Man of Mystery: A BBW Romantic Suspense by Lorelei Moone Page A

me, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
No way. This is fucking unbelievable!
    I dial his number again, but this time, there’s no answer.
    Great, just bloody ignore me without giving me a chance to have my say.
Men!
Always think they fucking know what’s best for everyone else.
    I shut down the spreadsheet, not giving a damn whether I’ll get into trouble for not finishing it. It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters. In another surge of rebellion, or recklessness, I turn the PC off by switching off the power, rather than doing it
the proper way.
I need to get out of here, right now!
    Maggie will know what to do, even if it’s just to watch girlie movies and drink wine together. And ice cream. We’ll need ice cream.
    I pick up my stuff and rush out of the office, straight to my car. I can’t think of anything, focus on anything other than that pathetic excuse for a conversation I had with Liam just now. It’s a miracle I make it to Maggie’s place in one piece.
    Rather than ring the bell downstairs, I slip inside her building just as someone else leaves and head straight for her door.
    “Mags, open up, it’s me,” I shout, while banging my fist on the plastic finish door - the types you often see in cheap housing from the early nineties.
    When it unlocks, I’m surprised not to be faced with Maggie but a flustered-looking Alec. Shit, she had said he’d be coming over too. Crap.
    “Hi. Maggie is just taking a shower,” he mumbles, while eyeing me suspiciously. “I’m Alec.”
    I’m about to comment on his stares, when I realize that I’ve probably been crying, meaning my mascara must have run down my face, and the lack of sleep will have made me look half dead anyway.
    “Hi. I’m Tess,” I say, while shaking the hand he’s offered and avoiding eye contact with him.
    He waves at me to enter, and I follow him inside. Maggie’s house is a mess as always - a cozy mess, as she likes to say. We take a seat on the sofa, in silence.
    “So… you’re Maggie’s best friend?” Alec starts, a painful few seconds later.
    I just nod. I’m not up for small talk or generally in a sociable mood after everything that’s happened in the past twenty-four hours. If he thinks I’m an arrogant bitch because of it, so be it.
    We don’t talk anymore until a bathrobe-wearing Maggie enters the room, with a towel wrapped around her head.
    “Tess, when did you get here? So you two have met then. Good.” She walks around the messy coffee table, and I get up to give her a hug.
    “Jesus, you look like shit.”
    I try not to cry again, but my face contorts itself into an ugly frown anyway. “I called him. Finally.”
    “Right… and?” Maggie sits down between Alec and me and puts her arm around me.
    “After I’ve worried about him all night and day, no explanation, nothing. He’s calling it quits. What the hell is wrong with men?” Realizing Alec is still sitting there on the other end of the sofa, I lean forward, acknowledging his presence for a second. “No offense.”
    “None taken,” Alec mumbles.
    “He what?! The fucking nerve!” Maggie exclaims.
    “Right? I don’t know what to do anymore.”
    “You’re here now, and that’s what matters. Alec, would you be a dear and make us a cup of tea? We have a bit of girl talk to do,” Maggie says.
    Alec mumbles in agreement he’s clearly uncomfortable with the situation as it’s about to unfold and glad to get the chance to escape the drama for a while.
    We watch him leave before continuing our conversation.
    “Now, don’t spare any details. What did he say?” Maggie says.
    I tell her the entire story, showing her the text message he’d sent first, and then recount our phone call word for word, including how he didn’t even give me the chance to respond to any of it.
    “It did sound like him, right?” she asks.
    I nod through the fresh tears.
I think so.
Considering he did refer to something I’d told him when we were alone, I’m pretty certain it