CHAPTER 5 - JEALOUSY

MIKE POV

She called two days later. Not to argue, which surprised me more than I could admit.

“Fine,” she said. No greeting, just straight in, like she had rehearsed the word until it stopped sounding like surrender. “I’ll look at your materials. My rate still stands. I choose the scope.”

“Understood.”

“And Mike.” she pause for a second. “This doesn’t mean I like you.”

“I never assumed it did.”

She hung up before I could say anything else. I told myself the small satisfaction I felt was just the deal closing and nothing more. I didn’t examine why I sat there looking at my phone for ten seconds after, alone in my office, with no one to perform for.

I saw her again four nights later at a fundraiser I would have skipped if Isabelle hadn’t personally called to remind me the Laurent name was on the invitation. Smaller gallery than the one where she threw the wine. The room felt more like someone’s living room than a formal benefit.

She stood near the back wall in a dark green dress, a glass of something pale in her hand, laughing. Not at me, at a man beside her. Tall, easy smile, the practiced charm that came from years of knowing exactly how to work a room. He said something and she laughed again, head tipping back, and touched his arm briefly an casually. It looked like a touch with no bug deal behind it.

I didn’t know why my jaw had gone tight.

“You’re staring,” Adrian said, materializing beside me with two glasses of champagne. He handed me one I hadn’t asked for.

“Bro you're staring at Elena Martinez talking to Lucas Bennett. Who represents her work. Who is, as far as I can tell, entirely uninterested in you right now. Which is presumably why you look like you’re calculating his net worth.” He continued.

“Dude, I’m not calculating anything.”

“Your jaw is tight. The expensive-lawyer jaw. I’ve seen it twice. Once during the Hartwell deal, and right now.”

I made myself look elsewhere. The stage, the microphone stand someone was setting up. Anything that wasn’t the sound of her laugh carrying across the room. It didn’t help. Some part of me was still listening to it.

“He’s her art dealer, probably a professional relationship. Unless you’d like me to go ask. In which case I absolutely will, because this is the most entertaining you’ve been in months.” Adrian said, patient and enjoying this far too much.

“You’ll do no such thing.”

“Too late. I’m bored, and you’re being weird about a woman you claim is just a consultant.”

He was already moving, weaving toward them with the confidence of a man who had never once worried about walking into a conversation uninvited.

I watched him go, I looked at him as he said something that made both of them laugh. I watched Elena’s eyes flick past his shoulder and find me across the room. Something shifted in her face. Not quite a smile, something close to it. Like she knew exactly what he had been sent to fish for.

She excused herself and crossed the room toward me directly, which I hadn’t expected and apparently wasn’t ready for.

“Your friend, he just asked Lucas if he was, and I quote, ‘in the market.’ I’d like to know what that means before I decide whether to be offended.” she said, arriving in front of me with her glass still in hand.

“No idea what he’s talking about. What makes you think I know anything. ”

“You’re a terrible liar for a man who negotiates for a living.”

“I negotiate facts. Lying is a different skill.”

I found myself watching her mouth as she spoke, the small unimpressed tilt of it, and had to redirect my attention before it became obvious.

“Lucas Bennett, is he your dealer.”

“My dealer or my friend. Neither is your business, but yes, since you’re clearly working yourself into something about it.Were you jealous, Mr. Laurent?” She took a slow sip, watching me over the rim of the glass, somewhere between amused and testing.

“Jealous for what? I don’t get jealous.”

“That wasn’t a no either. ”

“It was implied.”

“Implications aren’t facts. You taught me that yourself in an elevator less than a week ago.”

She was smiling properly now, and it did something uncomfortable to my chest. A pressure I didn’t understand myself and most probably didn't want to understand.

“You should work on your lies. Your jaw does a somethingwhen you lie. Adrian mentioned it right before he came over to torment Lucas on your behalf.” She said.

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t, not without confirming something I wasn’t ready to confirm, standing three feet from her while a room full of people suddenly felt very far away. She held my gaze a bit too long. The noise around us, the quartet, the clinking glasses, all seemed to drop into a lower register, becoming distant and unimportant.

I found myself looking at her mouth again. The small unimpressed curve of it. Wondering, with a clarity that unsettled me more than any boardroom ever had, exactly what it would feel like to kiss her and wipe that expression clean off her face.