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  “This one’s on the house. Just be home.” He went back inside and closed the door, and Suze turned to Nell and swallowed.

  “He didn’t even ask me what I wanted.”

  “I noticed that. Are you okay?”

  “No,” Suze said and sank down on the couch, tears spilling from her eyes. “We had a big fight last night about me working at The Cup. I refused to quit and he walked out. And he didn’t come back at all last night.”

  “Hang on,” Nell said, and ran to Gabe’s office to get his Glenlivet. “Here,” she said to Suze, splashing some into a Susie Cooper cup. “Drink this.”

  Suze gulped some of the whiskey and then inhaled sharply.

  “Take it easy,” Nell said. “Gabe only drinks the good stuff.”

  “I really thought I’d be different. Not like Abby and Vicki.”

  “You are different.” Nell patted her shoulder and hated Jack. “Maybe he’s not cheating. You don’t know.”

  “I know,” Suze said. “I just want to know for sure.”

  When Suze had gone, Nell banged on the door of Riley’s office and went in. “What the hell is going on?”

  “Jack Dysart Is Cheating on His Wife, Part Three,” Riley said. “Sequels suck.”

  “Don’t get cute with me,” Nell leaned over his desk. “How long have you known?”

  “A couple of months.”

  “And Gabe?”

  “A couple of months.”

  “And you didn’t tell me.”

  “Do we look stupid?”

  “Yes,” Nell said. “More than stupid. Why the hell—”

  “Because you would have told Suze. Remember the first rule?”

  “Don’t pull that junior high crap on me,” Nell said. “This is my best friend.”

  “Which is why we didn’t tell you.” Riley sat behind his desk, impassive and calm. “You couldn’t have done a damn thing for her, anyway.”

  “I could have let her know—”

  “She knew,” Riley said. “She just didn’t want to know. You knew before that Christmas that your husband was screwing around.”

  “I did not.”

  “You knew the whole time you were explaining to people that he hadn’t cheated. You just didn’t want to know.” Riley sighed. “It’s a coping device. I can show photos of a spouse cheating and if the client doesn’t want to believe it, she won’t. Or he. Denial goes both ways.” He stood up and came around the desk. “Except by the time they hire us, they’re usually ready to face the truth. That’s why Suze didn’t show up until now. So tonight I’ll show her the truth. On the house.” He put his hand on her shoulder. “Trust me.”

  Nell stepped away from him. “Never again.” She turned to see Gabe standing in the doorway.

  “You know,” he said, “I’m not the jealous type, but—”

  “Go to hell,” she said and walked past him to get her purse.

  Riley said, “Jack Dysart.”

  “Oh, hell,” Gabe said and came after her. “Wait a minute.”

  “You knew and you didn’t tell me,” Nell said, purse in hand, trying to push past him to get the door.

  “Yeah,” Gabe said, blocking her. “Would you just listen, please?”

  “No,” Nell said, and Gabe grabbed her arm and dragged her into his office, slamming the door behind him.

  “Listen to me,” he said when she turned on him, ready to yell. “We found out doing the Quarterly Report for Trevor back in November.”

  “It wasn’t in the report I typed,” Nell said.

  “We gave you a dummy.”

  “I am a dummy,” Nell said. “I thought we—”

  Gabe pointed his finger at her and said, “Don’t even start on that. What we are has nothing to do with the agency.”

  “What are you talking about? We are the agency. The agency and sex. You lied to me and you betrayed Suze.”

  “No.” Gabe said. “We lied to you so you wouldn’t betray the agency.”

  Nell felt cold. “So you and Riley are the agency and I’m not?”

  Gabe closed his eyes. “Look, it’s simple. We didn’t tell you because you’d tell her. You know the rules.”

  “I know the rules, and I know you break them all the time,” Nell said. “This wasn’t about the rules. This was about you keeping me out, you not trusting me. Well, the hell with you.”

  “You would have told Suze,” Gabe said, but she’d already detoured around him and was heading out the door to Suze.

  * * *

  Riley called Suze that night at ten and picked her up fifteen minutes later. He took her up High Street to the campus and then parked in front of a bar off a side street.

  “Here?” she said when they were inside. The place was a typical undergrad hangout, dirty, noisy, and cramped.

  “Here,” Riley said and went to the bar while Suze looked around and thought, So this is what I missed by not being single as an undergraduate. It didn’t cause much of a pang, but then her stomach was already tied in knots so pangs were probably not physically possible. She found a booth and slid into it, taking care not to snag her sweater sleeve on the splintered tabletop.

  My husband is cheating on me.

  Riley came back with two mugs of beer in one hand and a bowl of unshelled peanuts in the other. He slid one of the mugs across to her and sat down.

  “I don’t see why we’re here,” Suze said, and Riley said, “Wait,” so she shut up and sipped her beer. After a long silence broken only by the crack of peanut shells, she said, “Do you have to be this quiet?”

  “Yes,” Riley said, his jaw tight.

  “Are you mad at me? Is it because I made a pass at you on New Year’s Eve?”

  “No.”

  She looked around the bar and thought, I will not cry. “You’re not quiet with Nell.”

  “Nell is different.”

  “Because you slept with her.”

  “No,” Riley said, pretty much ignoring her to look at the crowd, and Suze felt her temper rise.

  “I can’t believe you took advantage of her,” she said, watching him to see if he’d flinch. By God, he was going to pay attention to her tonight or she’d know the reason why.

  “I didn’t take advantage of her.”

  “You seduced her,” Suze said, and Riley turned to her with great and obvious patience and said, “Shut up.”

  “She said you were a really gentle lover,” Suze said, trying to get some kind of reaction, any kind of reaction. “I find that hard to believe, considering the way you treat me.”

  “Nell was fragile. You’re not.” Riley cracked another peanut.

  “I’m fragile. You wouldn’t believe how fragile I am right now.” She watched him crack another peanut, and added, “But since it’s me, you’re not inspired like you were with Nell. I’m not the type you’d be gentle with.”

  “No, you’re the type I’d fuck against a wall,” Riley said, and she slung her beer in his face.

  He turned to her, the beer dripping onto his shirt. “Feel better now?”

  “That was a lousy thing to say,” Suze said, her heart racing.

  He picked up a napkin and wiped some of the beer from his face. “You wanted a fight.”

  “Not like that.” Suze handed him another napkin. “Is my husband cheating on me?”

  “Yes.”

  “How old is she?”

  Riley looked at her with sympathy, and that was worse than anything.

  Suze closed her eyes in pain. “Oh, God, call me a whore again, just don’t look at me like that.”

  “I didn’t call you a whore. She’s twenty-two.”

  Twenty-two. “Well, that explains it, I guess.” She looked down at herself, remembering the photos Riley had taken fifteen years before. “Nothing on me looks twenty-two.” She reached for her beer and realized she’d thrown it all at Riley, but before she could sit back, he’d shoved his mug in front of her. “Thank you.”

  She stole a look at him while she drank