by E. L. Todd
Charlie pulled his shirt over his head.
Denise’s eyes immediately went to his naked chest. “Yeah, I can’t.”
Charlie chuckled like he knew she was staring at him. “I’m going to go warm up.” He leaned down and gave her a peck on the lips before he jogged onto the court.
Denise checked out his ass before she looked at me.
I grinned. “I heard things got pretty heavy.”
She flipped her hair behind her shoulder and played it cool. “Very.”
“You guys are cute together.”
“We are, aren’t we?” She smiled. “And he’s so smart and such a good guy. Way better than all the doctors and nurses I usually date. I feel like every time I dated a guy, it was just stuffy and forced, but with him, it just feels right.”
Yeah, because the guy is head over heels in love with you. “Yeah, he’s the best guy I know.”
“The best?” Dax’s playful voice came from behind me.
I grinned before I turned around. “Okay…second best.”
He walked up to me, his chest sweaty and sexy. “That’s better.”
My fingertips went to his abs and felt the wet hardness as my eyes moved up his body, over his sexiness and to his face, where there was a nice shadow along his jawline. I rose on my tiptoes to kiss him, my hands grabbing on to his torso for balance. “You’re so hot.”
He smiled against my mouth as he kissed me. “You want to ditch the game and find an alleyway?”
“I mean…I wouldn’t say no.”
He chuckled before he kissed me again. “We’ll find one on the way home.” He pulled away and gave my ass a smack before he walked onto the court.
I walked with him.
“So…Charlie and Denise?”
“Yep. Charlie and Denise.”
He looked at Charlie, who stood with his hands on his hips, but instead of focusing on the game, he was staring at Denise on the bleachers. “He looks happy.”
“And she looks happy too.”
He turned back to me. “Looks like you did good.”
“Guess I’m cupid’s little bitch now.”
He chuckled before he joined his team on the other side of the half court line. “Ready, sweetheart?”
“Am I ready to kick your ass?” I asked. “Always.” I blew him a kiss.
He caught it then flattened his palm over his crotch.
“Ooh, I like that.”
Charlie had his arm around Denise’s shoulders as he sat beside her in the booth, turning his head toward her often to stare at her face every time she talked, like watching her lips move was hypnotizing. “So, tonight’s the last night…”
“Yep.” I pulled my beer closer to me. “Our last night together.”
Matt turned to Charlie. “You don’t seem too sad about it.”
Charlie pulled Denise closer to him and pressed a kiss to her hairline. “It’s hard for me to be sad about anything lately.”
Denise closed her eyes as she felt his affection, like his embrace gave her a high that couldn’t be replicated with anything else.
“So, you’re going to live in that apartment alone?” Matt asked. “It’s a two-bedroom.”
“I’m not going to move just because Carson is leaving,” Charlie answered. “I can make rent on my own.”
“Even without me paying for all the groceries?” I questioned.
“As long as you don’t keep eating half my lunch every day, I should be able to do it,” Charlie countered. “And we know I don’t need condoms anymore, so…that’s a nice savings.”
Matt winked before he gave him a thumbs-up.
“You’re the one going to save a ton on everything,” Charlie said. “No rent. No groceries. You should invest that money and turn it into some serious cash flow.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked. “I’ll still pay rent and stuff. I’m not a freeloader.”
“You think you can pay half the mortgage?” Charlie asked incredulously. “It’s probably like $100,000 or something.”
“I can pay what I’m paying now.” I drank from my beer.
“And you think he’s just going to take it?” Matt asked. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
We hadn’t really talked about it, so I had no idea. “I’m sure there are things I can chip in for.”
“Or you could just buy lingerie,” Charlie said. “Dax will love seeing your selection in his closet every day.”
I rolled my eyes and kept drinking.
“Oh, there he is.” Matt gave a deep sigh. “Looking all sexy as usual.”
I turned to watch him walk inside, wearing his suit because he was meeting up with us after work. Perfect from head to toe, he was one hell of a man. “Yep…” I gave a sigh too, like he was tender meat I could sink my teeth into.
When Dax spotted us, he came over and slid into the booth beside me. “Hey, sweetheart.” His arm moved around my shoulders, and he leaned in to give me a kiss.
I kissed him deeply right in front of my friends, not caring if they stared.
When we pulled back, he squeezed my thigh under the table.
“She hasn’t even started packing yet.” Charlie threw me under the bus right away.
“I’ll do it tonight. Chill,” I insisted. “I procrastinate on everything.”
“Don’t expect me to help you,” Charlie said. “You always wait until the last minute for everything and assume I’ll come to the rescue.”
“I’ll help her,” Denise said. “We can drink wine and go through her clothes, and if I see something I like, I’ll borrow it.”
I rolled my eyes. “So selfless of you.”
We continued to chat at the table after Dax got his drink. Charlie and Denise were across from us, and Matt was at the head of the booth. We talked about basketball, the status of Matt’s relationship with Jeremy, and work.
“I can’t wait to see your place,” Charlie said. “I’ve never been in a penthouse before.”
“Me too,” Matt said. “I bet we could all live there, and you wouldn’t even notice us.”
I gave Matt a cold look. “Take it down a notch, alright?” I was sure Dax didn’t want people to obsess over how rich he was.
“It’s fine,” Dax said with a chuckle. “I’m excited for you guys to come over. I’m sure we’ll have lots of game nights.”
“Sweet,” Matt said.
“Carson is under the impression that she’ll be paying her fair share while she’s there.” Charlie glanced at me. “Which is ridiculous.”
“It’s not ridiculous,” I countered. “I’m a working woman. I should pay for stuff.”
“You can pay with sex,” Dax said. “That’s as good as cash, if you ask me.”
Charlie chuckled before he fist-bumped Dax across the table.
I wouldn’t be a freeloader. That wasn’t my style. “That’s not who I am—”
“Uh, guys…” Matt’s face turned pale as milk as he looked across the bar.
“What?” I asked, following his gaze to see what affected him so deeply.
Everyone else turned too.
Kat stood there with another girl, probably a friend from work, and she looked at us with vacant eyes, like her soul had escaped through her pores and she was empty inside. Her stare was focused on Charlie with his arm around Denise. Her hair was pulled back from her face in a ponytail, so every expression was visible like words on a page.
Dax released a quiet sigh, like he could feel her pain.
Charlie dropped his arm from Denise’s shoulder—as if that would make a difference.
Then Kat quickly stormed out and pushed through the double doors until she was outside.
Charlie’s previous happiness was long gone, replaced by self-loathing. “Fuck. I’ll go talk to her.”
“No.” I tapped Dax on the arm so he would get up. “Let me try. I don’t think she’d feel comfortable looking at you right now.”
Dax quickly got out of the way so I could cros
s the bar and head outside. I found her down the sidewalk, walking quickly in her heels with her hand raised to get the attention of a cab. I was in flats, so I jogged to catch up to her and made it just when a taxi pulled over. “Kat.”
She opened the back door.
I slammed my palm into it and closed it again.
The driver started to honk.
“Kat, talk to me—”
“And say what?” With watery eyes and a loud voice, she rounded on me, like everything she kept inside had burst free. “That I mean literally nothing to all of you, not just Charlie? Seeing you guys having a good time, all happy, just makes me realize that you’ve already forgotten me. I remember when it used to be the four of us before Denise moved here, and that was my life. It used to be the four of us, his arm around my shoulders…and now I’ve been replaced. And it wasn’t just Charlie who replaced me—all of you did.”
“That’s not true—”
“You guys all have forgotten me. And that’s fine.” She tried to open the door again.
I put my weight against it so she couldn’t open it. “Kat, I love you. I’m still your best friend. I think about you every day because I miss you. I’m sorry that we look like we’re happy without you, but we all miss you. I’m not lying to you.”
With tears dripping down her cheeks, she stared at the cab as she waited for me to move my hand.
The driver honked again.
“Oh, shut it!” I yelled.
Kat’s voice was quiet now, like she’d given up. “Move your hand, Carson.”
“Kat, come back inside. We’ll show you how much we miss you.”
“You expect me to go in there and watch Charlie love her the way he used to love me?” She turned to me, her eyes red and irritated.
“I expect you to make an effort for us to stay friends, because no matter what happens, we’re all friends. I know this is hard for you and I can’t even imagine how you must feel, but our friendship is so important. We should all be together.”
She turned back to the cab and pushed my arm down.
This time, I stopped fighting. “I still need you, Kat. My life isn’t the same without you.” I put my heart out there, vulnerable and bare, but it wasn’t enough.
She got into the cab and left.
I grabbed the clothes off the hangers and folded them before placing them in one of the boxes.
Denise helped organize my things while Dax leaned against the headboard on the bed, his ankles crossed at the edge. Charlie leaned against the wall with his head tilted back, looking at the light fixture in the center of the room. Matt stood in the doorway.
My bedroom was way too small for five people, but we crowded inside anyway.
I kept working like nothing happened.
“I don’t know what to do,” Charlie whispered. “Our conversation seemed to go well.”
Denise had her head down, like she felt personally responsible for everything.
“I’m sure it was totally different to actually see it happen in the flesh.” I pulled down another sweater and folded it before I handed it to Denise. “I think we’ve done everything we can do. I told her how much we love and miss her, but she just…” I shrugged and turned back to the closet to grab the next sweater. “I don’t think there’s anything else we can do. Just have to let it be.”
Charlie sighed from the floor. “I’m sorry, Carson…”
“Don’t be.” I grabbed a couple more items than handed them to Denise. “You deserve to be happy. You shouldn’t have to apologize for that. You did everything you could have possibly done to prevent this, so maybe there was nothing any of us could ever do.” I was sad that I’d lost my friend and it would hurt for a long time, but I also accepted the fact that there was nothing more I could do, nothing anyone could do.
It is what it is.
“I texted her the other day, and she didn’t even text me back,” Matt said. “And I have nothing to do with any of this. It seems like she’s the one not making the effort. From my point of view, we did everything we could to make this work. She’s the one who just refuses to see that.”
After my clothes were gone from the closet, it was totally empty.
And it was a strange sight.
The last time one of my closets was empty like this, I’d moved in with Evan.
But I knew this time when I left, I wouldn’t come back.
It was different with Dax.
“Looks like the closet is done.” I turned back to them and approached the dresser. “We’re making good time. I guess procrastinating isn’t the worst thing in the world.” I spoke to a room full of people, but it felt empty, because they couldn’t brush off what happened either.
Dax got off the bed then came to me, wrapping his arms around me and pressing his face into the crook of my neck. “It’ll be alright, sweetheart. Someway, somehow, it’ll be alright.”
We got everything into the back of the van that was parked at the curb outside my building. Once all of my stuff was gathered and put into one spot, I realized how little I actually had. Some of my things had been left behind at Evan’s place because I didn’t want anything that reminded me of him.
Matt stared at the van before he turned to Dax, who was in sweatpants and a t-shirt that looked tight over his strong muscles. “So, you’re going to drive that to your place?”
“Yes,” Dax said with a grin. “I’ve driven a vehicle before.”
It was big and boxy and had an obnoxious logo along the side. I grinned. “It’s not a Bugatti, but you’ll still look hot driving it.”
“Whoa, what?” Matt asked. “You have a Bugatti?”
I gave him a glare. “Matt.”
Dax held up his two fingers. “Two. One in black—and one in red.” He moved to the driver’s side door.
Matt looked like he wanted to faint.
“We’ll pile up in the back so we can all go together.” Charlie was in his workout clothes, and so was Denise.
“Is that safe?” Matt asked.
“We’re going like ten blocks.” Denise got into the back and sat on one of the boxes. “It’ll be fine.”
Charlie joined her and then Matt.
I walked to the doors so I could close them.
Matt glanced at the front where Dax was getting his safety belt on. “You think he’ll give me a ride sometime—”
I shut the doors in his face then got into the passenger seat.
“Ready?” Dax turned the key in the ignition and got the engine going.
“Yep,” I said. “Looks like I’m your copilot.”
Effortlessly, he merged into traffic and drove through the city without even having a back window. He didn’t seem flustered at all, driving the huge boxy truck through town. He even placed one hand on my hip as he maintained control of the vehicle with the other.
“Thanks for doing this,” I said.
“No problem, sweetheart.” He looked at me, wearing that handsome smile. “Thanks for moving in with me.”
“I think I’m the one who should be thanking you. I get to live with a super-hot guy.”
“True.” He looked ahead, still grinning. “And I usually do fifty push-ups the second I get out of bed.”
“Ooh…I’ve never seen that.”
“Because I’m too busy paying attention to you.”
“Wow, I should have moved in sooner.”
He chuckled and kept driving.
We eventually pulled up to his building, and the two doormen stared at us like we didn’t belong there at all. They were both wearing stuffy suits with bowler hats. But when Dax got out, their demeanors completely changed.
I opened the back doors so everyone could come out.
Matt turned to me. “Did you ask him about the Bugatti?”
I rolled my eyes and handed him a box. “I’m not going to ask him that.”
“I’d be happy to give you a ride, Matt.” Dax came around the other side, not the least bit bothered by my friend’s obsessi
on. “We’ll take it out of the city so we can really get some speed. I might even let you drive a little bit.”
Matt almost dropped the box. “I think I might love you.”
Dax chuckled then grabbed a box to carry inside.
I smacked Matt when Dax walked away. “Tone it down, would you?”
“What?” Matt snapped. “Like he doesn’t already know.”
We all grabbed a couple things and carried them inside the building. We all got into the elevator and rose to his penthouse, where the double doors opened to reveal his luxurious living room. I told them to be cool about it, but that didn’t happen at all.
All three of them stood there with wide-open eyes, like they couldn’t believe what they were looking at.
Dax stepped out of the elevator first to carry the box down the hallway.
“Holy shit,” Charlie said. “Just his living room is bigger than our apartment.”
I ignored the comment and stepped inside.
Matt spoke to Charlie. “I can’t believe Carson gets to live here.”
I turned around and looked at him. “I’m moving here because of Dax—not where he lives.”
Charlie stepped farther inside and scanned the area, checking out the eighty-inch TV on the wall and all the paintings. “Yeah, but…still. You’re one lucky-ass bitch.”
After we put all the boxes in the bedroom and Dax dropped off the van, we gathered in the living room for sandwiches, chips, and drinks. The TV was on and played the game. We were tired from moving all day, but once we had some food in our stomachs, we started to lighten up.
“So, is it weird that you won’t be going back to the apartment after this?” Charlie asked as he stuffed his hand into his bag of chips.
I took a look around at the spacious place, the full kitchen that could easily be used to cook a feast for twenty people. The dining table had a glorious view of the city, so I could sit there and write in the evenings as I watched the lights from the buildings. “A bit. But it also feels like home.”
Dax sat beside me and placed his hand on my thigh as he leaned in to give me a kiss on the corner of the mouth. “It feels more like home to me than it ever has before.”
“Give it some time,” Charlie said ominously. “Good thing you have a housekeeper.”