by K. A. Linde
“They were,” she said softly. Then Eric happened. “I just feel off. Like I can’t live in that house anymore.” She looked down at her manicure. “I think I’m going to sell it.”
Both girls gasped.
“What?” Trihn asked.
“But it’s perfect!” Stacia cried.
“Yeah. It was,” Bryna agreed. “But now, it’s a reminder. It doesn’t feel right.”
“Man, it’s worse than I thought,” Trihn said. “It sounds like you’re having an identity crisis. Soon, you’re going to shed your designer clothing and give up the Aston Martin.”
“Whoa!” Bryna held her hand up. “Don’t get carried away. I just don’t want to always be reminded of what I did to get that house. I hurt a good man, and it didn’t feel good for either of us.”
“I know. I was joking. Mostly. I don’t like you like this, and if the house makes it worse, then you shouldn’t stay there.”
“So, are you going to move back into the condo?” Stacia asked.
“And live with Pace? Over my dead body!”
“Oh,” Stacia said.
Trihn laughed. “Good luck with that, Stacia.”
“Baby Zoe might make me understand Celia a bit better, but it doesn’t excuse Pace’s behavior. And I can’t live with him again.” Bryna shuddered at the thought.
She had reluctantly spent time with Pace at home over the summer break, and it’d felt like a repeat of senior year. He’d had no respect for personal boundaries, and they’d continually butted heads. He was better when he was around Stacia, but only because he’d tiptoe around her, and she’d keep him in line. At least that was a blessing.
“Why don’t you stay here?” Trihn offered. “We would have included you if you didn’t already have a place.”
“Wait, really?” Bryna asked. She had never expected them to offer her a place to stay. She had figured she would need to call her dad to see if he would get her a new place or dip into her trust to rent something while she worked it out.
“Yes!” Stacia cried. “Definitely!”
“Are you guys sure? I mean, I know you probably wanted the extra space.”
“We’re sure! We don’t need the extra space. We’d rather have you,” Trihn said.
“That’s right!” Stacia agreed. “You won’t change our minds now.”
Bryna smiled. How could I say no? She didn’t even want to say no. She felt like she had missed a lot while growing up without having real girlfriends or siblings. Trihn and Stacia were making up for it by a long shot.
“All right. I’ll do it!”
Stacia jumped up and down and threw herself at Bryna, tackling her with a hug. “This is going to be so much fun!”
“We need to go out for drinks to celebrate,” Trihn said. “Take it easy, S. You’re suffocating her.”
Stacia laughed and flopped down next to Bryna with a giant smile on her face.
“Drinks sound great,” Bryna agreed.
“Do either of you care if I invite Neal? We haven’t spent much time together since I’ve been back. He’s been a little weird actually.”
“Sure, I don’t mind,” Bryna said. “Weird, how?”
“I don’t know. Just busy I think.”
Bryna narrowed her eyes. What kind of guy would ignore his girlfriend after being apart for nearly the whole summer? But by the look in Trihn’s eyes, she didn’t want to talk about it anymore. She was upset, and she tended to internalize that.
Trihn stood to make her phone call.
Stacia turned to Bryna. “Don’t worry. No Pace tonight,” she volunteered.
“Good.”
“He’s still at practice,” she said dreamily. Her love for quarterbacks knew no bounds.
Bryna colored at the thought of football practice. She couldn’t help but think about Eric. She knew he must have dipped out of practice early, so he could wait for her after cheerleading got out. There was no way that run-in had been an accident.
And she…couldn’t believe she had slept with him. She had wanted to. So bad.
No. She needed to stop that train of thought right now. She had made up her mind. She wasn’t going to sit around and give him the opportunity to break her heart. She liked it the way it was.
“Do you hear them?” Stacia whispered.
“What?” Bryna asked. She hadn’t been paying attention.
Stacia nodded her head toward the other room. Bryna strained to hear Trihn’s conversation.
“Yes! I want you to come. I haven’t seen you. I miss you,” Trihn said.
She sounded frustrated, and Bryna watched her pace the kitchen in irritation.
“I know you don’t like partying, but Bri needs me, and we’re celebrating. So, I’m not going to stay in tonight.”
Pause.
“This is a part of my life! God, why don’t you get that? I’m allowed to like going out and drinking as much as the artsy side of me.”
Bryna cringed for her. This was an ongoing argument. She didn’t like that they were still fighting over the fact that Trihn liked to go out and have a drink. It wasn’t as if she was going out to fuck a bunch of different guys.
“Yes, I’m aware it’s a Monday,” she said. The anger in her voice was seeping through. She clenched her hands into fists. “Fine. Stay in then. Only alcoholics go to the bar on Mondays, right?”
Pause.
“Yeah, I’ll see you later in the week. Bye.”
Trihn hung up the phone and stormed back into the room. Stacia and Bryna tried to pretend like they hadn’t heard.
Trihn waved them off. “I know you were listening. Neal isn’t coming. I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s go get a drink.”
They nodded, seeing that she didn’t want another argument, and then followed Trihn out of the apartment.
They drove over to Posse with Chloe Avana’s new single being the only thing to break the silence. The DJ announced her upcoming national tour, and Bryna rolled her eyes. Things were better with Gates now, but she couldn’t stop her aversion to Chloe even though the girl had really done nothing wrong, except for being in the wrong place at the wrong time on her rise to fame.
Posse wasn’t completely dead for a Monday night. It was usually pretty chill, but there was still a cloud of businessmen and college students on the premises. They wandered up toward the VIP lounge in search of Maya.
Maya was standing behind the bar with a group of men in suits in front of her. She was sashaying her hips, making small talk, and pouring drinks like a pro while seemingly flirting with them and keeping a perfect distance. She knew exactly what she was doing.
Her eyes lit up when she saw the three of them walking toward her. She gave them a look like she could use a welcome reprieve from the guys who were surely going to tip her generously. She passed them their drinks and then walked over to the girls.
“Bri!” She leaned over the counter and kissed her cheek. “Trihni! Stacia! It’s good to see my girls. I missed you this summer.”
She was already throwing together drinks for them—a dirty martini for Bri, amaretto sour for Trihn, and something fruity for Stacia.
“I missed you, too,” Bryna said before taking a big gulp of her drink.
“We all did,” Trihn agreed.
“You just missed the drinks,” Maya said.
“Those help,” Trihn said with a wink.
“One of these days, you’re going to have to take a night off and come out dancing with us, Maya!” Stacia said.
“One day,” she agreed. “But not today. Anyway, I think there’s one for you here tonight, Bri.”
“One what?” she asked. Her mind was still elsewhere, and she didn’t catch up with what Maya was insinuating until she tilted her head toward the businessmen.
“I know how you like them.” Maya smirked. “The one on the far side of the bar is totally your type.”
All three girls looked over at the same time. Maya was right. He was completely her type. He was tall with
dark hair and an awesome charcoal-gray suit. He had money and power and liked both in large quantities. She could tell that even from this distance, even without seeing his face or knowing anything else about him, other than the cut of his suit and his posture in it. Her body immediately responded to it, and all she could gather was that it was confused as hell. She liked guys like this, but it also made her stomach turn. After Hugh, she couldn’t look at a guy like that the same.
“I don’t know if I’m up for that,” Bryna said.
“What? He’s got your name written all over him,” Maya said.
“She had kind of a…bad summer,” Trihn explained. “Maybe another night.”
Maya shrugged. “Okay, but I think you’re missing out. He’s a higher up for Google.”
Bryna shrugged. “Let’s just dance.”
She placed her drink on the counter, unfinished, and veered for the dance floor. She didn’t want to get drunk tonight. She tended to act like an idiot while intoxicated. She was here to celebrate moving in with her friends and to not think about Eric—at all.
She let her body go free and forgot her struggles. The music was loud. Her friends were close. All felt right. She danced until her legs were shaking and her face was flushed before breaking away from the floor in need of some water.
She tried to flag down Maya, but she was busy with a group of customers who had walked in. Bryna leaned back against the bar and fanned herself as she waited.
“Can I get you a drink?” someone asked from behind her.
She turned around and found herself face-to-face with the hot businessman they had been eyeing earlier. He was even more handsome in person. She was shocked he worked for Google. Are tech guys suddenly getting hot?
“Just water. It’s hot on the dance floor.”
“I think I can manage a water.”
She smiled. “But can you afford it? It’s pretty expensive.”
“Most valuable thing in the world,” he replied.
“Hmm…and I always thought that was diamonds.”
He laughed and nodded at her necklace. “Seems you have that covered.”
She shrugged and glanced away, suddenly feeling uncomfortable.
“I’m Rick,” he said, offering her his hand and drawing her attention back to him.
“Bryna.”
“Nice to meet you.”
Maya returned then and looked triumphant as she saw Bryna talking to Rick. “Dirty martini?” she asked.
“Just water.”
Maya arched an eyebrow but complied.
“Are you sure you don’t want anything else?” he pushed.
“Really, I’m fine.”
She purposely glanced down at his left hand. No ring. Not even an indentation. Maybe he wasn’t a bad guy.
But that didn’t even matter, did it? It wasn’t that she should be looking out for the bad guys. They should be looking out for her.
Maya left her water on the counter and refilled Rick’s scotch glass before disappearing with a smug expression on her face.
“Do you want to dance or maybe go somewhere more private to talk?” he suggested.
She sighed. “I know where you think this is going, but it’s not. I’m not the kind of girl you want to talk to privately. I’m dangerous.”
He raised an eyebrow. She had only managed to intrigue him.
“I like dangerous.”
“I’m a gold digger,” she said flatly. “The jewels you’re admiring me for are from someone else. If you stick around, I’ll manage to get some out of you, too.”
He stepped back in surprise at her frankness.
She pulled the Harry Winston B necklace off and held it in her hand. She couldn’t believe she was still wearing it after all this time. It was her signature look, yet what it symbolized wasn’t even her anymore.
She left him alone and confused. She didn’t have an explanation. It turned out she did idiotic things completely sober, too.
“What happened?” Trihn asked as Bryna approached her.
“Here.” She handed Trihn the B necklace, which she took in confusion.
“What?”
“That’s not me anymore,” she said. “I can’t even look at it.”
She was getting rid of her last piece of Jude. It felt like shedding her skin and starting fresh. Now, she needed to find someone who could see her as she was now, not as she had always allowed people to see her. No director father. No gold-digger status. No slutty reputation.
Just someone with no expectations.
She didn’t know what that meant for her, but it wasn’t an older guy in a suit, thinking he could buy her body with a few drinks.
THE NEXT DAY, Bryna put her house on the market. She called a moving company next to take only the things that were truly hers to the new apartment. Everything else she was planning on leaving.
She didn’t know how long it was going to take. She had never sold a house before. But after only two weeks, she had an offer on the table and was set to close on the place. It was terrifying but a relief that everything had happened so quickly. She would be signing the papers this afternoon in between class and cheer. It was supposed to be quick and painless.
She walked into her history of film class on edge. Her mind was caught up in the paperwork and what her intentions were after that.
Cam dropped into the seat next to her with a smile just as class started. He still sat next to her every day, and they flirted. It was nice since after the fiasco at Posse, she had been avoiding most other guys. She was spending more time focusing on her studies. She had done fine freshman year, but cheer and guys and money and booze had made her lose focus. She figured if she was only really concerned with cheer that would leave her with a lot more time to bring her GPA up.
Her professor left them with a mound of homework to do at the end of class. But she couldn’t think about that right now because she had to leave to go sign the closing papers.
She stuffed her work back in her bag and was on her way out when Cam caught up with her.
“Hey, I know you’re busy with cheer or whatever after school, but what about this weekend?”
She stopped in her tracks. “It’s the first home game.”
“Oh. Okay,” he said, clearly disappointed. “Never mind then.”
Is he asking me out? “Wait,” she said before he could walk away. “That’s just Saturday though.”
His smile widened at her words. “Yeah? Good. You’re always super busy. I thought I’d never get a free moment with you outside of class.”
“Well, I haven’t exactly agreed to that moment yet,” she teased.
Cam laughed. “That’s true. Do you want to go out with me Friday?”
“I’ll see if I’m free,” she joked. She pulled out her phone and pretended to scroll through her calendar.
“Now, I’ll never get on the schedule.”
She playfully bumped his arm. “I’m just kidding. I’m free. What do you have in mind?”
“Dinner and a movie?”
This wasn’t a normal thing for her. She didn’t do these typical dates, but there was a first time for everything. This was what she wanted anyway—a fresh start with someone interested in her for her.
“That sounds great.”
She left campus with a feeling of accomplishment. Here was a totally normal college guy asking her out. She could do this without all the extra baggage from her past.
Signing was as easy as they’d explained it would be. She had to sign and initial about a million pieces of paper and hand over her house to total strangers, but by the end, it was a done deal. No going back now.
A check was issued directly to her, and the sum made her head spin. Hugh had paid a small fortune for the place. Not that he had cared at the time. Money didn’t matter to him. That she had come to figure out the hard way.
She didn’t have much time before she needed to be back on campus, but she had to take care of this. She drove out to the WC Resort. The
receptionist called for the hotel director when Bryna explained that she had something for Mr. Westercamp.
The hotel director was short and impeccably dressed. “How may I help you?” she asked.
Bryna held the envelope out to the woman. “This is for Mr. Westercamp. It’s secure and he’s expecting it, but it cannot be mailed. I trust that you will deliver it to him.”
The woman warily eyed her. “You’re Miss Turner, right?”
Bryna stilled. “Yes?”
“I thought so.” She took the envelope from Bryna. “I can’t assure that he will open it, but I will deliver it.”
“Thank you.” She turned to leave. That was all she had come for.
She didn’t need a guarantee that he would open it, but she didn’t want the house on her conscience anymore. Hugh should have his…investment back.
Bryna hurried out of the hotel, not liking the weight of it around her. She carried a lot of guilt for what had happened between them, and she didn’t need the reminder.
She got in her car and drove to the sports complex for practice. She arrived only minutes before she was supposed to be there. She rushed into her uniform and threw her hair up into a messy ponytail.
Stacia appeared at her side as they walked out of the locker room. “Where have you been?”
“I had to take care of some business with the house.”
“Is it gone?”
Bryna nodded stoically.
Stacia touched her arm. “I’m sorry.”
“You didn’t do anything.”
“I know. But I’m still sorry.”
Bryna sent her a half smile. “Thanks.”
“Also…Eric stopped me earlier.”
Bryna slowed her pace. She still hadn’t told the girls what had happened between her and Eric. She didn’t know what they would think, and she kind of wanted to keep that moment to herself. “What did he want?”
“He said he needed to talk to you.”
“I can’t,” she said automatically.
“Are you going to tell me what happened?” Stacia asked.
“No,” Bryna said honestly. “But I have a date on Friday with a guy in my film class.”