This riled her a bit. “Look, Dani, I never lied to Dave. He was the one who wouldn’t leave me alone.”

“Well, that’s not what he told me,” I retorted.

Chloe’s face darkened. “Look, you two were all but over. He told me he’d just been going through the motions with you for months.”

I kept my voice as even and reasonable as I could, even though my nerve endings felt electrified. “That’s not true,” I said quietly. “We were together and happy. We were even talking about buying a house.”

“He told me that you didn’t understand his work,” Chloe continued. “You didn’t have the passion of a true artist. He thought you were—now, these are his words—a ‘hack TV writer’ and you would always wallow in television, but that he was meant for bigger things.”

I just stared at her.

“He also . . .” Now she hesitated, as if what she’d already said wasn’t hurtful, but what was coming was. “He also said that you two weren’t really compatible physically. And that that problem was one of the big reasons that it would have never worked out.”

“Shut up!” I was on my feet. “I don’t want to hear any more of this crap from you, Chloe! All of this is just bullshit!”

Chloe gave me her Angelina Jolie lip bite again. “Listen, I know it hurts, but it’s the truth.” She smiled, just a little, but I realized she was hugely amused by all this. She found the fact that I was hurt then, and was still hurting now, amusing. She looked up at me. “And Steve has been honest with me about his ‘thing’ for you.”

“What do you mean, ‘thing’?” I demanded.

“You know,” she said, raising her eyebrows. “Steve has always had it for you—that’s why he wanted to hire you for the show. He told me that he’s always had this fantasy of you two having sex on the desk. I’m fine with it. Steve and I . . .” She smiled. “We’re both getting what we want from each other.” She shrugged her delicate shoulders. “Big deal if he has an office crush.”

“So you admit you’re using him and he’s fine with that?”

“Oh, Dani, guys don’t care why.” She grinned. “They don’t care why you’re sleeping with them. As long as they’re getting it, they’re fine.”

“Guys don’t care why?” I echoed. I’d never thought of it like that.

“No.” Chloe smiled. “C’mon, the way you’ve played the whole Steve thing, you’re obviously aware of the way things work in this town.” She tipped back her wineglass, then smiled at me again and stood up. “And I’m fine with it, as long as Steve is around to clean up your mess if you screw up our show.”