“Oh my God, look at that. You actually have a voice that you could’ve used to, I don’t know, call and tell me you’re in England after eleven years of leaving the country. That’s a decade and one year. Not a big deal or anything.”
“I didn’t know you added drama queen to your hobbies. As your friend, I must tell you it doesn’t suit you.”
“And it suits you?”
“I’m not the one screaming the whole house down and scaring my staff away, Bug. They’ll drink tea in your honor and call you a crazy hag behind your back.”
“I’m talking about your endless excuses to not come home.”
“Home is overrated.”
“And so is your reason for not coming to England.” She flops on the chair opposite us, crossing her arms like a stern teacher. “Now, let’s talk about another important issue. Have you grown tired of shagging your way through the States so you settled for her?”
My cheeks heat. For some reason, I remained invisible from their conversation and I’m not sure why I thought that would continue until she screams her head off and leaves.
I don’t know why I was slightly relieved that Daniel extended his lash of sarcasm to her as well.
“Her is Nicole,” he says and I startle, then I smile, fighting the urge to get up and kiss him.
Astrid be damned.
She narrows her eyes on me and speaks with pure mockery. “Don’t I know it?”
“Then use it.” There’s no hint of sarcasm in his tone as he straightens, cradling his head, probably because of both the hangover and the injury.
Astrid twists her lips in disapproval. “Are we really not going to address the elephant in the room?”
“Your drama queen tendencies, you mean?” Daniel asks with an innocent smile that creases his cheeks with gorgeous dimples.
“Her!” She points at me. “What is she doing here? And why are you fucking her of all people?”
“For the last time, her name is Nicole. She came with me—more accurately, I dragged her here against her will. And who I fuck has nothing to do with you last I checked.”
My lips tremble and I tighten my hold on the shawl, my fingers digging into my palms.
I’m checking to see if I’m dreaming.
If this is one of those fantasy subconscious things where I picture Daniel picking me.
There’s pain in my palms.
So this is real.
He’s actually taking my side over Astrid’s. His best friend Astrid.
The Astrid who always came before me. Whom he befriended upon minutes of meeting her while he glared at me for years.
“Are you listening to yourself? She’s the bitch Nicole, Dan! The ‘you’re a loser, go wank a pole’ Nicole. The ‘you’re not good enough to breathe the same air as me, try in two decades’ Nicole. The ‘I’m going to suck off Levi to get back at Astrid’ Nicole. Have you forgotten what she’s done?”
I wince at the reminder of my mean track record. And I’m once again struck by how much I changed and she didn’t.
Oil and water. That’s what Astrid and I were and will always be.
“Obviously, you haven’t.” Daniel isn’t the least bit fazed. “And here I thought those spawns of yours deleted some of your memories.”
“I’ll never forget her.”
“Kinda obsessive, but okay, Bug. Are you done?”
“I’m not done until she leaves.”
“Stop talking about me as if I’m not here.” I stare at her, my voice surprisingly calm.
“I’m not talking to you.”
“Yes, you are if you keep throwing jabs my way.” I straighten my spine. “If you want to say something, say it to my face. You never shied away from that before.”
“Okay then, we’re doing this.” She pauses for dramatic effect. “What the hell do you want from Daniel when you always considered him worse than dirt under your Louboutins? Did you hear about his success and picked up gold-digging as a side job?”
“I never asked for a dime of his money. I’m his assistant, not a gold-digger.”
“She’s your assistant?” She directs her question at Daniel, then stares at me. “You’re an assistant. Wow. How the mighty have fallen.”
“If you intend to make me feel small, it won’t work. I already adjusted to my new life and nothing you could say or do would have an effect on me.”
“That’s good and all, but why Daniel? You hated him. You fucking spiked his drink and raped him!”
I can feel Daniel stiffening beside me as my fingers turn clammy. I stare at him, dumbfounded.
He told her I raped him?
I…raped him?
My limbs start shaking and my throat closes. It’s an unconscious reaction whenever the R-word is mentioned.
It’s probably unnatural. Such as my panic attacks, and broken spirit.
A spirit that’s only getting back to life recently.
A spirit that I thought I lost a long time ago.
“I told you that wasn’t the case, Astrid.” His voice raises for the first time. He calls her by her given name for the first time, too.
“Then what was it? You drugged him and me that night, Nicole! Levi saw it on the cameras. You told me so yourself.”
“It’s not…” I trail off, unable to get the words out.
“Then what was it?” Astrid asks.
“I fucked her.” Daniel jerks to a standing position. “I followed her and kicked out Chris because the bloody thought of him or anyone else touching her put me in a murderous mood worse than a serial killer’s. Because she’d been driving me fucking crazy for years and right then, I could pretend it was the drugs that made me do it. And that night? The night you had an accident and nearly died was the happiest night of my fucking life up until that point. Up until I abandoned her in the middle of the fire and found you drowning in your own blood. So she didn’t rape me, Astrid. She didn’t even come after me. I followed her, kicked out the lowlife who was there, and I fucked her until I lost count because I wanted her since I knew what wanting someone fucking means.”
Astrid’s lips open in a wordless gasp. I’m two seconds away from crying like a baby.
The words he just said have gone past the confinements of my ears and are slashing their way to my bleeding heart.
He grabs my hand and I feel like I’m floating on air as he pulls me to his side. To his strong, hard, and very warm side. His arm wraps around my waist, fingers digging into my hip as if he’s making sure I remain there.
“She’s with me now and that’s that.”
I can’t stop looking at him, at the seriousness in his features and his tone. At the way his jaw is set and his lips are in a line.
I want to kiss those lips.
To get on my tiptoes and let the world see that I’m with him.
That I’m his.
That he’s mine.
I can tell Astrid is lost for words, as much as me.
Before she can formulate an answer, Jay trots down the stairs. “What’s with the commotion? Some of us are trying to sleep.”
Astrid’s head whips toward Jay and she narrows her eyes on him. Then at me. “Is he…”