Wishful Thinking Read online

  “Why you…I can’t believe…” He had been playing her for a fool for years. He had never once intended to live up to his side of their bargain. Phil was finally sure of at least one thing—she was done with Christian for once and for all.

  She stood up with her keys in her hand. The old Phil might have cried, but ultimately she would have forgiven her cheating fiancé and agreed to forgo law school in order to salvage their relationship. But Phil wasn’t that person anymore. She headed for the door.

  “Wait a minute.” Christian stepped in front of her. “Where do you think you’re going?”

  “I’m leaving you.” Phil gave him a level glare. “I should have done it a long time ago.”

  “Now, hold on, babe,” he protested. “I told you we can work this out. Think about all the good times we’ve had. Remember our first apartment—how hot it was? Or the Christmas we only had ten dollars to spend on gifts?”

  “So we went to the dollar store and you got me a glass bunny and I got you a bottle of designer imposters cologne,” Phil recited. “Yes, Christian, I remember all of that. But it doesn’t change the fact that I’m leaving you. I told you I can’t live on the past anymore—that I needed something for the future. Well now I’m going to make my own future. Without you.”

  Christian dropped the soothing tone of voice. “Where do you think you’re going anyway? Gonna run back to computer boy?”

  “I…I don’t know.” Phil crossed her arms over her chest. “For right now I’ll probably just go back to Nana’s house. I need time to think.”

  Christian threw up his hands. “Fine. Good luck being able to sort yourself out with your sisters yapping and your grandma going nuts—I’ll be surprised if you can hear yourself think, let alone come to any kind of a decision.”

  Phil tightened her grip on her keys. “You know, Josh likes my family. He had dinner with us last night at Nana’s and they like him too.”

  “What?” For the first time Christian looked genuinely angry. “So you blew off my important office party to show off your boyfriend to your crazy family?”

  “It wasn’t like that.” Phil was strangely gratified to have finally gotten a reaction other than mild amusement from him. But his next words shattered that.

  “Dammit, Phil, I really could have used you there at that party last night,” he said, frowning. “It was damn inconsiderate of you to miss for something stupid like that. It didn’t look right, me being there without you.”

  “It didn’t look right?” Phil felt like she was screaming but the words came out in a hoarse whisper. “Is that all you care about, Christian? Appearances? You and I are over and you’ve been lying to me for years but all you care about is that I show up at the right place at the right time on your arm?”

  “Philly-babe, be fair.” He sighed. “I never said that. Now come on, put down your keys and let’s go to bed. I’ve got a long day tomorrow.”

  “I’m not going to bed with you ever again. And I am not your ‘Philly-babe.’ Not anymore.” Phil pushed past him to the front door of the apartment.

  “Fine,” he called after her. “You’ll feel different after a night at that mental institution your family calls a house. I’ll call you when you’ve had time to calm down.”

  Phil didn’t answer, mainly because she couldn’t think of anything mean enough to say. For the second time that night she was left wondering—what the hell was she going to do?

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  “Wow, you look like shit.” Cass clapped her hand over her mouth. “God, Phil, I don’t know what got into me. I didn’t mean to say that.”

  “Don’t worry about it. It’s my new wish, or rather, my old one, reversed. Now instead of speaking my mind, the people around me have to speak theirs.” Phil pushed past her into the large kitchen. Someone had a pot heating on the stove, but thankfully the brown liquid bubbling gently inside it looked and smelled a lot more like hot chocolate than another one of her nana’s potions.

  “Wait…what?” Cass shut the kitchen door and turned to stare at her. “You’re kidding, right? Not even the FG could be so stupid.”

  “She did it on purpose. At least, I’m pretty sure she did.” Phil sank down at the table and put her head in her hands. “So I’ve been hearing people’s secret thoughts and darkest secrets all day long. It’s been horrible.”

  “Oh, Phil, I’m sorry.” Cass wasn’t usually the affectionate type but she came around the table and gave Phil a quick hug. “That sucks.”

  “You have no idea.” Phil tugged at the hair scrunchy holding her hair in a bun at the nape of her neck. “I got to hear how one coworker is afraid of killer clowns and how another has a massive Electra complex.” She ticked them off on her fingers as she went. “The lady across the hall that always steals my paper is a kleptomaniac. The cutest guy in my office is gay. The old lady that runs the filing department matches her eyebrows to the color of her underwear. My boss is addicted to Internet porn—and not just any porn—really skuzzy, bizarre porn.”

  “There are different levels of Internet porn?” Cass raised a coal black eyebrow at her.

  Phil shivered. “Trust me on this. But that’s not even the best part. The head of the BB&D human resources department likes to wear women’s underwear under his suit. Josh is in love with me and has been for years and Christian is cheating on me. Which is why I’m here.”

  “Whoa.” Cass sank down at the table beside her. “Back up, Phil. You totally lost me on those last two.”

  Phil sighed and ran both hands through her loosened hair. “What—you mean my best friend being madly in love with me or my fiancé cheating?”

  “He cheated on you? With who? I knew he was a rat bastard.” Cass glowered and Phil fervently hoped her sister wasn’t going to say, ‘I told you so.’

  “With a woman at work. Another attorney who in his words is ‘smart and funny and sexy as hell.’ Whereas I am just dependable old Phil who’s willing to put up with anything.”

  “You’re not, are you? Willing to put up with it?” Cass demanded.

  Phil spread her hands. “Here I am. I left him.”

  “Good for you!” Cass thumped her on the back. “I’m proud of you, Phil. There’s no way you ought to stay with that cheating asshole.”

  “Well, it’s not like I didn’t cheat on him too. With Josh. In the mall. In the dressing room at RipTide” She put her head in her hands.

  “You what? Details—I need details.” Cass pounded on the table with one hand just as the cocoa on the stove boiled over with a hiss. She got up hurriedly to rescue the pot. “So tell,” she went on, pouring the hot chocolate into two mugs and bringing them back to the table.

  Phil sighed. “All you need to know is that we did things…intimate things. Things I’ve never done with Christian. Oh, God.” She bit her lip, trying to rid herself of the hot image of her best friend on the floor in front of her, kissing and tasting her.

  “You’re getting red. It must have been good.” Cass pushed the mug of hot cocoa towards her. “Come on, fess up.”

  “All right, it was pretty damn spectacular. But, it left me so confused.”

  “What’s to be confused about? In a nutshell—you cheated on Christian but he cheated on you first. They guy you cheated with just happens to be tall, dark and handsome—and he’s madly in love with you. So you leave Christian to be with Josh. The end.”

  “No that’s not the end!” Phil put down the mug of scalding cocoa and buried her head in her hands again. “When did my life turn into such a freaking soap opera?”

  “The minute you were born,” Cass said. “Seriously, Phil, belonging to this family practically guarantees you a daily allotment of drama. It’s amazing you’ve managed to live as normal a life as you have for as long as you have. But face it—the weirdness finally caught up with you. Why don’t you admit Christian is an asshole and own up to the fact that you want to be with Josh?”

  “I don’t want to just leave one guy for