by Elle Everton
Sky and I order breakfast, and our waitress disappears, leaving us alone again with our lukewarm cups of coffee. I sip from mine, not wanting to meet Sky’s eye.
Finally, after a couple of minutes of silence, she prods.
“I know you didn’t invite me here because of the amazing coffee,” she says, slurping from her cup and grimacing. “So what’s up?”
I let out a big breath. “I screwed up.”
“I take it this involves Sam and Bennett?” she says.
I nod forlornly. “And you too, sort of,” I admit. “Well, Orchid, really.”
Now Sky looks cautious. “How so?”
“I sort of … agreed to write an article about the place.” The words tumble out of my mouth. Sky immediately recoils. “That’s why I was there that night. I was undercover.”
Admitting it feels good, but I can tell by Sky’s face that she isn’t taking the news well. And who can blame her? I would have been betraying her too. Especially after she’s told me more than once that Orchid saved her life.
“I’m not doing the article anymore,” I assure her hastily. “I called the editor yesterday. But now he’s threatening to take me to court. The worst part, though, is that Bennett and Sam are so mad at me. They think I betrayed them.” I wipe away an obnoxious tear that’s snuck down my cheek. “No, scratch that. I did betray them. I feel like complete and utter shit.”
“So now you’re worried you aren’t going to get your auction money?”
I look up in surprise. “God, no. I don’t give a shit about the money.” I bite my lip and stare down at the paper placemat with the old 1960s Earl’s logo on it. “I fell in love, Sky. I fell in love with both of them and now they hate me and I don’t even blame them.”
Sky looks like she’s about to say something, but just then our waitress returns with our food. She sets down two huge plates of eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, toast.
“Anything else I can get you, ladies?” she asks, one hand cocked on her hip.
“No!” we both snap at the same time.
She rolls her eyes and disappears, and Sky and I both laugh nervously.
When the waitress is out of sight, Sky pops a piece of bacon into her mouth and chews thoughtfully. Even though I don’t know her all that well, I can tell she’s not the type to just spout out the first thought that pops into her head. I like that about her — I only hope I haven’t also screwed up our burgeoning friendship.
“So you’re not doing the article anymore?” she says finally, as she takes another glug of coffee.
I shake my head furiously. “Definitely not. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to get out of it, but if I have to go to court … well, I guess I better shine up my sensible shoes for the judge.” I smile thinly, but Sky just nods, still deep in thought.
“Well, I’m not going to pretend I’m happy about what you did,” she says finally. My stomach drops, until her mouth twists up into a small smile. “But everyone deserves a second chance.”
I let out a breath of air and blink back a tear. Thank you, God, for letting at least one person not hate me.
Sky munches on another piece of bacon.
“It seems to me like you have two distinct problems here…” I wait for her to go on, but she’s still chewing. When she finally swallows, she holds up one finger.
“The first is getting Bennett and Sam to forgive you, right?”
“Yes.” God, yes. I nod frantically.
Sky holds up another finger. “The second is getting out of this article in a way that does the least damage to you — and to Orchid. Right?”
I nod again, so hard I nearly give myself whiplash.
“So what if you could fix both of those things at the same time?”
My whole body instantly perks up.
“What would I have to do?”
“Well, you’ve met Ava, right?”
I nod, wondering where she’s going with this.
“What did you think of her?”
I consider the question. Ava is beautiful, poised, confident, but most of all she’s…
“I think she’s a woman who knows how to get shit done.”
“Exactly,” Sky says, pointing her fork at me. “You don’t run a place like Orchid without having a shitload of connections — media, law enforcement, politics. Why do you think no one’s ever done a story on that place before? My guess is Ava keeps most of the media outlets on a tight leash — hell, you’d be surprised at how many of the big publishers and politicians are members. They probably don’t want that story getting out anymore than she does.”
For the first time since yesterday morning, I start to feel a glimmer of hope. Maybe I can actually fix this. Or more specifically, maybe Ava can fix this.
“So you talk to Ava,” she says. “And you get her to work her magic and get the story pulled. I don’t know if she can keep you out of court, but it honestly wouldn’t surprise me. Then…”
“Then?” I prod.
She shrugs. “Then you hope and pray that the fact that you came clean is enough to convince Bennett and Sam that you’re truly sorry.”
My shoulders slump slightly. That still seems like a long shot. I can’t get the way they looked at me out of my mind. The hurt, the betrayal, the disappointment. A fresh wave of tears threatens to spill from my eyes.
“I’m not sure that’ll be enough,” I say, my voice barely more than a whisper.
Sky tilts her head, looking sympathetic.
“I know — there’s no guarantee. And Lila, here’s the other thing — once you come clean to Ava, she’ll have you removed from Orchid completely. She has the power to shut this down, but she’ll shut you down in the process. You might just find yourself stuck working at Earl’s for the rest of your life.”
My shoulders slump further. I know she’s right — and I also know it’s what I deserve. My lie was worse than a lie — it was an invasion of everyone’s privacy, a breach of their trust.
I stare down at my untouched plate of breakfast food. The thought of putting anything in my stomach right now makes me feel like throwing up.
Sky smiles at me sympathetically, and I once again feel a rush of gratitude that she doesn’t hate me for what I’ve done. Now if only I can get Bennett and Sam to stop hating me too.
The next day I arrive at Orchid, exhausted from lack of sleep and red eyed from all the crying I’ve been doing. I don’t have an appointment, but I’m praying that Ava will see me on short notice.
Once again, it’s Remi who finds me in the dark hallway. When I ask for Ava, he nods and leads me silently through the empty club and down the now familiar hallways. I can’t help but think of the times I’d come here with Sam and Bennett, of the huge steps they’d taken with each other within these walls. A lump forms in my throat, but I will myself not to cry.
We arrive at Ava’s office, where she’s once again sitting behind her sleek lacquered desk. She looks insanely glamorous in a black lacy v-neck top of some kind, with her black hair spilling down around her shoulders. Her nails are once again a perfectly manicured red, and they catch the light from the crystal chandelier as she clacks aways at her keyboard.
She looks up when I appear at the door.
“Lila!” she says, her face lighting up in happy surprise. “This is an unexpected pleasure.” Then her face drops. “Wait, this isn’t about Sam and Bennett, is it? Are they still bickering? Because I will…”
“No, it’s nothing about them,” I cut her off. I swallow and knot my hands together. “Is it okay if I come in?”
“Oh, of course,” she says, gesturing to the chairs across from her desk. The same place Sam and Bennett and I sat on the night of the auction. The lump in my throat grows bigger as I take a seat. Ava waves off Remi.
“So what can I do for you?” she asks, leaning her elbows on the desk and resting her chin on her fists.
This is it. The moment of truth.
“I fucked up,” I blurt. “I need to withdraw from
the auction. From my contract with Sam and Bennett.”
Ava’s brow furrows. “What happened? Are they being insufferable? I was sure that …”
“No, no, nothing like that,” I assure her again. “It’s me. I need to withdraw. I know I won’t get any money and that’s completely fine.”
“Lila,” she says softly. “The month is almost over. Another few days and you could walk out of here a very rich woman. So unless they’ve done something terrible, I would encourage you to consider sticking it out. Though, if they have done something terrible, you need to tell me. We don’t tolerate any kind of harassment of our girls, so if there’s something I need to know…”
“It wasn’t them. It was me.” I cut her off again.
Ava raises her eyebrows. “You?”
“Me.” I nod glumly, and then I spill the entire story, about falling in love with Sam and Bennett, about the article, about how they’d discovered my notes, about how Brian wasn’t letting me withdraw from my contract. Ava’s face grows stonier as I talk, until, by the time I’m done, it looks as if it’s been carved in ice.
“I see,” she says coldly. “So you thought you could just waltz in here and destroy everything I’ve worked so hard to build.”
My throat feels so tight I can barely swallow. “I’m sorry,” I say. “I didn’t know what it was like here when I first agreed to do the story. I thought it was just a weird little sex club. I didn’t realize how much I’d come to care about people here,” I say, thinking of Sky and Sadie. And of course, the two men at the heart of this. “I didn’t realize I’d fall in love.”
Ava steeples her fingers together. With her perfectly arched dark brows, and her perfectly painted red lips, she almost looks like a cartoon villain — but I’m the villain in this story. I stormed the peaceful village and brought my fire-breathing dragon in to burn the place down.
It’s all I can do not to bury my face in my hands and cry, but I force myself to meet Ava’s gaze.
“Sky thought you might be able to help,” I say meekly. “I understand I won’t be welcome at Orchid anymore, but I wanted you to know so that you could kill the story. And also so that you could increase your background checks for a while — I won’t be writing the story, regardless of what they threaten, but they’re pretty set on getting it, so I’m guessing they’re going to try to find someone else to do it in my place.”
Ava nods slowly, taking in my words.
“It was Full Boom, you said?” she asks, scribbling something on a notepad.
I nod. “Maybe they have a member here?”
She shakes her head. “No. These internet start-ups … they’re all bluster. No real money and no way would any of them meet our … exacting … membership standards anyway.”
I bite back a smile at that — I can definitely see that Ava wouldn’t be a fan of Brian Fuller’s blustery style.
She taps her nails softly against the desk. “On the other hand, we have quite a few members high up in the telecom industry. You know, internet service providers and whatnot. People who could make it very difficult for someone to keep their website running.” For the first time since I started my confession, there’s a ghost of a smile on her lips.
For a second, I let myself feel hopeful. Then Ava’s face snaps back into a frown.
“Thank you for coming in today, Lila. I will consider your contract officially canceled. You have no further obligations to Orchid.”
I stay sitting in my seat for a minute, until the look she’s giving me makes it clear that I’ve been dismissed.
“Thank you,” I say, standing with as much poise as I can muster. “And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I never meant for anyone to get hurt.”
Ava leans back in her seat. “I know you didn’t,” she says softly. She doesn’t say anything else though, so I leave her office.
Remi isn’t anywhere to be seen now, so I head through the dark labyrinth of hallways on my own. Just as I make it almost to the exit, the door swings open, bathing the dim corridor in bright sunlight.
It takes my eyes a second to adjust — not just because of the blinding light, but because of who I see standing there in front of me.
Bennett. Looking devastatingly handsome — if not somewhat exhausted — and glaring right at me.
Chapter 30
Bennett
“Bennett.”
My name on her tongue is a plea, a whisper that scorches my soul. I look into her beautiful green eyes but then quickly flick mine away. All I can see when I look at her is everything we lost.
I walk past her without saying anything. In my peripheral vision, I see her shoulders slump, and then her whole body lean against the wall. I feel badly for her, but I feel badly for myself too. For all of us.
We could have been amazing together. I don’t doubt that Lila’s feelings for us were real … but knowing how vulnerable Sam and I allowed ourselves to be with her makes me furious. I don’t let my guard down often — ever, really — and to realize I’d been taken advantage of that way was something I wasn’t sure I could ever forgive.
I force myself not to look back as I head down the hallway and swipe my access card at the interior door. Despite everything, despite all my anger and hurt, there’s still a part of me that wants to go to her. To make her feel better. To make myself feel better.
I don’t though. I keep walking. All through the empty club and down to Ava’s office.
I’m relieved to find her at her desk, although she doesn’t look nearly as happy to see me.
“What now?” she says as she tosses her pen on the table.
“Long day?” I joke, trying to lighten the mood.
Ava rubs her temples. “Every day is a long day,” she mutters.
I chuckle ruefully. I hear that.
“Well, I hate to make it even worse, but I need to get out of my contract with Lila Emery and Sam Baines.”
Ava holds up a hand. “Bennett, look —“
I interrupt her. “I know the consequences already, but at this point I’m willing to take the loss. I’ll pay the money as agreed. And if you need to kick me out of Orchid — well, maybe that’s for the best too.”
Ava sits back in her seat with a sigh. “You don’t owe any money, Bennett. And I won’t be kicking you out of Orchid.”
“What do you mean?” Of all the many, extremely colorful things I expected Ava to say to me today, that was not one of them.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” she says, twisting the pen around her fingers. “Lila beat you to the punch.”
I shake my head. “I’m afraid I don’t understand. You’re going to have to spell it out for me.”
Ava drops the pen down on the desk again.
“She came in here just now and confessed to everything. I’m surprised you didn’t bump into her on the way in.”
“I did, actually,” I trail off. So that’s why Lila was here. “I just assumed she was coming to give you some sob story.”
Ava chuckles, her expression soft. “Far from it. She confessed to everything, wanted to take full responsibility. She even wanted to warn me to increase my background checks for awhile in case the magazine tries to send someone else.” She pauses, shaking her head gently. “To be honest, Bennett, I think Lila is the real deal. I think she’s genuine and I don’t think she actually started this whole process with the intent to hurt anyone.”
I consider this but have nothing to offer in response. The burn from what Lila did is still fresh in my mind, and I expect Ava to be equally pissed. Instead her expression is patient and kind. Not her default setting by any means.
“I know you’re pissed,” Ava begins and I can’t help but nod in agreement. “But just hear me out. No matter how captivated you may have been by her, Lila is young and naïve. That’s just a fact. But she’s also ambitious — she wants something better for herself. You don’t go undercover at a sex club and participate in an auction on your first time out if you aren’t tryi
ng to prove something. I’m sure you and Sam have both been in that position yourselves — wanting to prove something to a world that felt like it was conspiring against you?”
I nod, chagrined. Of course, Ava knows all about my history. And she’s right — I’ve been where Lila is. Willing to do whatever it took to get ahead. And unlike Lila, who pulled the plug when things got out of her control, I had never been so thoughtful. I steamrolled my way to the top, refusing to let anything stand in my way.
“I guess I never thought about it that way,” I admit.
“Of course you didn’t,” she says. She smiles benevolently, but there’s a hint of amusement in her voice. “You know, to be honest, Lila reminds me a little of me.”
I raise my eyebrows, and Ava pauses for a second, as if trying to think of the right words.
“Do you know how old I was when I opened my first club?” she asks.
I shake my head. Actually, I don’t know much about Ava at all, except that she runs a tight ship here. I guess it makes sense that she would have had experience somewhere else before she opened Orchid.
“I was twenty-four,” she admits. “And I was married at the time. To an asshole who ended up taking everything right out from under me. It took a long time for me to get back on my feet, and to get my confidence back. You know what saved me?”
I shake my head. Her admission is already taking me aback.
Instead of answering, Ava reaches behind her, to the row of built-ins that line the wall behind her desk. She grabs a framed photograph off the shelf and hands it to me.
“Them,” she says simply.
The photo is of Ava, laughing, her face more carefree than I’ve ever seen it. On either side of her is an attractive man. One with dark hair, one blonde. The dark haired one is kissing her neck, while the blonde gazes adoringly at her.
I hand the photo back, looking at her questioningly.
“My husbands,” she says. “Well, partners. Soul mates.”
“Huh.” I honestly have no idea what else to say, but Ava just smiles slyly.
“You see, Bennett, when I said Lila reminded me a little of me, I meant it in more ways than one. Naive and determined at once. Ambitious, yet sheltered. Beaten down but always ready to get back up again. The perfect girl to tame two men who can’t seem to tame themselves.”