Friendship on Fire (20 page)

FUCK. FUCK, FUCK, fuck. Goddamn it
. Josh stomped through the apartment, up and down the hall, through the living room, and finally, into the master bedroom, where he leaned on the dresser and stared at himself in the mirror. His hair was a mess; his eyes were bloodshot and angry. He wanted to punch something. He wanted to scream. He wanted to rewind time and fucking
witness
Riley draw that original drawing. He gritted his teeth, clenched his jaw, and paced the floor until his chest and stomach hurt so badly he had to get the poison out. He raised his arms toward the ceiling and yelled, “FUUUUUCK!”

The veins in his neck pressed against his skin. His face felt white-hot. How the hell would he fix this mess? He stomped to the front door and swung it open. He’d apologize to Riley. He’d take her in his arms and work this shit out.
Then what?
What if he’d been wrong about her? What if she did steal the design?
I’m not wrong. She’s a good person
. But what if…

He closed the door, taking relief in the fact that it was Saturday. He had time to think. To plan.
To mourn
.

RILEY FLUNG HER clothes on the foyer floor and crumpled onto the living room couch, sobbing. How could this happen? Yesterday she was on cloud nine, and now her career—and her relationship with Josh—were over. Kaput. Done. She sobbed until her chest and throat ached and she had no more tears to cry. She punched the couch pillows, then stood and paced. She wished she could climb out of her skin and hide. Riley threw herself onto the center of the living room floor and curled up in the fetal position.
How could anything hurt this much?

She couldn’t think past the ache of mistrust Josh had shown. He should have come to her first. Now everyone knew that she’d been accused of something she didn’t do—of something Josh believed she did.

She dialed Jade’s number. Jade answered on the first ring, and the sound of her voice drew more sobs from a well deep within Riley’s body that she didn’t know existed. How could something hurt so much?

“Ri? What is it, hon? What can I do?” Jade urged.

“I…I wanna come home.” That was it. She had to go back to her safe existence. No one in Weston would ever accuse her of something so vile.

“Oh, honey, of course you can come home. Ri, honey, tell me what’s going on. Did something happen? Did Josh do something?”

Riley pushed through the pain and humiliation and told her best friend exactly what had crushed her will to go on.

“Oh, hon. I just can’t believe Josh would believe any of that,” she said. Her voice was like a warm hug—an embrace that part of Riley wanted to rebel against and push away from so she could wallow in the ache of Josh’s faltering faith in her and another part of her wanted to run back into just to feel that she was loved.

There was no hiding from the excruciating pain. She had to face Josh head-on or give up. How could she love someone who didn’t trust her? But damn it, she did love him.

“Well, he does,” she said to Jade. “What should I do? Should I talk to him some more? I mean, what can I say? There was no one watching me draw Max’s dress. God, I had to hide it from Claudia or deal with her wrath. There were no eyewitnesses.”

“Take a deep breath, Riley. Let this mess blow over, then talk to him. It’s Saturday. Talk to him tomorrow, when you’re less upset. That way you can fix things before Monday.”

“I don’t know if I want to fix things. I’m not sure I’m cut out for this backstabbing business after all.”
Or a relationship with Josh
.

“I can’t give you the answers, but I wouldn’t make any final decisions today,” Jade said.

“I told Josh to get someone else to run the show,” she admitted.

“Then Cruella wins. Hands down.”

She knew Jade was pushing her in the same way that she might have pushed Jade if she were in a similar situation, but it hurt so damned much.

“So come home. Give up,” Jade urged.

Riley wiped her eyes as reality dawned on her. Jade was right. If she gave up, Claudia won. Even if she didn’t carry on her relationship with Josh, she couldn’t let Claudia define her career. “Sometimes I hate you,” Riley said.

“I can accept that. Now get your ass in the shower, show up on Josh’s doorstep, and tell him that you’re doing the show. Then hold that beautiful head up high and don’t let the bullshit weigh you down. You’ll figure this stuff out. And if you don’t, you can come home to me. I’ll open a bottle of Middle Sister margaritas, and we can drink all the hurt away.”

She heard a forced smile laced with worry in Jade’s voice. Riley sighed. “And what about Josh?”

“That’s a hard one. I get why you feel he doesn’t trust you, but also, he’s a businessman, and there’s that to consider. He has a company and a reputation to protect. Riley, without talking to him, you can’t know where he’s coming from. Maybe he’s as confused as you are.”

Riley wiped her remaining tears and took a deep breath. “Okay. I’ll try, but I might end up on your doorstep tomorrow.”

RILEY STOOD IN front of Josh’s door with her hand perched to knock. There wasn’t much she could do about her red-rimmed, puffy eyes or the deflated feeling in her chest, but at least she looked good. She wore the other JBD outfit Mia had picked out for her, and the form-fitting navy dress gave her a modicum of confidence. She’d been practicing what she was going to say for the past thirty minutes, but when Josh opened the door wearing his wrinkled clothes, his eyes also puffy and bloodshot, his hair still askew, it completely derailed her.

“Riley,” he said in an exhausted whisper. He stepped back and opened the door wider. “Come in, please.”

The little confidence she’d mustered shattered with his broken voice. Her eyes filled with tears, and she squeezed them shut. “Damn it.”

His arms were around her then, holding her against his chest. His lips on the top of her head, kissing her in a way that pulled more tears from some invisible well deep within her.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “I should have come to you first. Hell, I should have fired Claudia ages ago, but she’s Peter’s niece, and he did so much for me. I’ve always felt indebted to him. But I’m done worrying about him.”

Riley cried into his wrinkled dress shirt. She wanted to stay right there in his embrace, with his kind words bathing her like his hands once had, but she wanted to push him away in equal measure.
How could you do this to me if you love me? Why does love hurt so much?

Josh shut the door behind them, Riley still in his arms. “Can you forgive me?” he asked.

She pushed away then, just enough to see his dark eyes staring down at her with the most intense stare she’d ever seen, strangling her words once again.

“You don’t have to forgive me. Just know we’ll figure this out together. You’re right, Riley. I can’t imagine that you’d have done something like this. I just couldn’t see that clearly last night.”

“This whole thing sucks,” she finally managed. She pulled away from him, set her chin straight, and pulled back her shoulders. She had to do this. “I’m really hurt that you’d even consider what she said as true, and I’m beyond humiliated that you’ve spread this to all of the staff.”

“I understand,” he said. He ran his finger along the line of her jaw. “Riley, please believe me when I say that I did that in an effort to clear your name. I was hoping someone would have seen you designing.”

“Oh, right, like I’d let anyone know I was doing something other than JBD work.” She turned away. “Listen, I don’t know what to do about this—you, me, my career—in the long run, but I’m going to honor my commitment. I’ll go run the show and I’ll be at work Monday.”

She watched him swallow, then cross his arms. “What are you telling me?”

“I don’t know,” she said honestly.

“You don’t want to be with me?” Josh asked.

The hurt in his voice rivaled the ache in her own soul. “How together are we, Josh? We’re a secret love affair.” The words surprised her as much as they did him. He reached for her, and she stepped away, unsure of what she was doing, much less saying. “I love you, but I’m hurt. Beyond hurt.” She grabbed the doorknob and swung the door open.

“Riley, wait,” Josh said.

Riley closed her eyes, unable to form a rational response or even weed through her tangled feelings to know if she should listen to him or not.

“Claudia won’t be at the show today. I know she was scheduled to run it with you, but I’ve told her not to. Until this is figured out, I don’t want you two in close quarters. She assured me that until this was figured out, she wasn’t going to talk to anyone about it, so at least it isn’t public knowledge.”

With her eyes locked on the door, she asked, “Should I not do the show?”

“No, you can. I just didn’t trust her.”

That was enough to allow her eyes to meet his. Those five words meant that he did trust her, at least more than he trusted Claudia. She realized that didn’t say much, but at least it was something. And right then, Riley needed something to pull her through the morning.

JOSH NEEDED HIS morning run more than he ever had before. He ran like he was being chased through the park, in and out of the streets, until finally, he ended up in front of the JBD building. He’d rip the office apart if he had to. Damn it. If Riley was designing Max’s dress while at work, even when using stolen moments, there had to be some proof.

He stormed through the doors and into the design studio.

Claudia looked up from a drawing table with a smile. “Hi, Josh. I thought I’d be alone this morning.”

His sweat-covered body was ablaze. “What are you doing here?” he snapped.

“Sketching.” She tossed the answer as if she hadn’t a care in the world.

“Sketching.”
Sketching, my ass
.

“Yes, refining one of the designs in my portfolio. Wanna see?” She lifted her brows, and her green eyes sparkled, inciting a surge of anger within him.

“No.” He clenched his fists and stomped past her to Riley’s desk.

He pulled each drawer open, rifled through them, then slammed them closed.

“What are you doing?” Claudia asked.

Ignoring her, he continued his search, pulling out her file drawers and leafing through each and every folder. If there was proof, it was there somewhere. He felt Claudia’s eyes on his back, and that just spurred his vehemence to clear Riley’s name.

Ten minutes later, and having come up without any evidence of her drawings, he turned on Riley’s computer.

“You need her password,” Claudia said.

He glared at her.

“It’s
WestonGirl4Life.
Number four, all one word, initial caps.”

Josh narrowed his eyes. “How do you know?”

“It’s my job to know the passwords on all design computers, remember? You added that to my duties two years ago, when you were trying to find something or other.”

My mistake
. Josh sat in Riley’s chair. Her scent was everywhere, momentarily distracting him from his anger. While the computer booted, he thought about their conversation earlier that morning. He’d been so relieved to see her that he’d almost teared up, and when he’d held her, he’d wanted to tell her not to go to the show, but to stay with him. They could make love and figure out this mess later. He felt like she’d been ripped from his arms—and he knew she hadn’t been ripped at all. She’d been pushed, and he was the one who had done the shoving.

“Did it work?” Claudia asked.

Her voice pulled him from his thoughts. He typed in Riley’s password, and her JBD home screen came to life. He didn’t answer Claudia. The less interaction with her the better until he knew the truth about her accusations. He went through Riley’s files, feeling slightly voyeuristic; then he clicked over to her JBD email account. He went through anything with an attachment, hoping for something that would validate her innocence. Coming up empty once again, he went to her scanned documents.  Maybe she’d have done the same as Claudia and scanned them into the computer. A few clicks later, nothing was revealed. Riley appeared to be the typical JBD employee doing her job.
Damn it
.

She’s not a typical employee. She's talented beyond belief. She’s honest and more Weston than New York.
He spun around in the chair, scrutinizing Claudia as she leaned over the drawing table.
She’s not honest. More Alcatraz than anywhere else. Something’s not right
.

RILEY TRIED TO ignore the differences she felt in Mia and Simone and concentrated on the mass of buyers instead. She was taking an order and had stopped writing to present an accessory ensemble to the buyer when the flash of a camera went off. She looked up, and two clicks later, she was seeing spots.

She smiled at the photographer, pleased that JBD would be included in the event’s media coverage. 

Mia squeezed between Riley and the camera.

“Riley, why don’t you take our buyer someplace a little more private?” Mia asked.

Riley turned back to the buyer, watching Mia in a heated discussion with the photographer out of the corner of her eye. When the photographer left, Mia whispered something to Simone, before grabbing her phone and heading to the ladies’ room.

Another wave of buyers came through, and as Saturday afternoon turned to evening and the show finally came to an end, Riley was surprised to realize that she hadn’t thought about Claudia all afternoon, while thoughts of Josh pressed in on her every thought. Maybe she could get through this. Maybe it would pass without a lot of fanfare. Feeling mildly better, she wished Jade were there to go out for a drink or even just to be there to give her strength to deal with all the crap swirling around in her head.

She packed the brochures and correlated the orders while Mia and Simone prepared the clothes for shipment back to the office.

The last thing Riley wanted was to go home to Treat’s empty apartment. She didn’t want to be alone. She wanted to be in Josh’s arms, listening to him telling her it had all been a mistake, but she knew that wasn’t going to happen. She looked at Mia and Simone, hoping she could catch a break, at least with them. They hadn’t said a word about Claudia’s accusations, and she didn’t like it hanging between them like the white elephant in the room. She steeled herself for rejection.

“Hey, do ya’ll want to have a drink tonight?” Riley cringed at her hometown drawl.

Mia and Simone exchanged a glance, sending a clear, painful reminder of the accusations that hung over her head like a dark cloud.

“I’ve got a date,” Simone said and turned away.

Mia grabbed Simone’s arm and cast a harsh look in her direction.

Simone made a
tsk
sound, rolling her eyes. “Fine,” she huffed.

“Sure,” Mia said.

A new worry entered Riley’s mind. What if they believed that she really had stolen Claudia’s work, and they’d agreed to go for drinks just to give her a hard time about it? It was one thing to dislike a coworker, but calling her a thief took it to a whole new level.

“You don’t have to,” she said, feeling like she’d jumped into a night out with Mia and Simone too quickly. Maybe what she really needed was to go home and talk to Josh.

“Yes, we do,” Mia said.