Chapter One
S O P H I A
“Brody.”
I smacked my brother on the shoulder when he didn’t look my way. Though I hadn’t exactly looked his way either. My entire focus had settled on the woman—Veronica, apparently—who was sitting on Brody’s couch claiming to be his wife.
“Can you answer me, please?” I asked. “Who is she? How do you know her?”
He finally turned toward me, but his girlfriend stormed past both of us, causing his attention to shift to Veronica again.
“Did you just fucking say you’re his wife?” Aamee asked as she approached Veronica like a Rottweiler might an intruder. And to be fair, Veronica was an intruder. She still hadn’t explained how she’d gotten into Brody’s apartment, though she’d insinuated that it had been stupid of Brody to even ask.
Was she in the mob or something?
“I’m his wife,” Veronica said again.
Our friend Carter practically laughed. “Might as well rip the wife meeting your new girlfriend Band-Aid right off.”
“Dude,” Drew warned in a harsh whisper. “Don’t make it worse.”
“Come on, you gotta admit this is entertaining. Right, Code?” Carter hit Cody on the chest with the back of his hand. Guess he figured if anyone would find this situation humorous, it was Drew’s younger brother.
“No, she’s not my wife!” Brody said to all of us before facing Veronica again. “You’re not my wife! Please tell my girlfriend I’m not married!”
All of us stared at Veronica, and when she didn’t say anything, Brody spoke again.
“I’m not married, am I?”
Veronica’s severe expression softened before she broke out into full laughter.
“No. God, I’m kidding. How can you not be sure you’re not married? I thought I might fool your friends, but I didn’t think you’d fall for it.”
At Veronica’s words, Brody’s entire body seemed to slacken to a point where a toddler probably could’ve pushed him over. Rubbing a hand over his face, he took a seat in a nearby chair.
“I don’t know. I was drunk a lot of the time. Who knows what I would’ve agreed to.”
“Such a sweet talker,” Veronica replied.
“Can you please stop?” Brody said.
“I think we should go.” The suggestion came from our friend Aniyah, who was already grabbing Carter’s arm.
“Fine,” Carter said. “But call me later and let me know what happened.” The directive was given to Drew, but thankfully he had enough common sense not to make any promises.
Somehow once they and Cody, who’d followed everyone else’s lead, were all out of the apartment, the atmosphere seemed more tense, as if the intimacy of the moment caused all of us to be hyperaware of every movement and sound.
Brody might not have been married, which was a relief to all of us—though probably no one more so than Brody—but there was still the question of why Veronica was here and how they knew each other.
Aamee had stayed because, yeah, no way she was leaving her boyfriend with a woman who’d claimed to be his wife a few minutes ago.
She moved over to Brody and took a seat on his lap, putting her arm around him like she was marking her territory. Either that or she was trying to make it more difficult for him to get up and run away should he suddenly decide to.
“Brody,” Aamee said as calmly as she could probably manage at the moment. The fact that Brody was still physically able to conceive children and Veronica still had hair on her head spoke volumes for Aamee’s self-restraint. “Can you please explain why this strange…dark-haired creature is in your apartment claiming to be your wife?”
Brody sighed loudly before dropping his head back against the back of the chair and staring up at the ceiling.
“She was kidding. And I have no idea how Vee got in here or why she’s here.”
“His door was unlocked,” Veronica said to Aamee. “And I honestly had no idea he had a girlfriend. We met when Brody was traveling, but there’s nothing between us now.”
Vee sounded like she was attempting to sound reassuring, though she had to be worried Brody and Aamee had been together when Vee had her tryst with Brody.
“Thank you, Vee,” Aamee said like she was trying to spit the name out of her mouth. “But I’d like to hear that from my boyfriend.”
Carter was right; this was definitely entertaining.
“Vee’s telling the truth. I met her when I was in New York. It was months ago. We haven’t spoken since. I swear.”
“Which is why I dropped by,” Vee explained. “I knew he went to school here, and he gave me his address in case I was ever in the area.”
“He actually doesn’t go to school here anymore,” I corrected her. “Or anywhere, actually. It’s probably good you’re not really married to him.”
“You’re not helping,” Brody shot at me through gritted teeth.
“Let me guess,” Vee said. “Your sister?”
“The one and only,” Brody said, tossing his hand carelessly toward me.
“You told her about me?” I tried to act bothered by the fact that he’d clearly told this woman about me, but I couldn’t help but be flattered.
Brody and I hadn’t been close until the last couple of months. We hadn’t even really spoken much until I showed up at his apartment last semester looking for a place to stay on campus after Aamee’d kicked me out of the sorority house for some archaic rule I’d broken.
Having to cover for Brody while he was hopping from country to country like he was on some sort of large-scale pub crawl while I lived with the stranger who was impersonating him didn’t help our relationship any.
I tried not to think about what a clusterfuck last semester had been, but then again, it had indirectly led me to Drew, so it was hard to hate Brody completely. Or Aamee for that matter.
“Whatever,” Brody said. “I may have mentioned you a few times. I don’t really remember.”
I hadn’t even known that Brody was in New York for any length of time, let alone for long enough to have…whatever it was he’d had with Veronica. I just assumed he’d gone straight to Europe since that seemed to be where he’d spent most of the semester.
Brody put his arms around Aamee and pulled her close to him. “So…what are you here for, Veronica?” He sounded more curious than angry. Though that curiosity could easily transform depending on Veronica’s answer.
“Honestly just saying hi. I was in the neighborhood. I’m starting an internship in the city soon, so I need to find a small place. Hey, do you have any of that red blend we used to drink?”
Veronica was already up and headed for the kitchen, presumably to look for wine. She scanned the countertops before opening a few of the upper cabinets.
“Just make yourself at home,” Brody called sarcastically.
Empty-handed, Veronica made her way back to the living room. Pulling her black hair up into a messy bun on her way, she said, “Sorry. I should at least properly introduce myself before I go through your boyfriend’s kitchen like I live here.” She gave Aamee a sweet smile and extended her hand. “I’m Veronica, but most of my friends call me Vee.”