"No. I'm not." But because it grated on her so much to admit this, Monique simply couldn't resist adding, "Not for lack of trying, though."
Hallie only nodded, and as she turned to walk back to her seat, she didn't miss the infuriated expression that crossed the other woman's face. Monique had clearly been hoping to draw blood, but what Hallie couldn't understand was why.
The other girl had already won. She had Andreus. So why did she still care about hurting Hallie?
As Kalli's expertly trained staff started serving appetizers, MJ, seeing that Monique was about to call Hallie's attention again, hurriedly sought to distract the other woman. "Would you like some salad?" she blurted out. "It's one of Kalliope's specialties..."
Monique, seeing that the question had MJ's husband staring at her direction, quickly answered in the affirmative. "Yes, please." And since she was no fool to try pissing off Helios Andreadis for the seond time, she forced herself to smile and take a bite, even while cursing all of Andreus' friends in her mind.
Fuck all of you! Fuck you all! Fuck, fuck, fuck!
Turning to Andreus, she took a forkful of salad and lifted it to his mouth, saying teasingly, “Say ah.”
Hallie knew the other woman was trying to make her jealous, but all it did was make her want to cry...since Andreus' gaze had suddenly taken hers captive just as he opened his mouth to let his wife feed him.
Oh God.
Did no one see how dead his eyes were?
Someone’s fork clattered as it hit the plate, and Monique nearly laughed at how the volume of everyone's voices suddenly doubled. They could try to drown her voice all they wanted, but short of tearing someone’s eyes out, they wouldn’t be able to keep that bitch from seeing the truth.
Andreus was her husband, and there was no changing that.
Just. Let. It. Go.
Hallie was practically babbling the words out over and over in her mind. If she wanted to do the right thing, she had to let go. But the moment she remembered Andreus' dark, dead eyes—-
God, oh God.
Her throat tightened to the point of asphyxiation.
I'm sorry, God.
She had only but a moment to meet his gaze, but that one moment was enough to destroy her completely. In that one moment, Hallie already had seen too much—-
I'm so, so sorry, but I don't think I can ever let go.
She started shoving food in her mouth in an effort to keep her tears in check.
Stupid, stupid Andreus.
No wonder her heart was stupid. No wonder at all, since the man it loved was just as stupid, with how everything he had said and done up until this moment now made complete stupid sense.
So, so stupid.
She finally understood why he had changed, finally understood how he had ended up trapped in a horribly gentlemanly shell that wouldn't let Andreus be himself. And it was making her wish she could have one moment, just one moment where she could pretend she still had the right to sob his name out.
Andreus.
Andreus.
Andreus.
She could no longer hate herself, now that she remembered what she used to know with all her heart and soul.
Even if the world would think her stupid—-
He was doing all of this because he loved her.
Chapter Seven
Stop looking at me like that, princess.
The Hallie he knew had always been prim and proper, her actions never straying far from her moral compass.
So why, dammit?
His jaw clenched at the effort it took to ignore the way her blue eyes would rest on him every so often. He should've been good as dead to her, the moment he had married someone else.
So why, dammit?
Why the fuck was she looking at him like he still belonged to her?
"What do you think, Andreus?"
All eyes were suddenly on him at Silver's question, and Andreus, seeing the way Monique's lips tighten in suspicion as her gaze swung between him and Hallie, swiftly delivered the only appropriate reply when he wasn't exactly sure what was being asked of him. "Since Lace always gets her way in the end, my vote goes with whatever she thinks is best."
His friends laughed, but all Andreus cared about was how his words had Monique relaxing against her seat. The memory of her outburst during last week's board meeting was a nightmare he didn't care to relieve. It was something Hallie hadn't done anything to deserve, and there was no fucking way he would let such a thing happen again.
Silver went on to ask the others the same question, and Andreus was able to eventually deduce the topic had to do with the staff uniforms for the sports bar Silver co-owned with his fiancée. Lace apparently was leaning towards having everyone wear jerseys (no surprise there) while Silver believed it was better for the staff to be comfortably dressed in shirts and jeans.
“As compromise is the key to never missing a night of sex,” Kellion drawled, “I’d say go for jersey tops and jeans.”
“That could work,” Lace acknowledged grudgingly.
“Speaking of uniforms...”
Andreus barely managed not to tense in his seat at the sudden sound of Hallie's voice.
“I was thinking it would be nice if we could present a united front tomorrow, remind everyone about our roots.”
Monique could only resort to grinding her teeth the moment she heard the other woman talk about tomorrow's debutante ball. She was dying to ask what exactly a Greek slut like Hallie would know about such occasions, but she also knew better than to court everyone's disapproval when her outburst in the board meeting was clearly still fresh in everyone's minds.
"Explain."
Helios' monosyllabic command, uttered in a gruffly spoken voice, would have most people quaking in their shoes, but this only had the rest of the Afxisi hiding their smiles, since it was something they had gotten used to over the years. Their President might be named after the sun god, but Mr. Sunshine he would never be.
“I was thinking, when all the debutantes had been presented, and the ceremony's officially over, the guys could change into leather jackets, white shirts, jeans—-”
Kellion’s lips curved in a smile of understanding. “The Afxisi uniform, in other words.”
"The idea has merit," Helios acknowledged, "but it's something all concerned parties must unanimously agree on."
A bland smile formed over Andreus’ lips. “I was actually thinking of hanging up my jacket for good—-”
“Why?” Aria asked curiously. “Because you’re married?” She saw Andreus’ wife stiffen and realized too late she had accidentally struck a nerve. My bad, the redhead thought, but she wasn’t really that sorry.
Conscious of how everyone was now looking at her, Monique let out a shrill laugh and placed a hand on her husband’s shoulder, saying, “If you’re doing it for me, you don’t have to. I fell in love with you, leather jacket and all. I don’t expect you to change just because we’re married.” She felt Hallie Athanas’ blue eyes boring through hers, and a tremor of fury shook her when she realized what this was all about.
The bitch knew!
She had no idea how, but Monique was willing to bet her trust fund that the bitch knew she had pressured Andreus earlier to ditch his jacket for a business blazer.