by Lee, Corri
“That’s exactly the problem, Cecelia. Eleanor was at a meeting, that’s her office.”
“Oh god,” I groaned, standing up quickly and backing towards the door, “I can see the headlines now. ‘Billionaire heartbreaker’s best friend is home-wrecker’. What the hell was she thinking?” I whimpered and rubbed my temples, overcome with all the thought of all the potential disasters that could arise. “Between all this ‘love triangle’ palaver and my actions at Cherry Vine last night, they’re going to think we run some sort of brothel or fucking coven. Jesus!”
“It won’t come to that.” Nathaniel scooped me up in his arms and carried me back to his desk, sitting me on its edge and wrapping my legs around him as he remained standing. “Isaac bought the digital camera from Marcus,” I shrugged at him blankly, “the gay bartender you bribed for the Chelan room, so nobody else actually saw what happened, and I can put this Bethany business to bed fairly quickly. But in the interests of protecting yours and my siblings reputations-…” he gently swept a lock of hair from my face, “will you stay with me and avoid being seen in public with her until I know that the footage hasn’t been mined or leaked?”
I nodded and rested my head against his shoulder, fiddling with his tie as a distraction from Bethany’s monumental fuck up. “Of course, as long as I can verbally batter her at work.”
“I’d be offended if you didn’t.”
Nathaniel and I tore into each other in the name of stress relief when we rode in the Chrysler towards the bar that night. It was an act so violently carnal that even Lobke blushed and turned the music up to full volume. Both of us were littered in love bites and scratches when she threw a bottle of water over us and announced that we were at our destination and should definitely consider muzzles or ball gags for future journeys.
“Are you quite sure that I can’t convince you to be a kept woman?” Nathaniel cupped my face in my hands and looked utterly forlorn that I would be leaving his side. “We could just go and pack your clothes into a suitcase and spend all night drinking champagne on the balcony.”
I pouted and kissed his palm gently, proud yet shocked at myself to be turning down a night of expensive fizz and magnificent male for grumpy old gits and broken glass. “Positive, Nate. As idyllic as that sounds, I like working, and even if you could, I’m bound to a notice period under my contract.”
“I have a very good lawyer.” I groaned at him, pained by how much I really did want to stay with him but silently pleaded him to stop being so wonderful. “Call me as soon as the doors close, alright?”
“Just come in with me.”
“I’m afraid that I might say something to taint your friendship with Bethany.” I growled at the thought of having to talk to Judas and begrudgingly climbed out of the car, halted by him grabbing my hand. “As soon as you’re free, promise me.”
“I promise, Nate.” I wiggled my ring finger at him as a reminder, “let me go before I change my mind.” His grip tightened and his eyes shimmered with mischief. “I love you so much, Nathaniel. I don’t know why I feel like I have to tell you that, I just…” the nagging voice in the back of my mind kept screaming at me that karma was coming to deal me my retribution for all my wrong doings. “You’re the only man I’ve loved enough to not push away. Don’t ever let me.”
My chest expanded with the same feeling of dread I’d had when London slipped back into view on our return from Wonderland. Something just seemed so final about the far too brief kiss he laid on my lips. It was only my firm attachment to my principles that stopped me from getting back into that car and disappearing into the sunset, and in retrospect, I wish that I’d dashed them away and rolled with the deviance that he’d so painstaking sought to exploit in me.
Shona immediately pulled me into a hug the moment I stepped behind the bar. She didn’t hug- it wasn’t her style, so the way she gripped onto me like I was the only solid fixture in a tornado knocked me sideways. “Who died?” Something else I was sick of saying.
“Nobody,” she finally released me and passed me a large shot of tequila, “you just look like you need it.” Perceptive. “What happened with Cole last night? He won’t tell anyone what occurred.” I was hardly surprised that he wasn’t keen on boasting the tale.
I threw back the shot and laughed at the memory. “I poured my heart out to him, he lied about going to Cherry Vine, jumped at the first chance to stick his dick in another woman, told me that I was too easily pleased and I’d forgive cheating because he’s the boss- so I tied him to stripper pole, blindfolded him and stole his clothes.”
She squinted at me sceptically and shook her head. “No, what really happened?”
“That is what happened.”
“Hmm…” Shona stepped back and crossed her arms, tapping her ballerina pumped foot. “So why do you look like you’ve just been subjected to a pre-work quickie?”
“What?” I darted over to the mirrored wall and ran my hands over my flushed cheeks and scratch flecked neck. “The man is a bloody animal.”
“Whoa!” I cringed as she grabbed my left hand and waved it around in front of her eyes. “What the hell is going on here? He can’t have screwed up that badly if you’re engaged.” I wrinkled my nose at her and slid away towards a waiting customer, glad of the distraction.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work to distract her. “Oh my god, it’s Nathaniel Alexander, isn’t it?”
“Sssh!” I raised a finger to my lips to silence her and collected a pint glass from the rack. “It’s not going public until the novel is out.”
“Oh man,” she moaned, ducking into the cellar as Bethany and Adam strolled into the bar, “I would hate to be in your Jimmy Choo’s right now. I know nothing.”
I rolled my eyes at her dramatic proclamation as the ‘couple’ thundered towards me and threw themselves at the bar. Adam seemed fairly complacent but Bethany’s acerbity could only be comparable to the time I accidentally killed her goldfish when she was fifteen and she wouldn’t talk to me for a whole thirty-six hours. But I wasn’t exactly happy to see her either.
I served them their drinks like any good professional barmaid and fished my phone from my pocket, seeking to ignore them for as long as possible. Adam thwarted my effort. “So that’s who you were last night.”
“You’re going to have to give me a better preliminary statement than that, Adam. I’m sure it made sense in your head but it didn’t out loud.” I chewed on the side of my mouth arrogantly and kept my eyes cast downward.
He puffed out his cheeks at me and sneered. “I knew you were there but you blended in bloody well.”
“You knew I was there and yet you still encouraged Cole to get it on with the busty blonde. Very noble.”
“You did what?” Bethany glared at him and choked out a disgusted cough. “Nice of you to tell me that before I defended you and took the blame for her being there.” She turned to me and held her head in her hands like the weight of the world was on her shoulders. I knew exactly why- guilt. “Cole thinks you’re still together after you told him that there’s nobody else for you.” My mind boggled. To think that I’d have inflicted that punishment on him and he’d honestly think that we were still together.
I shrugged and stuffed my phone back into my pocket. “Not my problem. If he wants to delude himself, that’s his prerogative. It is not my responsibility to state the obvious- I had a damn good reason to change my mind about being with him when he thought I was someone else and rushed out to buy condoms for a sleazy fuck.”
“Yes it is!” she yelled at me, “It is your responsibility because you told him you were in love with him.”
“I changed my mind.”
“You don’t get to change your mind, Cecelia. You stick with one person and you see it through without running off to someone who’s better in the sack!”
My jaw dropped and I burst out with incredulous laughter. “I don’t think you really have the right to get sanctimonious, do you? Seen anything interesting sprea
d across Eleanor’s desk this afternoon?” I leaned down to look her in the eye and regarded her with bitter disgust. “Like your legs maybe?” Her heavily bronzed face paled to a ghostly white. “Yeah, it took you all of five days to break your promise that you’d control yourself. I get that it ‘just happens’, but your bosses husband? You can thank Nathaniel for keeping the surveillance footage under wraps, by the way- seeing as you nearly fucked up four people’s careers.”
“Who are you?” She screamed in my face, “Seriously, who the fuck are you, because I don’t even recognise you anymore.” I stepped back like she’d struck me and frowned at myself. I didn’t know what I’d done that made me so unrecognisable. “You stand there in the same outfit you wore last night, stinking of sex with a man you turned your back on to be with someone you humiliated in a public place, after telling him that you’d never see Nathaniel again if it meant being with him. And yet you take the first opportunity to slink off to his castle in the sky and indulge in your secret little affair that you won’t commit to, and then go running back into the arms of Cole because you know that he’ll take it all lying down and fly to your aid when the billionaire gets too heavy.”
She stood up and leaned across the bar as far as possible, wrinkling her nose at me like I stank of sewage. “And you have the audacity to stand there and judge me, throwing a cat among my pigeons, when you’ve been playing two men off against each other like some twisted little sadist. News flash, Cole didn’t cheat on you, but who’d blame him if he had? You’re a cheap little skank with a souped-up thesaurus who’s falling right into Nathaniel’s trap. You told me to tell you if you’d sold your soul? You don’t have a soul to sell. Why don’t you piss off back to your smug, rich-as-fuck dick of a lover and kill yourself like the stupid bitch in your sad little story, because we’re all happier without you.”
I stood dumbstruck for a moment, partly amazed that she’d strung together such a lengthy barrage of insults on a whim, and partly horrified by what she’d said. She made me sound evil and unfeeling- a venomous whore who found great pleasure in toying with men’s emotions. Was she really that far from the truth? Was she right in saying that I had no soul?
Did the fact that I never really felt any remorse for forcing Aiden out of my life really make me the ogre she portrayed me as? Was I just a manipulative husk with no empathy who lived to reel men in like bass and watch them suffocate and die slowly on the surface?
No, I’d made a point to Cole and it should have been obvious. There shouldn’t have been any doubt in his mind that being caught primed and ready to cheat on me had put an immediate end to our farce of a relationship. I loved Nathaniel more than life itself and I would marry him. I couldn’t have loved him if I was soulless. If he was just planning to trap and destroy me I didn’t care because, like a story I knew so well, I had nothing if not him.
“Gladly,” I snapped, hastily exiting the staff side of the bar, “enjoy your shit hole while I enjoy a life of luxury and fame. It might be short, but anything has got to be better than lying for a jumped up little whore like you. Don’t come fucking crying to me and my fiancé when your relationship falls apart because you can’t go a week without dropping your pants for every man in the office, because I won’t answer and I won’t nurse you through your mistakes anymore.”
I yanked the door open and the cold air hit me like a stab in the heart. I had probably ruined Bethany’s relationship and she had successfully told a bar full of morons who couldn’t keep their mouths shut that I’d been secretly bedding a billionaire. We had both substantially damaged each other’s lives with our words and our friendship hung in the balance.
But I didn’t see why I should be the one to apologise when I’d hopelessly torn myself to pieces over my situation and sought her help while she’d played around behind my back and hoped to not get caught. I had the moral advantage, and while it was only small, it was still a step above her.
I immediately pulled my phone from my pocket and charged down the street, bound for my townhouse. Not home. Home was with Nathaniel- the man who didn’t answer his phone after the third attempt.
I was practically frantic when he finally called me back, seemingly in an overly crowded bar. “Cecelia, you’ve finished already?” For once his voice did little to soothe me but a great deal to trigger a tidal wave of woe.
“I, uh… I-…” I stopped in my tracks on the street and let my overwhelming emotion bubble over. “Take me to Arizona.”
He stammered for a moment, apologising to people around him until the deafening chatter of happy hour faded. “You want to leave?”
“Well,” I sighed, “My so-called best friend thinks I’m a harpy and I just walked out on my shift so I’m probably unemployed. Seeing as my parents are in an urn in the bottom of my armoire and the only other friend I have is an ex-teacher who is looking for any opportunity to fuck me again, I don’t think I have anything other than you keeping me here.” I shook my head and picked up my pace to get back to the house as quickly as possible.
Nathaniel sighed and crooned at me gently. “Go and pack your things. Lobke and I will come and fetch you. Traffic is fairly horrendous right now, but I’ll be there as quickly as I can. I love you, Cecelia.”
“I know, I love you too.”
I reached my front door within two minutes, immediately flew to my room and pulled an oversized suitcase from beneath my bed. With my wardrobe considerably reduced after Bethany’s brush with pyromania, packing all of my clothes, underwear and shoes was a relatively easy task. My parents’ urn- that held both the ashes of both Mr and Mrs, fit neatly into a pocket normally designated to cosmetics and toiletries. All of the jewellery I owned resided within a simple wooden box I’d constructed at school, and that too fitted into the suitcase, next to a few photo albums of childhood memories and the Gucci Envy perfume I’d unwrapped at The Langham.
That was it, my entire life in a suitcase. All except the claddagh ring I’d left amongst the roses on the coffee table and my laptop.
I hauled the ridiculously heavy case down the stairs behind me and left it by the couch, and then darted around to salvage the ring from the roses’ stems.
It wasn’t there, and neither was the card. Instead, in their place, was the trilby I’d abandoned at Cherry Vine. I suddenly became aware of a presence behind me, and the rage that swelled within it could be felt from a distance.
“Looking for something?”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Turning very, very slowly, I slid the wishbone ring from my finger and stealthily tucked it into the small, basically redundant pocket of my suit trousers, and tried to calm myself as much as possible before I spoke. I couldn’t see that announcing my engagement would reap me congratulations in this occasion.
“How did you get into my house, Cole?”
He leaned forward on the back of the couch, his hands gripping it with white knuckle force. “Bethany gave us all keys when you had your asthma attack. For emergencies.” He told me, in a far-too-calm drawl. Fucking Bethany.
“So where’s the emergency?” I glanced around held out my hands, “I see no fires and feel no tremors- I’m not in the midst of a heart attack and I have no broken bones, so please explain to me why you feel it necessary to enter my house without permission.” My initial suspicion that he’d have vampiric tendencies to my property were confirmed.
“Well,” he straightened and advanced towards me slowly, far too cat like and impassively. I matched his every step, moving backwards as he moved forwards, maintaining the distance between us. There was something cold in those dulled eyes, something dangerous. The air thickened and the lights seemed to dim. For the first time in my life, I was intimidated by a man, and I’d spent my university years around drug dealers and addicts on bad trips. “I’d like to know why my girlfriend publicly humiliated me last night.”
“I’m not your girlfriend, Cole. That much should be obvious. Now get out of my house, I’m busy.”
“I noticed.” He nodded towards my suitcase. “Going somewhere nice?” Anywhere had to be nicer than the all-encompassing clusterfuck I was battling through that evening.
I hazarded a glance at my belongings and pulled out the only answer I could think of. “Home.”
“This is home.”
I looked back at him and shook my head. “Not anymore.” I couldn’t share a house with Bethany knowing that she thought so little of me. If I hadn’t made the decision to leave myself, she would have forced me out with her snideness.
“You’re not going anywhere.” The vicious glare that flashed across his face made me stagger back slightly in alarm and feel around behind me for something- anything to defend myself. “Know your place, Cecelia.”
My forehead creased. “What the hell do you mean ‘my place’?”
Cole’s lips pursed as he pulled a small white card from his pocket and cleared his throat. “ ‘I will die having lived a full life for seeing just one afternoon of your love’. Which afternoon, Cecelia? When did these roses arrive?”
“Today,” I lied, “he’s talking about this afternoon.” I knew that the timeline didn’t match up- if he’d been kept in the loop and deduced far enough from the clothes I wore, he’d know that I’d not been home again that day.
“So you’ve cheated on me today?” Had sex with someone else, yes. But cheated? When I’d considered our relationship over, absolutely not. Not today at least.
“No,” I scoffed, “we’re over, Cole. We ended last night when you proved that you wouldn’t think twice about screwing a stranger.”
“We’re over when I say we’re over.” My back stiffened at the ferocity of his voice. There was no doubt that he genuinely thought that he owned me and that he was my boss. “You’ll damned well stay by my side until I’m bored of you because you know the consequences of disobedience.”