by Nella Tyler
“No, but you know, maybe you should go to a doctor or something, or go get someone to check you out.” I did want to know more about whatever the hell he was talking about, but not as badly as I wanted to get him out of the house. I tried to walk him back towards the door.
“No, dude, we can figure this out. I went to a strip club with my bandmates at like 10 or 10:30, and we started doing shots,” Tyler recounted. He kept trying to step past me. “Dude, let me through, come on, we gotta sort through this. I might owe someone money.”
“Wait, um, why would you owe someone money?” If I could keep him distracted, maybe I could lead him back outside more easily.
“For the cocaine. I think. I’m not sure. That or I just really overpaid a stripper. I might have given a stripper several thousand dollars.”
“You might have spent several thousand on cocaine?” I shook my head. That wasn’t the point. “Forget it. Look, um, I’m a little busy—”
“Is that your brother?”
I froze, and Tyler did, too, stopping and turning his eyes towards the stairs. Briella stood at the top of the staircase wearing a pair of my sweatpants with the waistband tightened all the way and my T-shirt tied off with a ponytail holder. Her hair was up in a top bun. It was blatantly obvious she’d stayed the night.
Tyler’s eyebrows went up, and he stared at me expectantly.
“Yes, um…” I sighed. There wasn’t really anything I could do at this point to sway their opinion on what was happening. “Tyler, this is Briella. Briella, this is my idiot brother.”
“I’m not an idiot.”
“A couple thousand on cocaine?” Briella raised an eyebrow. “Come on.” Her grin betrayed her teasing, and Tyler laughed.
I could tell that they would get along well. It wasn’t often that Tyler found someone that would call him on his bullshit. That being said, he was still stiff, awkward, from the suddenness of the situation probably.
“Why don’t you make us breakfast, Dexter?” Tyler asked.
I shrugged and led them into the kitchen. I didn’t know what to do about this. I couldn’t make either of them leave, and I didn’t want them coming into contact with one another. My worlds were officially colliding, and I didn’t know what to do about it.
“I’ve heard a lot about you,” Tyler said.
I turned around. “Do not.”
Briella leaned forward against the counter. “You have?”
“Just a few things. Everything good,” Tyler relented a little. “You’re staying in Florida for a little while, right?”
“Not much longer,” Briella corrected. “I have a flight to catch later.”
“Where are you flying back to?”
“Houston. Well, a little city outside of Houston.” Briella tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear. “I’ve been getting moved into a new place back home, so I’m staying with my dad in the meantime. That’s one of the reasons why I came down here, actually.”
I hadn’t known that, but I didn’t say anything. I cracked another egg into the skillet and put some toast in the toaster.
“Moving is the worst. You just came to Florida for vacation?” Tyler asked. He was getting dangerously close to addressing the fact that Briella had stayed here last night, which heavily implied sex, which was true, but I didn’t want to give him more material to torment me with.
“Yeah, just for a little bit. My friend thought of it. A short little break, go to the beach, do some shopping, come home.”
“Your boss gave you time off?”
“I’m my own boss,” Briella explained. “I’m a wedding planner.”
“Huh.” Tyler probably didn’t even know what a wedding planner did. I didn’t want them to get to know each other and further the bond that Briella was making in my life. She had a plane to catch that very day, after which she would never be seen again! “So, do you know anything about cocaine?”
“I know that one high’s worth shouldn’t cost a few thousand dollars,” Briella said. “But that’s about it. Why?”
“Tyler, come on.” I gave him a look, and Briella shook her head.
“No, no, I’ve learned plenty of party damage control from dealing with Nina for so long. I can help, I bet.”
“Nah, I don’t want to divulge my secrets, not yet,” Tyler conceded. I mentally thanked him and turned the coffee machine on.
They carried their polite conversation on to breakfast. I set the table and put the food in the middle so that everyone could give themselves what they wanted. I hoped that Tyler would take the hint and leave so that Briella and I could have a nice breakfast together, but of course, he stayed and continued to talk.
“Have you liked Florida so far?”
“I’ve found it breathtaking,” Briella replied, and Tyler nearly broke his polite façade. I sighed into my mug and focused on eating and listening rather than attempting to defend myself or minimize damages done to my character or the situation.
“There’s a lot to do here. Do you think you’ll be back?” Tyler asked.
“Maybe someday. I don’t know when I’ll get time off like this again, though. My schedule tends to get pretty busy, and I’m going to be crazy busy with the new apartment or wherever I choose to move,” Briella said. “So maybe, but not for a while.”
I wondered if maybe she would come back to see me. It was a conversation we hadn’t really had, or at least hadn’t really had in full, and I knew better than to bring it up now.
“Do you need a ride to the airport or something?” Tyler asked. “I know it’s a weird route to get to there from here, and sometimes cabs are a bitch.”
At least he was being moderately polite. Briella smiled and shook her head. “No, Nina and I have it under control. We didn’t really bring all that much, so a regular cab should be just fine. Besides, I think she wants to hit a few more shops on the way out.”
“Understandable. The mall here is amazing. That’s what most people come here for, anyway, that and the beach.”
Briella finished eating and set her plate aside. “I ought to get going. Thanks for breakfast, Dexter.”
“Let me walk you to the door,” I said. When she turned her back, I glared at Tyler as means of warning him not to follow me.
I walked with her to the front door and was honestly loathe to see her go. “Do you need a ride?”
“I called a cab,” she said. She held her phone up to show me.
“Okay.” I took a deep breath and frowned. “I… I want to keep in touch with you,” I said. “We can still call, text, maybe even email. Do people still email?”
She gave me a nod that didn’t reassure me that we were on the same page. “Yeah, maybe,” she said softly. The cab in front of the house honked its horn and she leaned up to kiss me.
I closed my eyes and wished the kiss wouldn’t end. I didn’t want her to go so soon. I hated that she was leaving, and I even further hated that there was nothing that I could do except watch her go.
“Goodbye,” she said, and she was off. I waited until her taxi had gone around the corner out of view, and then I closed the door, turning to go back to the kitchen. I could probably still cover my ass on this, as long as Tyler hadn’t overheard…
Tyler stood in my way, eyes wide. He’d clearly overheard, and frankly, even if he hadn’t, he could gather what the situation was without too much context.
I had a lot of explaining to do.
Chapter 20
Briella
I hated the way that it felt to leave. Getting in the cab felt like the wrong decision to make. I almost wanted to leap out, to tell Dexter that I wanted to make it work between us. My heart ached at the decision that I was making to leave him behind and pretend that my emotions weren’t yearning for me to stay behind and have him as my own.
What I’d said the night before was still true. Frankly, if I lived in Florida, it wouldn’t make anything easier. We weren’t in the same social class, and I couldn’t bring anything to the table when
it came to assets. I didn’t have much money, anything worth selling, or any property. The Mason family was looking for someone to make the company richer, not make their son happy.
So I knew that it wasn’t the most fun thing to do, leaving, but it was the thing that was the best in the long run. When I reached the hotel, I’d come to my final conclusion. Dexter proved to me that there were still nice men in the world, and that was enough. I could find another man who could make me happy; they existed, if Dexter existed, and I would only need to work hard to find them.
When I opened the door to the hotel room, Nina was throwing things haphazardly into a suitcase. “Hey. Hey, watch your step; I’m packing,” she said.
I stepped carefully to my side of the room and kept quiet for a moment. She didn’t say anything, and I didn’t say anything, and I began to wonder why she was so quiet.
Finally, I put down the shirt that I was folding. “I just came home in obviously not my clothes, and you have nothing to say about it?” I burst.
“So you did sleep with him again!” Nina exclaimed.
I cursed. I didn’t know she’d only been waiting for a confirmation of what she already suspected. “Yeah. Yeah, we had a good time.”
“Where did you go?” She was determined to get every detail out of me.
“We went to a pier.” I refused to relent.
“Outdoors? Kinky.” Nina shimmied her shoulders at me and ducked to avoid a pillow that I promptly threw at her. I was honestly surprised that I hadn’t broken anything in the room yet, throwing pillows like I had this week.
“For dinner.” I rolled my eyes and went back to rolling up my T-shirts and lining them up in the suitcase. I didn’t really feel up to folding everything carefully, especially since most of it was dirty by now anyway. “We went back to his place after, and, yeah.”
“And, yeah? What was he like?”
“He was really good.”
“Really good?” Nina groaned and threw a pair of underwear into her case with gusto to accentuate her irritation. “Goddamn it, Briella. Chocolate cake is really good. Sex with someone you barely know is different!”
“I don’t barely know him,” I balked.
She lifted her eyebrow. “Oh, did you have a long, romantic talk?”
“Something like that.” I rolled my eyes again and set to cramming socks into the empty spaces of my suitcase. “I…. I like him, Nina. He’s good. I had a good time, and I wish it didn’t have to end like this. And I feel stupid for being upset because I knew that this was going to happen, and I did it anyway.”
“You’re not stupid! You were having a good time. That’s the whole reason you came out here, right? Live it up without consequences, remember?”
“I guess, but I didn’t expect to form an actual emotional connection with anyone. And now I’m leaving, and I’m never going to see him again.” I rubbed my temples and wished that I wasn’t like this. I thought of Nina and how confidently she could stride from person to person, never really needing anyone for emotional dependence. I liked to think that I could do that, exist without consequences, but it seemed I managed to rope someone in at every turn and get myself caught in these emotional webs.
Nina set a hand on my shoulder. “You’re gonna find someone else, though. You found a billionaire who liked you right off the bat in a town you’d never been in. How hard do you really think it’s gonna be to get some average Joe to fall in love with you?”
I laughed at her logic. “I don’t want an average Joe.”
“Of course. You deserve someone amazing. But you’ll find someone amazing. Someone who makes more sense. Dexter’s cute, and he’s rich, and that’s good for vacation flings. But could you really settle down with someone like that?”
I thought for a moment. I didn’t think I could ever live in a house that big, or keep my room so neat, or constantly look nice. I needed to be able to let my hair down and relax more often than that lifestyle would allow for. Besides, I’d be constantly reminded of how normal I was next to his wealth and success. I slowly shook my head. “You’re right. He’s fun, but not… not forever.”
“Not forever. So let’s go back to Houston and focus on you. You’ll get a nice apartment, maybe a cat, get yourself an office for your business, and then you can start worrying about men.”
I smiled. Nina was right. I had my own life to worry about outside of my romantic life. I didn’t need to find a man to love me. I could rebuild on my own. “You’re right.”
“Duh. Come on, help me get these suitcases downstairs. I think the cab’s here.”
We lugged our suitcases and toiletry bags downstairs. Nina ended up forgetting her phone charger and having to run back up and grab it, but after that, we were smooth sailing to the airport. Despite the fact that I agreed with her logic, I still didn’t feel entirely comfortable with what was going on. I still felt like something was missing, like I was leaving this thing with Dexter entirely unfinished.
It felt dishonest, to tuck tail and go home now. I felt like I was lying to myself and to Dexter in my goodbye.
And it brought me a lot of dread to think that I was going back to the life I’d left in Houston. I didn’t have to worry about Jason anymore, that was true, but then maybe it wasn’t. He could still turn up at my door. I could file something with the police, but the police in my county were notoriously lazy about domestic violence issues.
When we reached the terminal, I almost expected to see Dexter barreling down the security line calling my name. I wanted to see him blowing up my phone with concerned texts and calls, pleading with me not to leave. I wanted the world to slow down as he convinced me to stay with him, as he told me that I was the most important thing in the world, and then carry me off to live with him in his expensive house and not worry about the rest of the universe.
But this wasn’t a movie. He wasn’t going to come sweep me off my feet. I had a plane to catch. Nina led me through the terminal and onto the plane, and when I sat down, I began to fully understand what was happening.
I was going to have to go back to living with my father. I didn’t have a house to my name, just a half-concocted business that would probably fail now that I’d taken a week off. I was going to wind up alone, a failure, and coasting from person to person to pay my rent. I might end up like Jason, resentful of anyone who came near me because of my unfortunate state.
When the flight attendant came by, she offered me Kleenex, which made me feel like I was almost certainly making a fool of myself. I asked her for a glass of water and leaned back in my chair, taking a sharp breath in.
“Do you think we should get something to drink?” I asked Nina.
“Alcohol? Bri, it’s not even noon.”
“Yeah, but….” I shook my head. “Never mind.” It would be nice to get a little tipsy and forget about my struggles, but it wasn’t like I could get drunk on the plane anyway. Not with the tiny little bottles that they served.
“Hey.” Nina seemed to read my frazzled emotional state, and she nudged me with her elbow. “Hey, it’s going to be okay. We’re going to do some cool shit, with or without any guys.”
I rubbed my eyes on the back of my hand and nodded. Jesus, this was embarrassing; I didn’t want to make a sobbing mess of myself in the airport, not over a man I’d only known for a few days. I decided to change the subject. “You know, I met his brother,” I said.
“What do you mean, you met his brother?” Nina’s enthusiasm bordered on a teasing hostility.
“He came over this morning. He’s really nice.”
“You didn’t set up a date with me?” Nina groaned and threw her head back. “You’re taking all the fun for yourself. I can’t believe you. I could be married by now, to a billionaire.”
“Hardly a billionaire. He spends all his money on parties.”
“Even better. He can spend it all on me. Or he can’t, because you didn’t set up a date with him. Damn it, Briella!”
Her teasing made me laug
h. When the plane started to take off, I had a smile on my face. Perhaps things were looking a little emotional, but I could still find a way to get through it.
Chapter 21
Dexter
Going to work the next day was torturous. I pulled on a button-down shirt and a pair of slacks as I had every morning for ages before. I made a cup of coffee and put it in a travel mug. Everything I did came from a routine that I’d wanted to abandon. I was more than happy to live the way I had until I’d met Briella. She’d come into my life and raised the possibility that maybe I didn’t have to live as a slave to my father and his company.
Now, she was gone. Gone without a trace, almost so that I didn’t know whether she’d been there at all. The solution, I knew, would be to get back to work. I’d had a few breakups before—not that this really constituted a breakup—and the solution to them was always to get my head back into my work. If I could forget everything else and give myself over to my job, I would forget.
When I got to the office, everything seemed to be moving in double-time. Secretaries were all talking on the phone, people were bustling in and out of the hallways, and my brother’s coat was hanging up in the lobby, which meant that he’d come into work, too. In the course of a week, it seemed things had really picked up in my absence. I wondered if my absence had actually caused enough of a backlog of work to make a difference.
I went to my father’s office to see if he needed me to do anything in particular, and I saw Tyler standing in there and talking to him.
“I’ve told you again and again not to make any of these mistakes on the paperwork,” Dad said. “You’re supposed to be running them through your computer and then sending them to the secretaries to proofread. I don’t understand why you aren’t getting this right.”
“No one cares if I don’t do those specific little things. People want their loans approved, not for every comma in the paper to be in the right order.”