“He’s my best friend,” Charlie said. “How am I not supposed to tell him?”
“I’m your best friend,” she argued. “And I don’t want Kat or Denise to find out the wrong way.”
Matt talked with his mouth full again. “Come on, I would never say anything.”
I gathered that Carson had told Charlie the truth about Denise’s feelings. I ate as I watched the conversation unfold, enjoying the fact that I was a member of their group instantly, like I belonged there, listening to conversations about people and events, rather than money and corporate greed.
“You’re my best girl friend—”
“No, bitch.” She waved her finger. “I’m your best friend. I don’t get demoted because of my coochie.”
“Fine,” Charlie said. “You’re both my best friends. Happy now?”
She grabbed her sandwich again. “It’s a little better…”
I turned to Charlie. “Can I be your best friend too?”
He chuckled at my joke. “Sure. Why not?” He turned to Carson. “Seriously, when are you going to talk to her? You and Dax are happy, and there’s nothing standing in the way of this conversation.”
She gave a loud sigh. “I’ll do it in a few days…”
“How about tomorrow?” Charlie pressed.
“Dude, chill.” She took another bite of her sandwich. “I’m not going to talk to Kat, have her be cool with it, and then you’re going to get laid that night. It’s gonna be a lot more complicated than that.”
“I don’t want to get laid,” Charlie argued. “I just want to ask her out.”
Matt gave him a skeptical look.
“And if she wanted to do the nasty-nasty…I wouldn’t say no.” He leaned forward, closer to Carson. “But that’s not my goal. I’ve been into Denise for, like, nine months. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”
“But I’ve got to handle this right, you know?” Carson said. “How this plays out is totally on my shoulders. I don’t want to hurt Kat and lose our friendship, but I also want you to fuck my sister and be happy, I want my sister to get some good D… There’s a lot going on.”
I chuckled at her description.
“I promise, I will talk to her this week,” she added.
“Alright.” Charlie finally let it go. “You head home right away and tell me everything that happened.”
“Fine.” She went back to her sandwich and turned to me. “How’s your food?”
“Good.” I took another bite. “But the view is better.”
She rolled her eyes. “I look sooooo bad right now. My hair is greasier than a can of motor oil.”
“I think you look cute.” I kept eating, my eyes on her. “I like a woman who works up a sweat and gets dirty.”
She rolled her eyes again, but she clearly didn’t mean it. She liked it when I said things like that, when I complimented her for reasons besides her looks. “And eats like a pig?”
“Yeah, actually.”
Charlie watched us. “Carson, you gotta marry this guy, because no other guy is ever gonna say that.”
Fifteen
Dax
I took the elevator to her floor then rang the doorbell twice.
Footsteps sounded after a moment, then my sister checked the peephole. The door opened a second later, and she was in baggy sweatpants that were three times too big, along with a t-shirt. “Dax? What are you doing here?”
“To give you a piece of my mind.” I pushed past her and entered the penthouse.
She shut the door. “What are you talking about?”
“Really?” My hands moved to my hips. “You’re gonna play stupid right now?”
Her eyes narrowed farther. “You better tread carefully because I’m about to slap the shit out of you.”
“Carson told me you ripped her apart in your office.” I came closer to her, feeling the rage in my veins.
“What’s your point?” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“What’s the point?” I asked incredulously. “Why would you treat her like that?”
“Because I don’t like her. She’s a fucking tease, and she knows it.”
Both of my eyebrows rose high on my face. “She’s not a tease. And even if she were, how dare you talk to her that way? How would you feel if I treated William like garbage?”
“Totally different. He’s not the one who broke my heart.”
Footsteps sounded a second later, and William entered the room from the hallway, in jeans and a t-shirt. “Everything alright?”
I didn’t think he would be here this late, but then I realized that was a stupid assumption to make. “No, it’s not.” I turned back to my sister. “Carson and I worked it out. We’re together now.”
“Really?” Her eyebrows rose. “Then maybe our conversation helped—”
“I doubt it.” I was hardly ever angry with her, but right now, I was livid. “I told you about my problems because you said you wanted to have a closer relationship. Everything I said was in confidence. I didn’t expect you to launch all that shit at her. It’s a fucking betrayal, Renee.”
She kept her hostility. “Yes, I was cold, but I also told her she would never find a better man, that you were the best in the world. I told her she’d better make this work because she would regret it for the rest of her life if she didn’t. You shouldn’t have lied and deceived her, but there’s so much more to you than that mistake. I also said all of that, but it looks like it didn’t matter to her.”
“She told me what happened in a casual context, simply saying you didn’t like her and it was like a scene in Game of Thrones. She didn’t go deeper into it, and honestly, it doesn’t seem like she cares whether you like her or not. But I still can’t believe you came at her like that, especially when I still wanted her, even then.”
She finally bowed her head. “Look, I wasn’t planning on saying any of that. But when I looked at her…it just came out. It’s hard to be around someone who’s hurting your brother. How would you feel if I asked you to be around William after he hurt me?”
“I wouldn’t like it, but I wouldn’t lose my shit either.”
“It sounds like there’s no harm done anyway, if she doesn’t care.”
“That’s not the point.” I pointed at her. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
“And I apologized—”
“No, you didn’t,” I snapped.
Her eyes fell in guilt. “Okay…I’m sorry.”
“I’m really going out of my way to have a relationship with William, and I’d appreciate a change in attitude so you can do the same.”
“I don’t see how the relationships are the same. William and I are serious and—”
“She’s the one.”
Renee stopped her argument, dropped her attitude. Her arms slackened and fell to her sides. Now her eyes looked at me differently, like she was really hearing me for the first time.