35. Chapter 35 – Sloane
Chapter 35 – Sloane
“O h my god, I just about pulled my ass cheeks that night. I ran so fast from that man!” Lola cackled, slapping her hands over her face as our group laughed loudly, drawing stares from other tables.
The mimosas were bottomless at Sunday brunch, surely they expected bad behavior.
“So,” Raven drew everyone’s attention to her, but she was staring across the table at me. “Tell us about your trip.”
Tamen and I had returned to Boston on Tuesday and I had actively avoided any in-depth conversations with any of the girls since then, simply because I knew I’d cave and tell them our secret as soon as they started prying.
It wasn’t a secret, necessarily, Tamen didn’t want to keep it a secret, but it felt like he was far more interested in moving forward with our marriage than I was. Wait, that wasn’t true, I wasn’t opposed to staying married to him. I was just scared.
I was a loner. Completely self-sufficient; I had managed everything myself for years.
The idea of letting someone else have a hand in being responsible for my happiness—terrified me. Like to the point I wanted to shit my pants every time I contemplated what the future looked like with him.
Yet at the same time, the idea of going back to that same solitude I had enjoyed before meeting him scared me more.
I was so confused. Was he my biggest weakness in some way? He said I thought I couldn’t love anyone, which was right, but I’d already proven myself wrong about that. Waking up the morning after our wedding, I knew that I was in love with him. Could he truly love me in return? And all of my weird antics? Or would I drive him insane until I drove him away?
“Hello! Earth to Sloane!” Trixie snapped her fingers with a giggle, “Are you drunk already?”
“No.” I shook it off, brushing my hair over my shoulder and taking another sip of my water to prove my point. “I was just thinking about Vegas.”
“Vegas?” Valentina cried. “You went to Vegas and didn’t take me with you? Ugh! It’s my favorite place on earth. It’s a hooker’s Disney, and you left us behind. How rude!”
I chuckled and gave her a pointed glare. “You went to Miami two months ago without taking any of us.”
“Ooh, true.” Lola added, “But Miami is like the cheap knock off Six Flags edition of Disney.”
“True.” I grinned. “I had little heads up before we left, to be honest. I didn’t even know how long we were staying when we got there.”
“How does it feel being God’s chosen one?” Mya questioned with a smile. “You have an incredible job, an amazing apartment, a fearless confidence I’d literally shank a bitch for, and you seem to have landed a good guy that spoils you with luxurious vacations. I mean, you’re literally glowing like the baby Madonna put a hand on your forehead and blessed you.”
I rolled my eyes, grabbing for my mimosa instead of water as the conversation got thicker. Val cut in with a dose of reality before I could respond.
“Well, I don’t know that I’d call Tamen Bryce a good guy necessarily.”
“You wouldn’t?” Trixie challenged, “Rich, dominant and spoils her. Oh, and did I mention maybe the sexiest man I’ve ever seen?”
The girls chuckled and agreed. But Val wouldn’t let it go.
“Yeah, and he was active with half a dozen different girls at the club the day he met her. That hardly makes him a knight in shining armor.”
I opened my mouth to shut it down, but Raven cut in. “It also doesn’t make you a virgin. Considering it was your throat he was in that first night after all.” The girls all froze and looked between me and Val, since we’ve always been friends, like they were afraid I didn’t know about it.
“Okay stop.” I held my hands up, looking from Raven, who was always down for a fight, over to Val, who was particularly prickly for a Sunday brunch date. “Tamen Bryce is far from a golden boy, I know that. But let’s give him a little credit here, we’re all hookers for fuck’s sake, we’re no better selling sex than he is for buying it. We’re all consenting adults, that’s all that should matter.” Val deflated a bit and Raven nodded in full agreement. “I don’t want the perfect boy next door, I’m actually pretty fond of Tamen’s sharp edges and everything that comes with it. So don’t worry about me, I’m doing just fine.”
Mya grinned like a cheshire cat and leaned forward on the table. “What exactly happened in Vegas?”
The other girls looked over at her, and then at me, confused.
“What do you mean?” I asked, self-consciously.
“Well, I can tell you got some sun,” she nodded to my chest over the top of my strapless top, “You have a tan line.”
Waving her off, I relaxed, my thoughts drifting back to the private balcony attached to our suite as I deciphered the direction of the conversation. “I sunbathe in the nude, toots. No tan lines here.”
“It’s not clothes I was talking about.” With a smirk, she lifted her hand, pointed at her ring finger, and then nodded toward mine, which was wrapped around my glass. “Looks like you were wearing something else while you were sunbathing.”
“Oh, my god!” Trixie gasped, grabbing my hand and staring at the faintly lighter strip around my left ring finger. “You got married!”
“What!” Val cried, and Raven gave me a broad grin from her side of the table.
“Damn girl. Congrats.”
“It’s not—” I stammered, ripping my hand back from Trixie and glancing around at everyone. “I didn’t—.” Then I stopped, because denying it, even though I’d tucked the wedding ring Tamen bought me in the chapel that night away in my jewelry box the minute we returned to Boston, it didn’t feel right. Shame, heavy and suffocating, settled on me as I contemplated hiding Tamen and what he meant to me. “Actually, I did.” I sat up taller in my chair, accepting the shocked glares from the girls. “We got married in a drunken midnight chapel surrounded by crazy nursing home patients and other boozed up couples, looking to declare their love or lust or whatever else they were feeling at two am in Vegas.” I paused, smiling as I thought back to the way Tamen told me everything he remembered from that night, spurring my own memories to return. The way I felt that night, in Tamen’s arms, at the altar, was indescribable, yet the only thing that came close to capturing the emotions behind it was peace. Tamen gave me peace. “And I don’t care if you agree or not. Because I’m happy.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Val rubbed her forehead, pushing her alcohol away. “Seriously? You hardly know each other. And he’s a player and sketchy.”
“So what?” I blinked at her, “You’ve just described half of the men in America currently.”
“We’ve all done things with him!” She cried, drawing a few glances from the other tables again. “Doesn’t that bother you? That should bother you!”
I sighed, knowing there was going to be no more productive conversations on the topic at the moment, and pulled some money out of my purse before rising to my feet. “And I’ve done stuff with most of you at one point or another, for fun and for work. Does that make me a bad person?”
“No!” Trixie called in her sweet innocent way, shaking her head, “No, it doesn’t. And I don’t think he’s a bad guy either.”
“I agree.” Mya nodded firmly, “I think this is great, Sloane. I’m excited for you. Congratulations.”
“Thank you.” I replied softly as I walked behind her chair, facing Val. “I know you aren’t trying to be bitter or mean right now, Val. But that’s what is happening. So, to save our longstanding friendship, I’m going to walk away, and we can come back to this after the shock wears off.”
“Don’t go.” Lola tried, “We’re sorry, we were just surprised.”
“It’s okay.” I smiled, feeling braver and more at peace, having it out there and no longer treating it like a dirty little secret. “I have somewhere else to be, anyway.”
Walking away from the table, I took a deep breath as I waited for my car at the curb outside the restaurant.
I was married to Tamen Bryce.
My boss.
My bully.
And the only man, in all of history, to ever make my heart soar, accepting me exactly as I was.
I also had a date with him. Or at least I thought it was a date.
The address he sent me an hour ago to meet him at was in Hollowbrook, the sleepy little town that both Peyton and Olivia lived in with their men outside of the city. I didn’t know what he could possibly want to show me there, but I was going to find out.
As I got in the back of the car, the driver smiled at me, introducing herself and making small talk as we turned to leave the city. “Do you have any fun plans for the rest of today?” She asked.
I grinned to myself, feeling a blush crawl up my cheeks as I replied to the total stranger. “I’m meeting my husband. He’s always making some sort of fun for us.”
My husband.
Mine.