CHAPTER TWLEVE - CADEE
I throw the light blue curtains aside and Isabella is on the far side of the room, standing in front of a vanity, pouring two glasses of champagne. She turns and smiles at me when I enter, then holds up the bottle. “I found it in the kitchen. I heard that your mom picked this champagne out for you. Strawberry champagne. It’s a little bit tacky, Cades. I’m not gonna lie. But it’s also pretty delicious.”
She is wearing another version of my school spirit outfit. A much sexier version, I might add. It’s the same short, pleated yellow mini-skirt. But her button-down top is something else altogether—a crop top that ties in the front so that the ends of the shirt flutter against her bare belly button. And her gold-tassel socks don’t stop at her knees. They go all the way up her thighs.
I stop myself from staring with a blink. “Why are you in my room? And how did you get up here?”
She walks over to me, offering a glass of bubbly. I take it and sniff the fizzy bubbles. “My father gave me the elevator code.” She rolls her eyes. “In case I wanted to visit Cooper in the night.” These words come out mockingly. Sarcastic. And then I remember what Dante told me. Isabella is into girls. But her family is having none of it.
“Cheers,” I tell her.
She smiles at me, clinks my glass, and we both sip, staring at each other over the tops of our glasses. Then she turns away and saunters across the room before turning back. Like she needed to create some distance between us. “You’re not mad at me?”
“For what, Isabella?”
“Cooper and I will be married.” She pauses to see how I’ll react. But I don’t really have a reaction.
He doesn’t love her.
She doesn’t love him.
They are stuck.
I walk over to the large canopy bed and sit on the foot of it. “I’m not jealous, if that’s what you mean.”
“Because you know, don’t you?”
“That you like girls? Yeah.”
“What?” Her face contorts into anger. “What did you just say?”
“Sorry. Dante told me—”
“Fuck that little dick. He has no idea what’s he’s talking about.”
“Sorry, Isabella. I’m… sorry.”
She frowns, pressing her lips together, then takes a deep breath and forces a smile. “You were saying?”
“I was?”
“You’re not jealous because…?”
“Well…” Fuck. Why do I have to have this conversation with her? She’s not my problem, is she?
Isabella straightens her shoulders. “Go ahead. You can say it.”
I thought I already did. But apparently not. So I try again. “Um… well, he’s not in love with you, Isabella.”
“Is he in love with you?”
I shrug. “Maybe? I don’t know.”
She smiles at me, back to her bright self. And I can totally see why Cooper goes out of his way to make her happy. She’s so much—what’s the word? Not prettier—so much more alive when she’s happy. “He does.” She takes a long sip of her champagne and puts up a hand, like she’s telling me to give her a minute, and downs the entire thing. When she finally comes up for air, her words sound breathless. “And I’m totally on board with that.”
“You are?”
She splays her perfectly manicured hand over her heart. “Of course. Cooper and I are a business arrangement. I mean”—she hikes her shoulders up to her ears and grins—“we mess around a little. But… it’s mostly for show.” She pauses then, like she’s reconsidering. “Mostly, but not always.”
“O-kay.”
She looks at me for a long moment. “He’s never going to be all yours, Cadee. Not as long as I’m around.” It doesn’t come out mean. Or sarcastic. Or anything other than sincere. “And we’re not really in charge of it.”
“We were in charge of it,” I say. “A few weeks ago. When we all decided to get on board with Dante’s plan and get ourselves out by taking them all down. Any of this ringing a bell, Isabella? Why has everyone suddenly forgotten that we had a plan? I was going to pay your tuition. You didn’t need to go crawling back.”
“I didn’t crawl back for that, Cadee. And neither did the other girls.”
“Then why? I don’t understand.”
“We need them.”
“You don’t need them! I bought the inn so we could live in it. I said I’d pay—”
“No, Cadee.” She sits down on the bed next to me and crosses her long, slender legs, then hunches over and props her elbow on her knee so she can rest her chin in her hand. “We need them. The boys.” She looks at me. “I don’t know how to go on without Cooper. And I know he doesn’t want me. He wants you.” She shrugs. “But I need him. And we made promises to each other.”
“First of all, that’s not totally true, Isabella. He does love you. In his own way. And he’s not going to leave you behind.”
“Maybe not this year, but after graduation?” She shakes her head. “He will leave, Cadee. He will never think of me again if we don’t get married.”
“All right. I don’t know what you’re looking for here. Why are you telling me this?”
“Don’t make him push me away.”
“I won’t.”
“You say that now, because none of this is real. But one day, Cadee, it will be real. It will be very real. And then you’re going to realize that the love of your life is married to me. And even though you are the one he wants, I’m the one he gets.”
“So what do you want me to do? Step away?”
“No. Of course not. Cooper really does like you. I’m not going to take that away from him. Just… go in with your eyes open. You can’t go back now. It’s too late. The Chairman has… well. Look around.”
“Yeah,” I scoff. “He kinda went over the top with this place, right?”
“Bitch, this is so far over the top, we are sailing over the other side.”
I laugh. And she laughs. And then we just stare at each other and have an awkward moment.
Is this how Cooper feels around Ax and Lars when we’re all together?
Because it’s weird.
“So.” Isabella decides to change the subject. “Did you register for all your classes?”
My smile is wide. “Yes.”
“Did you pick a major? Or are you going to explore all your options?”
“No. I know exactly what I want to do here this year. Art. I’m majoring in art. Painting, specifically.”
“Yeah.” She smiles at me. “That fits you. Oh! I almost forgot. I got you a present.”
“You… got me a present?”
She hops off the bed and walks over to a pretty yellow paper bag with blue curly ribbons on the handle. “I hope it’s not a weird present, but I know what Cooper likes. And I have a sneaky suspicion that your mother never taught you how to turn a man on.”
“W-w-what?” I think my whole face goes red.