“Is that what you need to hear?” he asked, speaking in a frantic speed. “Yes, there were a couple of other women, but I wasn’t thinking. I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to settle down yet. I don’t know, Toni, I think I might have an addiction? That’s why I need you. You’re so stable and...and organized. You know how to take care of me.”

“Christ, would you listen to him?” She’d almost forgot where she was and that Aiden was standing beside her. His face was a mask of anger that he couldn’t hide.

“And when I make partner,” Derek continued, “you can have a baby. We’ll be fine then, Toni. Please just consider it. None of us are perfect, right? We’ve all got something to work on. I’ve got demons like any other man. Hell, you’ve got things to work on. It’s called compromise and I do it all the time at work. A marriage is just like any agreement, if you think about it. Compromises and negotiations all over the place.”

Much like his rambling.

Antonia had never heard him sound this desperate, but then she’d never heard him sound so cold as when she’d uncovered his lies. Who the hell is this man?

“Antonia.” Aiden’s eyes read: Stop this man’s word vomit before I fly to Chicago, in America, and beat him into the pavement. He held his hand out as if to take control of the phone.

She shook her head and moved away. “I have to do it.”

“Who’s there?” Derek demanded. “Is someone else there?”

“I’m here with my friend, Aiden, and we’re listening to you lose your ever-loving mind,” Antonia said with an eerie calmness.

“Hello, Derek,” Aiden said.

“Who the fuck is Aiden?”

“He’s a lovely professor who’s showing me a good time in Ireland,” she said. “Whatever you think that means, multiply it by ten, and that’s how good a time I’m having. I’m tired of listening to your inane bullshit, the excuses, and your ‘solution-based’ lectures. You can do that to your financial firm clients, but that shit won’t fly with me.”

“Are you fucking him?”

Since they were starting to draw looks from passing tourists. Antonia turned the speaker function off. “If you’ll excuse me,” she told Aiden.

He grinned. “That’s my girl. Have at it.”

Her heart bloomed at the sight of his beautiful smile. Confidence was the key. That, and properly placed rage. Aiden’s gift to her was the space to cuss out her ex-fiancé in the middle of a tourist town without hesitation or judgement. When she returned to her conversation, her smile was ear to ear as she proceeded to tell Derek about himself. “If I choose to fuck any man, that’s my prerogative, isn’t it? I’ll tell you whose business it isn’t: Derek M. Rogers. You lost that business when you stuck it to every unsuspecting woman on Miracle Mile. For all of your grand negotiation skills, you’ve fucked up the biggest deal in your life. A marriage contract will not happen between us because your terms are bullshit. If you think that I’ll come crawling back to your triflin’ ass in the hopes of having your baby, you’re sicker than I thought. You of all people should know that a baby solves nothing. Look. At. Your. Parents.”