“How come?”

“That was my excuse to get rid of the camera crew, but also—” She looks over at me, and for a moment I get the feeling she’s afraid to tell me something.

“What? What is it?”

“I’m gonna have them remove my birth control implant.”

“Yeah?” I smile big and lean over to hug her. “So—moving on?”

She shrugs. “I just look at Ashleigh and I’m a little bit jealous.”

“Wait. You’re jealous of Ashleigh? Why? Shit, Rook, from my end, you have the perfect life. Ashleigh’s life is pretty good too, I guess. She’s married and happy. Got the kid, the house, and the dogs, even if they are certified weapons. But you’ve got everything she has, plus you’re you. There’s no other Rooks in the world. I’d switch with you any day.”

“What? Seriously, Veronica. Look at you. Your man calls you Bombshell for a reason.” Rook laughs.

“Maybe. Except he’s not my man. Is he? He obviously thinks I’m some sort of throwaway trash from the way he treated me this morning. And it’s not anything he said, it’s just—the way he walked away like it was nothing.” Rook just stares at me, unsure of what to say. And that’s the problem, there’s nothing to say about it. Not really. It happened. He did it. “He thinks I’m nothing. So maybe it’s time for me to walk away and think of him as nothing?”

She gives me a crooked smile as she shakes her head. “So that’s why you’ve gone to all this trouble to get a Shrike Bike, you’re wearing his leather jacket, and you took the job as his personal assistant? Not likely, Veronica.”

And she’s right. What the f**k am I doing? I’m just playing right into his hands.

I open the door and jump out, grabbing my pack and hucking it over my shoulder. “You said you had a helmet I could use?”

Rook gets out her side and meets me at the bike. “Yeah, it’s down in my apartment. Come on, we’ll go get it.”

She keys the code on the door and it reminds me of the last time I was here. “Did you know Ford spent the afternoon with me on Christmas Eve?” I ask as the door clicks open.

She walks through the door into the kitchen and I follow her in. “This last Christmas? Really? He never said anything to me, and I talked to him on the phone that night.”

“Yeah, he caught me coming out of Anna Ameci’s with Carson, back when I had that one date with him. And he wanted to show me Spencer’s office, to try to convince me that Spencer still cares.”

Rook stops dead and I slam into her back before she turns around. “You were dating Carson?”

“Just that one time,” I laugh. “I figured I needed to put Spencer behind me, right? And I wanted a guy who was like the complete opposite. Carson sorta fits that bill, right?”

“Well, uh, yeah. I guess. But it’s a little overkill, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, well, Ford, he’s the perfect anti-Spencer. So seeing him that night—all nerdy and shit—I realized Carson was just a dweeb. Plus Ford showed me Spencer’s office. Have you ever been in there?”

“No, what’s in there?”

I walk off towards the hallway, then turn around and beckon her. “Follow me and I’ll show you.”

“I don’t have the code for the office, Ronnie.”

“That’s OK, I do. I watched Ford when he opened the door that afternoon. And normally I’d never remember a six-digit code, but this one is hard to forget.”

“Why?” she says as I stop at the office and key in the code for the electric locking mechanism.

“Because it spells Ronnie.”

I open the door and flick on the lights and she gasps, just like I did back in December when Ford was the one flicking on the lights.

“What the hell is this?” Rook asks as she makes a full three-sixty to take in the room.

“I have no f**king idea, Rook. That’s what makes him all the more confusing. Ford said they call it the Ronnie Shrine and even though that might be a little bit flattering, it’s verging on creepy for me. I mean, if we were together, then yeah. I’d like my man to have his office walls filled up with photographs of me naked and done up in these body paint costumes.”

It thrills me that he looks at me like this when he’s in here, and I’m a little bit uneasy about that thrill. Because there’s not just one image. But six of them. All me painted up to look like different things.

She walks over to the cyborg image and her fingers reach up to touch it. “I was the cyborg too,” she says softly. “God, I have to admit, Ronnie. I know he’s your guy and it’s probably weird that he painted me in all the same outfits as you, but that was the best summer of my life.”

I sigh. “No, I totally get it. Because those two years he was painting me up instead of you—well, those were the best two years of my life as well. And I miss them. I miss him so very badly, Rook. It makes my heart hurt, ya know?”

She comes over and pulls me into a hug. “I know. But Veronica, surely this is a good sign. He has to love you, bitch.”

I chuckle against her and then she joins in.

“He has to love you. You can’t even see your tits or pu**y in these pictures, they’re covered in paint. He has them on the wall because he wants to be surrounded by you. If he just wanted pictures of his work on the walls, Ronnie, he could’ve put me up there, because all those photos were taken by Antoine, they’re stunning. And if he just wanted naked girls, he’d plaster  p**n  up there.”