally better than he had the day he dumped me. His naturally tanned skin was still sallow, and dark circles remained below his green eyes. But I couldn’t let that affect me. Especially not after the call I’d just finished. So I took a deep breath and exhaled. Just as I was about to speak, a trader walked down the hall behind Merrick, so I motioned to the door. “Could you come in and close that? I’d prefer we discuss this in private.”

“Of course.”

He shut the door, but stayed on the other side of the room. Which was just fine with me.

“An alarm company showed up at my house the other day. They said you pre-paid for service and the installation.”

“I did.”

“But you did that after you dumped me. Why?”

Merrick’s face fell. “I told you I would, and I didn’t think you would do it on your own.”

I stood and put my hands on my desk, leaning forward. “You told me you would? Well, why keep that commitment when you didn’t keep the one that convinced me to trust you? You know, the one where you promised you’d never hurt me?”

He had the audacity to look like my comment upset him. Merrick rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m sorry.”

“Oh, you’re sorry?” I nodded and rolled my eyes before sitting back down. “Thanks for that. It helps a lot.”

Merrick took a step toward my desk, but I put my hand up, stopping him in his tracks. “Don’t,” I said. “I don’t need another apology, and I certainly don’t need you to pay for an alarm system out of some sense of pity or whatever it is. So unless you have something else to say, like maybe explaining the truth of what happened between us, there’s nothing more we need to discuss.”

Merrick finally looked in my eyes. He looked sad, but I didn’t care.

“You know what?” I said. “You once told me my ex was a coward. And you were right, he is. But so are you.” I shook my head. “Just please go before I get upset.”