“Not even slightly.” She chokes back a sob and then sneezes.
I jerk upward, eyes wide. “What’s the matter? Why are you crying?”
“Damn these allergies,” she says. “I need you. Please.”
“Okay, okay. Calm down. What do you need?”
“It’s Garrett. I… I slept with him.”
“Okay.”
“Why couldn’t you come to dinner with us? You knew what was going to happen.”
“Tess, I—”
“I needed you tonight.”
“Okay, okay. Calm down.” This is all very un-Tessalike. She must have it bad for Garrett. And I’m her BFF. I should know this.
“Where are you? I’ll come to you.”
“At my place. He left, Skye. He fucked me, and then he left.”
“Did you ask him to stay?”
“I did. He said he had an early meeting in the morning. But tomorrow’s Sunday. He lied to get out of spending the night with me. How could I have been so stupid as to let him in my bed again?”
Again, this isn’t like Tessa at all. “Are you drinking?”
She sniffles. “A little.”
Shit. Last time she did ecstasy. “Tell me you didn’t take anything else. Please.”
“No. Not yet. But I’m a mess. Can you come over?”
I’m bone tired, but… “Yeah. Sure.”
I hate the thought of leaving Braden’s bed, but I won’t let my best friend down. I’ve done enough of that recently.
But this is strange. Tessa doesn’t get this upset over men. What’s up with Garrett? When he broke her heart the first time, she did drugs, for God’s sake. I need to make sure she doesn’t go down that path again. Either she has it super bad for this guy, or…something else is going on. Something I’d know about if we hadn’t been arguing.
“I’ll be there as soon as I can. Hang in there, okay?”
“Thanks, Skye.”
“No need to thank me. Get a hold of yourself, and I’ll be there soon.” I shove the phone into my purse. “Braden, I need to leave. Tessa’s in a bad way.”
“I’ll drive you.”
“You don’t have to. I’ll call an Uber. Besides, you gave Christopher the night off.”
“I can drive, you know.”
I smile weakly. “Thank you. This means a lot to me. I’m so sorry. After our wonderful night.”
Braden dresses, and I head up to my bedroom and find something more comfortable than the green sheath I arrived in. A comfy cotton T-shirt and fleece joggers are perfect. When I descend, Braden is waiting for me at the elevator.
Fifteen minutes later, we pull up in front of Tessa’s building.
“You may as well go home,” I say. “I should stay with her tonight.”
He nods. “I’ll walk you up. It’s late.”
I kiss his cheek. “I’ll be okay.”
“I’m walking you up, Skye. It’s not up for debate.” He slides out of the car and opens the passenger door for me.
A few minutes later, I knock on Tessa’s door. She opens it, her face streaked with tears, and her eyes…strange, like one is looking the other way or something, but not quite.
Again, so not Tessa. She’s fond of Garrett, but she doesn’t fall apart over men.
“Hey,” she says weakly. “Hi, Braden.”
“Hello, Tessa.” He walks straight into her apartment, taking command. “What can we do for you?”
Shit. Just what Tessa doesn’t need right now. Braden Black trying to fix things. He finds solutions, but Tessa doesn’t want a solution. She wants to cry on her best friend’s shoulder.
“Braden…” I begin.
“Have you eaten?” he asks.
“I had dinner with Garrett.”
He picks up a nearly empty bottle of vodka. “How much of this have you had?”
“Braden…” I try again.
“A few shots,” Tessa replies.
I grab Braden’s arm and steer him out the door. “She doesn’t need to be interrogated,” I whisper. “Please, just go.”
He cups my cheek. “Call me if you need anything.”
“I will.” I close the door and turn to Tessa. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s okay. I’m sorry to ruin your evening.”
“You didn’t.” I wish I were lying in bed with Braden, but we accomplished the task for tonight. I let out a laugh. The task for tonight.
And now I’m beginning to feel that soreness Braden warned me about.
Oh, well. Tessa needs me, so my sore ass can wait.
I sit down on her couch and pat the seat next to me. “Come on. Spill it.”
She sighs. “It’s so stupid. I went and fell in love with the jerk.”
“That’s not stupid.”
“Why couldn’t I meet a man like Braden? He treats you with so much respect and love.”
“Have you forgotten he dumped me a couple weeks ago?”
“No. But things seem fine now.”
“They’re good, but it took a lot of work on both our parts. I even started therapy to get to the bottom of everything.”
“I know.” She shakes her head. “I guess I just want more than Garrett wants to give right now.”
“So you’re not in the same place. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing. He did come back to you, and he’s willing to be exclusive.”
“That’s what he says, anyway.”
“Do you think he’s lying?” I ask.
“I don’t know. He could be. After all, he lied about having an early meeting tomorrow.”
“Are you sure?”
“It’s Sunday, Skye.”
“Braden has meetings during the middle of the night sometimes. We flew out to New York early on a Sunday morning that one time so he could deal with some kind of contract in China.”
I wince a little. That trip had cost me Tessa. I was so absorbed in Braden and my interview with Susanne Cosmetics that I neglected to call her to break our shopping date.