“And you know I don’t want you to pay anything. You already sneak around and pay all the bills before I even have a chance to open them. It’s more than enough.”
He put his hands around her waist, making her stomach drop.
“Are you sure?” Rose asked. She needed more than just a physical assurance.
“Rose, my life has improved since you moved in with me. The fridge used to look like a war zone, but now you make sure I eat all my vegetables,” he joked.
“I bet she just wants me out so she can move in,” Rose couldn’t help saying.
“As if.” Tyler snorted, and the goofy sound made Rose happier than she’d been all morning.
She beamed at him, looking him straight in the eyes. Tyler stared back with a strange intensity, and suddenly, Rose’s smile disappeared. He leaned in closer, slowly, and her breath caught in her throat in anticipation.
Four
Georgiana
A few miles away, in another posh neighborhood of Boston, Georgiana paced around her living room. As she circled the couch, she was seething with hatred for Rose, anger for Tyler, and resentment for Marcus. Whom she didn’t exactly know, but who she was positively sure had ruined her life by moving to LA.
She tried Tyler’s number again. When he didn’t pick up, she threw her phone across the room and let out a growl. The phone hit an armchair and bounced off its soft cushions, landing on the carpeted floor.
This wasn’t going to work. Another woman living with Tyler wasn’t right. How could he not see it? What was his house, a stupid co-ed? A charity? Georgiana didn’t know for sure, but since Rose and Tyler came from the same rich neighborhood in Dallas, she doubted Rose had money problems. She was just a parasite. Tyler’s best friend was poison ivy, and she was sprouting roots in his house.
Why wasn’t he picking up his damn phone?
Georgiana checked the time on her Rolex: 9:45 already. She’d been calling him for almost an hour now. Bracing her arms on the back of the couch, Georgiana stared out of her floor-to-ceiling windows without focusing on anything in particular. Maybe his phone was switched to silent and he hadn’t heard it ring. What if Tyler was still asleep? It wasn’t unusual for him to sleep late on weekends, and they’d been arguing until the small hours last night. Tyler had left her apartment at—three, four a.m.? By the time he’d gotten home and to bed, it must’ve been late.
That was it, she decided, Tyler was still sleeping. Nothing to worry about. Yeah, they had a row, and he’d taken Rose’s side, again, but it would pass. It always did.
Georgiana’s nervous fingers tightened their grip on the soft cushion fabric. Men! They could sleep through everything. Unlike her. She’d barely slept and had been forced to use all her willpower not to call him before nine—Georgiana didn’t want to come off as the hysterical girlfriend.
Anyway, Tyler asleep or not, the problem remained. Georgiana needed to weed the poisonous bitch out of her boyfriend’s place. The sneaky little ho was after her man. She’d probably been since puberty. Why did Marcus have to dump Rose and give her the perfect excuse to move in with Tyler? To feed off his generosity and good nature?
If Tyler and Rose stayed under the same roof much longer, something was bound to happen. Tyler’s relationship with Rose wasn’t strictly brotherly—no matter how many times Tyler swore it was. Georgiana didn’t believe in male-female friendships. And their body language sent a clear message: there was tension between them. The fact they hadn’t done the deed yet wasn’t an assurance it would not happen in the future. It was even worse, in a way. It built pressure, making Rose—the one girl Tyler had never had—too big of a temptation for him to resist.
Why did everything have to go down this way? And why now?
Georgiana felt as if a cosmic conspiracy was in place to undermine her relationship with Tyler. But she wasn’t a “live and let live” kind of girl. She was used to taking action and gaining control over things. She’d even tried to convince her brother to provide a distraction for Rose as soon as she’d moved in with Tyler six months ago. Ethan, five years their senior, was drop dead gorgeous and a womanizer. But he’d refused without even meeting Rose. And now was dating one of Georgiana’s best friends, Alice, so his charms were out of the picture. To hell with him, too. Georgiana needed a different plan, something final that would keep Tyler and Rose apart for good.
Georgiana turned away from the window and started pacing the apartment again in search of inspiration. It took her a few laps of the room before an idea began forming in her mind. At first, she couldn’t quite grasp it. Georgiana was sure she’d overlooked something, but couldn’t put her finger on what. Then, out of the blue, a possibility came to her. She needed to talk to her dad and see if he could help her.
Georgiana sprang into action. She grabbed her bag and car keys from the coffee table and hurried toward the door. Halfway there, she paused and turned around to go get her phone. She picked it up from the floor and checked the screen, only half-hoping to see if Tyler had called her back. He hadn’t.
Never mind, he could wait. Right now, she had bigger fish to fry. Filled with purpose, Georgiana plonked the phone into her bag and exited her apartment. She felt strangely calm and regenerated. It was good to finally have a plan.
It’d be complicated to achieve, and she’d have to pull a lot of strings to make it work. Hard, but not impossible. And, oh, Rose wouldn’t even know what had hit her. Georgiana opened her car and sat behind the wheel. She paused a second with her finger on the ignition button. She closed her eyes, imagining the face her rival would make when she found out. It’d be priceless. But now wasn’t the time to celebrate, it was the time to set her plan in motion. To pull it off, she had to act quickly. Georgiana revved the engine and backed out of her parking spot, speeding away on the almost empty street.
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