Jennifer blinked, frozen, as the voice cut through the restaurant chatter.
It was HIM.
Jennifer could barely hold down her panic.
Shilem. Her ex-husband. Well, technically, the marriage had been annulled—so really, her ex-fiancé who married her in a lavish wedding only to cheat on her less than 24 hours later.
What should she even call that?
Shilem stood there, flanked by a small entourage. Was one of them a reporter?
His tailored suit was perfect, his hair immaculately combed, and that smile—oh, that smile—once upon a time, she had loved it. Now, it looked slimy.
"Jennifer," he said, his smile widening as if they were childhood friends reunited at a school picnic, "it's been… ages."
Jennifer's stomach flipped in a decidedly unpleasant way.
After that night 20 years ago, she had nightmares of this man returning to her apartment and knocking on her door. Who knew he would appear here—in such a very nice restaurant—with the same silver tongue, the same practiced charm, pretending nothing had happened.
Her colleagues, oblivious to her history, looked between them with intrigue.
"Oh, Jennifer never told us she was friends with such a bigshot!" one of the teachers whispered to another, eyes sparkling with curiosity.
The reporter behind Shilem craned his neck for a better view, undoubtedly curious as well.
"Yes, isn't life funny?" another teacher replied. "Some of us grow up to be senators, while others become kindergarten teachers?"
Jennifer felt her throat tighten. Every heartbeat, every sharp intake of breath, felt magnified. She swallowed hard, willing herself not to cry. Not here, not in public, and definitely not in front of Shilem—especially with a reporter watching.
"Jennifer?" he asked again, that infuriatingly gentle tone. "You okay?"
Don't ask. Dammit. Asking someone holding it together if they're okay is basically an invitation to sob.
If Jennifer hadn't been so shocked, she would have slapped him.
"Jen?"
Another voice cut through the tension.
Jennifer looked up, stunned—Adrian.
(Why was he here?)
The women around her sighed as if clouds were parting in the wind. Jennifer felt slightly consoled to know she wasn't the only one who melted at the mere presence of this man.
Side by side, Adrian's calm, steady presence made Shilem, in all his acquired dignity, look like a lump of potato in an expensive suit.
Adrian came to her side, and the sighs around her table intensified—wax melting on a candle. Illegal. Adrian should be banned.
"What are you doing here, Adrian?" she asked, trying to sound casual. A small tremor betrayed her, but she was holding up well given the circumstances.
"Am I too early?" Adrian asked, shrugging. He slid his hand to gently move her away from Shilem. "I'll wait—my car's just around the corner."
He nodded toward the building across the road. A recording studio. Oh. He was driving his boys for work.
"Oh!" someone at the table realized. "It's him!"
"Who?"
Jennifer looked at her fellow teachers. Why were they acting like they were making commentary while watching a TV drama?
"That's Adrian Silver," one teacher explained.
Once again, the author apologizes for her poor choice of side character names.
"She wouldn't know," an older teacher added. "He was popular before her time."
Ah yes. Jennifer remembered. Adrian, at least according to her webnovel, had been a rare kind of celebrity—the kind who quit at his peak, then quietly built a talent agency from the ground up. And now he was here.
Unfortunately, so was Shilem.
"Nice to meet you," Shilem extended his hand.
Adrian considered it for a moment, then nodded and shook it. "Likewise."
It had been almost a week since Adrian and his boys had moved into Jennifer's building, and she was finally acclimatizing. Now, she was no longer completely flustered whenever he appeared.
She also recognized when Adrian was negotiating. But what was he negotiating?
"I'm Jennifer's childhood friend," Shilem said, slimeball grin in full effect, all fake humility. Far be it for him to mention that he was running for Senate.
"I'm Jennifer's…"
Yes? Go on, Jennifer smirked, waiting for Adrian to explain that he was her new tenant and why that meant he had to step in to handle everything from building security to whatever this was.
It wasn't that Jennifer was ungrateful. She just wanted, at least once, to see Adrian's perfectly executed smile crack.
Adrian smiled and slid an arm around her. "I'm her friend."
"Just friends?" Shilem asked, as if any of this were his business.
Adrian didn't stop smiling. "For now."
Although Adrian didn't lie at all, Jennifer felt sure that Shilem had misunderstood. Heck, everyone in earshot misunderstood.
The room practically melted. Sighs turned into audible, delighted exclamations. Jennifer was this close to flipping out.
Seriously. What was Adrian thinking? She was going to have a lot of explaining to do when she returned to school on Monday.