Lies Lovers Tell by Zuri Day Page A

on. If it turned out Sean had been spying on her for this very same man, and that their lovemaking had been just sex after all, she’d be devastated. She looked at Trish, her expression plaintive. “If it turns out another man has been dishonest, has betrayed me…” Her sentence trailed off as she looked away, tried to peer into a tomorrow that didn’t include Sean Wynn. Of course, the easiest thing to do would be to outright ask him to tell the truth about who she was and perhaps solve the mystery. She’d been too stunned to do anything but get out of the house the day she’d seen him in Sam’s bed. And she too had been deceptive. Would he even want to talk to her if he learned the truth now, like this? Oh, what a tangled web she’d woven.
    “Let’s not jump to conclusions, Maya. First, you don’t know for sure Sean is working for Sam. And even if he is, you don’t know they’re investigating B&A. And how would he even know you work there?”
    “Please. Just Google me and I come up all over the place, mostly in connection with B&A, and Zeke Brennan.”
    “Well, even if that’s so, and we don’t know that it is, he doesn’t know Maya, remember? He knows Macy.”
    Maya rolled her eyes.
    “Have there been pictures posted on the Internet since you cut your hair?”
    “I don’t think so.”
    “You look very different with short hair, Maya. Unless someone is purposely looking for you to have changed your look, one wouldn’t necessarily suspect it’s you, unless they have your pictures side by side or something.
    “I can’t tell you not to be upset because where there’s stinky, there’s usually doodoo, and this has all the qualities of a funky situation. But you’ve got to stay cool, keep yourself together so you can get to the bottom of what’s going on.”
    The women were silent awhile, trying to digest a heavy conversation. “What are you going to do?” Trish finally asked.
    Maya shrugged. “I don’t know. Going to Zeke feels like I’m betraying Sean, and vice versa. If I am wrong about Sean being involved with Sam’s investigating the L.A. market, maybe my exposing him will mess up whatever he’s really investigating. On the other hand, he was in Sam Walters’s bed today! That house has three, four guest rooms. Why was he in the master suite?”
    Trish started singing EU’s “Doin’ Da Butt.”
    Maya tried to keep a straight face, but the atmosphere soon lightened with both their laughter. By evening’s end, Maya still wasn’t sure about anything in the Sean/Sam/Zeke/B&A/housekeeper/hotshot executive assistant situation. But from here on out, she had a sounding board. Between her and Trish, she’d keep from being boo-boo the fool.

14
     
    Maya’s stomach churned as she waited for Zeke in his office. She’d been a bundle of nerves all weekend and, after deciding to put Sean on hold until further notice, sexually deprived as well. She didn’t know how long she’d go without seeing him; she just knew that since seeing his ass in Sam Walters’s bed, the trip to San Diego was off. He’d instantly felt something was up. Maya frowned as she remembered their conversation.
    “Just like that, you want us to take a break from each other. And I’m supposed to believe it’s work? Come on, Macy. You hate your job, have absolutely no commitment to being a secretary, and I’m supposed to believe that that’s come between us?”
    “You can believe what you want,” Maya had responded. “All I know is I can’t go to San Diego, and I can’t see you for the next whatever because like I said, there’s a huge conference coming up that’s requiring my undivided attention.”
    “What’s this conference’s name, Macy? What’s this conference look like, huh?”
    Like Sam Walters , Maya had wanted to say. But she held back. She’d learned from Zeke to keep one’s cards close to the chest. In time Sean would know what she knew. But not yet.
    “I’m glad you asked to meet with me, Maya.