Chapter 32
THIRTY-TWO
Madi
T ipping back the glass, I gulp the rest of the red wine. I’ve finished my second serving on this lunch outing, and I’m buzzed and happy. Lana squeezes my hand, a smile plastered across her face. It feels good to be back with my cousin and to see her happy. When she left New Orleans, she was miserable. Between the arranged marriage and her awful parents, the only escape she had was Naz, and everyone was trying everything in their power to keep them apart.
It’s hard to remember that it was only earlier this year she tried to end her life to escape it all, and now she sits next to me, happier than I’ve ever seen her.
Lana lifts her glass, and something sparkles from her finger. Her left ring finger. I gasp. “Is that a ring!?” My voice comes out louder than I intended, and Lana laughs, almost spitting out her wine.
She sets down the glass, extending her hand to me to show off the diamond. “We’re engaged,” she says with a smile.
“Oh my god!” I nearly slip off my chair, reaching over to squeeze my cousin. “I’m so excited for you!”
“You look like you’re gonna cry.” Her head tilts as she assesses my teary gaze.
“It must be the alcohol,” I choke out.
Val laughs across the table. Her cousin Dom joined us for lunch, a fiery redhead with a matching personality. “Oh god,” she groans. “Please don’t make this a sappy girl thing.” She fake gags. “I can’t handle that.”
I wipe a hand under my eyes, trying to prevent any tears from falling. I feel like a sappy girl. I can’t remember the last time I’ve cried. Not when my brother disappeared. And not when I was forced to marry Adrian.
“You just look so happy,” I tell her, holding back my tears.
Lana smiles. “I am happy, Mads. Genuinely, truly happy.”
Dom sticks a finger in her mouth and gags again. “Ugh,” she groans. Val nudges her with her elbow, laughing the whole time.
“Stop it,” Val scolds her cousin. “Clearly, Madi is going through something, and they haven’t seen each other in, what? Six months?”
“Something like that.” I nod.
“Just let them have their moment.”
“Fine.” Dom rolls her eyes.
“So,” Lana says, as she angles her body toward me. “How’s Adrian?” Her eyes are bright, like she can tell something’s going on, that I’m not as miserable as I was the night of my wedding when we last talked.
I reach for my glass, wishing it wasn’t empty so I could chug more liquid courage. “It’s not…bad.”
“Oooh.” Val makes a sound from across the table. “Spill the beans, because can I say, he’s hot as fuck.”
Dom snorts, and I can feel heat rising to my cheeks. If only it was from the alcohol and not the fact that she’s calling my husband hot as fuck, something I already intimately know.
“He’s okay. He’s…not that bad, I guess.”
Lana chuckles. “Not that bad?” She laughs.
“Yeah…he’s nice sometimes.”
Val rolls her eyes this time. “Listen, I get the whole falling for your captor thing. There’s no shame at this table.”
My eyes widen. “I’m not, I haven’t-”
She shakes her head before I can finish my objections. “I saw the way you looked at him back and my office, and I saw the way he looks at you. It’s okay to be in love. Even if it didn’t start out that way.”
I want to pry more into her story if only to get the attention off of me, but Lana interrupts before I can get a question out. “It’s okay to be happy with him, ya know,” she says softly.
I swipe a hand over my face. “I really hated him. At least, I tried to. But…he got under my skin, I guess.” Even just talking about it, my heart races and my skin feels warm. I never intended to fall for Adrian. I wanted to hate him, to make his life miserable. But I don’t hate him.
In fact, I think I’ve fallen in love with him.
The realization makes my skin feel clammy, and I reach for my wineglass again.
Val and Lana smile. Dom takes another chug of her beer, then asks, “How is he in the sack?” Her crude question has us all bursting into laughter.
I don’t tell the girls how I feel about Adrian, but when I see him again, I think I’m finally ready to admit to my husband that I love him.