I walked away and sat back down at the table. Giana introduced him to Jared and then took the empty seat next to mine. A thousand reasons were going through my head as to why I should get up and leave, but I couldn’t. I had to act as normal as possible for my own sake.

“So what brings you to our humble little home, Mr. Young?” G slyly asked.

“Please, call me Simon.” He flashed his sexy smile at her. “I just needed to talk to Gabrielle about some business.”

“You could have called,” I sneered.

“You wouldn’t have answered.”

“You’re right. I wouldn’t have.”

“Okay, well, I’m happy you’re joining us for dinner.” G smiled.

Jared, G, and Simon carried on conversations while I sat there, picking at my food. G had expressed her condolences to him and he graciously thanked her. Wow. I didn’t even get a thank you. All I got was an “I want to be alone. Don’t bother me” response. The more I thought about it, the angrier I became.

“If you’ll excuse me,” I said as I got up, took my plate to the sink, and went to my bedroom, closing the door behind me.

It was only a matter of minutes before there was a knock on the door.

“Gabrielle, can I come in?”

I sighed. If I told him no, he would come in anyway. “Whatever, Simon.”

He opened the door and shut it behind him as I sat on my bed. “Stay right where you are,” I commanded. “Say what you came here to say and then you can leave.”

He leaned up against the door with his hands in his pockets. I had to look away because the Simon ache had emerged and the longer I looked at him and that sexy body of his, the more I would become vulnerable.

“I want to thank you for bringing that change in the acquisition to my attention. I’m having it investigated. Nobody would have seen that because only two words in the whole contract were changed. I could have lost millions.”

“Well, lucky for you, I happen to have a photographic memory.”

“Lucky for me I have you,” he spoke. “May I approach you?”

I couldn’t believe the nerve of him. Acting like everything between us was okay. I got up from the bed and put up my hands.

“No! You may not approach me. Your behavior is completely unacceptable, even on a friend level. I reached out to you in your time of need and you fucking turned your back on me.”

“Gabrielle, I’m—”

“Sorry? I don’t want your apology. I don’t want anything from you. From this day forth, we have a complete business relationship and that’s it.”