I had been fully prepared for Tyler to come back and make a scene, but to my surprise, he only asked a few questions before letting it go.

Across the table, he slid his phone toward me and said, “I need money. The project hit a bottleneck, and keeping it going will take a big chunk of cash. That’s why I’ve been pressing you.”

“The project?” I feigned confusion. “What project?”

Tyler must have realized there was no point in hiding things ...