“If at the conclusion of the summer no one proposes, then of course, we will not kick you out. You’ll simply try again in another three years. Understood?”
A thousand replies sprang to my lips. Pleas. Curses. Promises. Rationalizations. Anything and everything I could think of to change my father’s mind.
I let them fade away unsaid. I could appeal to my father, but not to the stranger in front of me. This man I didn’t know.
“All right, Tobias.” I wiped my face with the back of my hand, flicking my tears on the carpet like so much annoyances. “You win.”
“Belle,” Mom began.
“Don’t bother, Cecilia.” I turned my back on them, striding toward the door. “I leave this Friday. I better start packing.”
They let me shut them in without another word.
My tears slowed to nothing. The cottony fog in my head dissipated.
You did well playing the hard-ass, Tobias, but you shouldn’t have eased up at the finish line.
I go to the cove, participate in their silly games, and if I don’t get a proposal at the end of it, my life and inheritance remain intact.
A smile curled my lips.
No one is coming within ten feet of me, let alone proposing at the end of this summer. I will raze that island to the ground and watch it sink into the sea. Once I’m through, Mrs. Desai’s ninety-five-year tradition won’t survive to see ninety-eight.
NATHAN
“Are you all right, sir?”
I shot my chauffeur a blank look. He motioned to my face.
“Oh, this?” I touched my busted lip. “What’s a punch between friends? Preston’s about to sink deep into withdrawal. I know the feeling.”
Concern wrinkled his brow.
This is my life. Even the staff pities me.
“Would you like me to fetch ice for you, sir?”
“Leave it.” I waved my hand for him to open the door. “Stop calling me ‘sir’ while you’re at it, Abe. You know you only do that around the colonel.”
Abe flicked over my shoulder. “Many of his friends are here, sir. We shouldn’t risk it.”
“No. Can’t have anyone else treat me like I’m human while he’s determined to scrape me off like shit on his shoe.”
Abraham wisely said nothing. Speaking ill of his boss with eyes and ears everywhere was even stupider than calling me by my name.
“Then let’s get the fuck out of here.”
“Where to, sir?” he asked as I slid inside.
“Home.”
He paused in closing the door. “Home?”
The tone of surprise was warranted. I made it my divine and splendid mission to overstay my welcome in as many girls’ beds as possible. All to avoid going home to my own.
“Have to,” I said simply. “Mom wants to see me.”
“Of course, sir. We’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
Twenty minutes.
That’s how much time I had to distract myself. Twenty minutes in my world of pretend until stepping through those doors ripped it away.
Taking out my phone, I scrolled past Abby, Adette, Alex, Bailey, and Becky. Those five were always down to send me nudes and I’d amassed a tasty collection of them already. But my newest hookup, Chana, had an impressive collection of dildos stashed in her closet and she wasn’t through showing me all she could do with them.
What better way to kill twenty minutes than a back-seat tug?
I slid my thumb up, looking for her name, and stopped, landing on five letters strung together in perfect irony.
Belle
Belle Adler. The bell I couldn’t unring. A mistake I couldn’t undo. The girl neither drinks, drugs, and anonymous fucks could erase from my mind nor delete from my phone.
The small voice in the back of my head sounded the alarm. Warned me not to let that beautiful force of destruction back in. The wreckage she left behind at the reception and the damage to my and Preston’s friendship wasn’t even her at full strength. If she put her mind to it, she’d reduce us all to the crumbles of dust she left me in two years ago.
That’s why you’re finally going to delete her. What kind of idiot are you saving her texts in the first place? Close the door on Belle Adler. Once and for all.
I tapped her name.
Thousands of texts scrolled down my screen, chronicling the time of Belle Adler and Nathan Prince.
Belle: What time will you get here? I need you inside of me like I need apple cinnamon ice cream and peanut butter sauce.
Nathan: Am I reduced to a sinful treat?
Belle: You’re so much more than that. But if you’ve got a problem with sinful treats, you won’t want to eat them off me tonight.
Nathan: Whoa. Pull back. Let’s not get hasty.
Belle’s response was a string of laugh emojis. When I received them then, they made me desperate to hear her laugh for real. They had the same effect on me the millionth time.
My grip tightened. Stop doing this to yourself. Turn off the fucking phone!
I read on.
Belle: Why is he so awful to you? Refusing to let you join them in Florida. It’s just cruel.
Nathan: The colonel has a special kind of hatred for me that can only be held for family. I wake up every day wondering how that fuck fathered my mother. They couldn’t be more different.
Belle: I know what that’s like.
Nathan: For two seconds, I was pissed about the colonel exiling me to Bracknell. Then you walked down my beach. It’ll shave ten years off the bastard’s life to find out he did me a favor. Can’t wait to see the look on his face when I tell him this has been the best summer of my life.
Belle: He won’t let you come back next summer if you do. You’ll have to choose between another three months making love to me on the beach or the satisfaction of sticking it to him.
Nathan: Not going to lie, it’s a tough one, but I choose you. Damn. I really am into you.
Belle: More than into me. You love me, Nathan. Might as well say it ’cause we both know it’s true.
Nathan: I’ll tell you anything you want to hear when you come over tonight.
I squeezed my eyes shut. If I was too weak to move my thumb to delete. At least I didn’t have to torture myself reading anymore.
Belle dragged me into her sea, held me under till my lungs screamed, and then wrung out my time, love, and secrets until there was nothing left. She had the cheek to call pretty boys sirens, but the truth was, she sucked us into her cyclone, and when we were determined unworthy, we were spat out and left to die.
I gave Belle everything she asked of me, but she looked at me that night like I was the one who betrayed her.
“Nathan?”
I snapped my head up.
“We’re here.”
Chuckling with no real mirth, I stuffed my phone in my pocket. Torturing myself with thoughts of Belle. That’s one way to pass the time.
I didn’t reach for the knob right away. “How’s she been?”
“Good. Strong,” Abraham replied. “She misses you.”
“I’m getting her out of here, Abe. I promised her and I’ll do it even if she doesn’t hold me to it.”
“I’ve never doubted you would, Nathan.”
Clearing my throat, I said, “Go home, man. Kiss Renata. Watch that movie that’s been sitting on your queue for weeks. Get far away from this funhouse of horrors.”