“I’m . . .” I hesitate, bite down on my fingernails like a scared little girl. “I’m dating your brother, Mr. Gable. I thought he was going to tell you. He asked me to let him be the one to tell you. He said he was going to do it right away or I would have told you myself. I swear, when I met him I didn’t even know he was your brother. It was all a total coincidence.”

“A coincidence,” Travis repeats. He turns away from me and walks to the window.

“Yes, I mean . . . it sort of was. I met him on the elevator of your building right after our interview. He asked me if I lived there and I told him I had just been hired to be a personal assistant to the couple in 1400. He didn’t tell me his last name right away. I think he was afraid that if I knew he was the brother of my boss I’d be scared off . . . and I suppose I would have been. He took me out for dinner and drinks and . . . well, by the time he did tell me who he was—”

“What?” Travis snaps. “You had already slept with him by then?”

I don’t answer right away. Travis still has his back to me as he glares down at the lesser skyscrapers beneath us.

“He—he—” I stutter. “He told me you would be okay with it. He promised me that this wasn’t the kind of thing that would upset you at all. He said I should just let him handle it and it would all be fine. He . . . he promised me, Mr. Gable.” Travis turns just as I dramatically slump into a chair. “Please, Mr. Gable, I honestly didn’t mean to keep anything from you. I . . . Oh, God, I can’t believe how badly I screwed this whole thing up. I mean, on the one hand I promised him I would let him tell you—and I’m so good at keeping confidences, I swear I am—but if I had known that he was going to keep it from you for this long . . . I mean we’ve seen each other three times in four days . . . I thought for sure . . . And if I had suspected for a moment that he wasn’t going to tell you, then I would have not only let you know but I would have also broken it off with him! I mean, I’ve only been seeing him for about a week now and you’re my employer! Obviously my loyalty lies with you!”

I’m rambling . . . by design. Let him think I’m flustered.

Let him think he can manipulate me.

Let him think that his brother already has.

“I. Don’t. Understand.” Travis pronounces each word separately, as if they aren’t connected in a sentence. Almost as if he’s creating one of Lander’s anagrams. “Why would he keep this from me?”