Aud rolled her eyes. “So…what? You broke it
off and things got messy?”
“Actually, that’s not the way it went. Emily
changed the game.”
“She put you on the street? Well, that must be
a first.”
“Thanks,” Derian said dryly.
Aud sighed. “Hey, all right, I’m being
bitchy. I’m sorry. What happened, exactly?”
“I told her I thought we ought to get
married, that that would solve her visa problem and take care of the agency
going forward.” Derian finished her beer and thought about another. She wasn’t
driving anywhere, hell, she couldn’t really even walk anywhere. She pointed a
finger at her glass and the bartender magically whisked it away and set a
fresh, foaming draft in front of her. “Apparently, my offering to help her out
with something we both knew she wanted was manipulative. She suggested that my
motivation was to piss off my father.”
“Well, wasn’t it? Sort of? Because it
certainly would make Martin crazy.”
“No,” Derian said. “Sure, anytime I manage to
get to him is a good day, but that’s not why I said it.”
“Then why in the world did you? Marriage is a
serious thing, Dere. It’s a legal commitment, at the very least, and usually a
lot more. Honestly, what were you thinking?”
The numbness dropped away like ice shattering
under a too-heavy tread. Anger came roaring back, scalding and indiscriminate.
“I was thinking that Henrietta needs Emily not just now, but to pass on her
life’s work. I was thinking Emily loves this place, deserves her job, and needs
to know she’s not going to be sent back to Singapore after everything she’s put
into getting where she is now because of a bureaucracy that doesn’t deal with
individuals, only quotas and categories and groundless prejudices. I thought I
was offering help.”
“What about you, Dere? What were you thinking
about you in all of this?”
Derian stared, the heat dissipating as fast
as it had flared.
“How many women have you slept with?”
“What?” Derian might have trouble navigating
in new places, especially when she was emotionally unsteady the way she had
been earlier, but the rest of her mind worked perfectly, and she wasn’t
following Aud. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Go ahead, answer the question.”
Derian laughed despite herself. “I don’t
know. A lot. Why?”
“Because you don’t know anything about women
at all. I’m sure you’re fabulous in bed, but do you have any idea what makes a
woman tick?”
“Well I should, I am one.” Derian stopped,
admitting she rarely thought about why she did what she did, beyond the one
primal motivating force in her life. Escaping Martin. Escaping the constant
rejection. Getting away from the thousand cuts that were bleeding her to death.
“You’re saying I’m insensitive and self-centered.”