“I can see it all over her. She’s caught up in you. I don’t affect her like that. At least not yet. Maybe if I had more time. After all, I’m sure I saw her first.” He pulled the pillow away from his face and met my gaze. “If I asked, could you walk away? For me?”

The dig of pain in my gut was only matched by the rush of jealousy. “I’m sorry Xander, but I can’t do that.”

Abbie…

Faith's cheery, “You all right, love?” greeting wasn’t enough to perk up my mood. Granted, if I'd wanted cheery, I wouldn't have had that second mug of Guinness. My mind was still a little foggy, despite the long walk home from the bus stop.

“Hey, Faith.”

Faith bounded from my bedroom through to the kitchen. “Wow, you look wretched. Are you okay?”

I wrinkled my nose. “Yeah, thanks for that.”

“Sorry. But you do. What’s the matter?”

“Well, given Easton’s stalking, I need to give him a call, and I also need to give my sister Akos a call, because I have a feeling that Easton’s calling about our apartment in DC, or rather, my apartment.”

Faith had the good sense to wince. “Ouch. Sorry. Do you need moral support? I could stand by with vodka shots or something. You know for fortification.”

“I've already had two Guinness tonight. When your professor is buying, you don’t say no.”

“Especially if he's sinfully hot.” Faith wiggled her eyebrows.

I rolled my eyes. “You'd think with all your interest in Xander you didn’t have a man. How is Liam anyway? You head to Dublin soon, right?”

“Just one more week, then it's an all weekend shagfest.”

I scrunched up my face. “Okay then. Don’t get pregnant, okay? That would sort of ruin our girl power vibe we have going on here.”

“Noted. I think I’d rather die. Looking after Sophie is difficult enough. Imagine if I had to change nappies too.”

“Rough.” I then noticed the pile of manuscripts on the counter. “Still bringing work home, I see.”

“I know, can you imagine? The horror.” She sighed. “I'm convinced I'm actually being punished. I mean most of the other assistant coordinators get an ereader device, and the books that come in are loaded on there, and we go through them that way. But oh no. My client is published by Tristar Publishers, who prefer paperbacks. I mean how archaic is that?”

“At least be happy you’re working for a client in a genre you like and read a lot of. It could be worse. They could have you coordinating a press tour or whatever for a new textbook or something.”

“You're right. Glass half full, I suppose.” Faith yawned. “Don’t you have a phone call to make?”

I threw my head back. Who was I going to fall victim to first, Akos or Easton?