Pain flared through my wrist. He shoved me away from him.
"You saw what happened out there today."
His voice was ice.
I rubbed my aching wrist and stared at him.
"Effie and I are engaged now. It's time you found someone and settled down."
"Settled down?" I let out a cold laugh. "I have no plans to do that anytime soon."
"Do you really have to keep throwing yourself at me?"
I froze.
Then it clicked. He'd gotten the wrong idea.
"What I meant was, I'm not getting married because my career is still taking off."
Patrick stared at me for a long moment.
Then he laughed.
"You don't think that excuse is a little pathetic?"
I blinked.
"The CEO of Ascend Group is a woman about your age. Even she still thinks about settling down. So what exactly are you pretending to be?"
I couldn't argue with that.
Everyone knew I used to be hopelessly lovesick. So now that I'd actually wised up, nobody believed it. Not even my business partner.
"Let me make this crystal clear, Celeste."
He leaned in.
"I didn't like you before, and now that I'm engaged, there's even less chance of that happening. The more you cling, the more I despise you. Unless..."
His eyes narrowed. "You think you can be my side piece?"
In that moment, I couldn't understand my former self more than ever.
This man standing in front of me.
Shallow. Arrogant. Utterly classless.
Why had I ever fought with Effie over him?
A cold laugh escaped my throat.
I shoved him aside and walked away.
My partner came to apologize.
I stood at the banquet, quietly sipping my orange juice.
A sharp whistle.
Seven or eight men settled into the seats around me, boxing me in.
"Well, well. If it isn't the princess herself. Patrick's engagement party, and you actually showed up."
"We were taking bets on whether you'd be too heartbroken to come."
"Looks like the princess is still carrying a torch."
A hand reached over and pinched my dress strap.
I scowled and slapped his hand away. Hard.
"Ooh, a few years studying abroad and she's got a temper now!"
"This isn't like the old days when you were begging us to put in a good word for you, is it?"
Back when I was desperately in love with Patrick, I hadn't just fawned over him. I'd fawned over his entire crew too. Effie was talented in every way imaginable, and I couldn't compete, so my only hope was getting these guys to say something nice about me to Patrick.