Chapter 16 #2
I held my waist, as if I could hold my intestines inside despite the fact it felt the muscles of my abdomen tried to make them come outside.
“Hurting a little bit, so I thought I would wait it out here. Murial summoned me to the Met tonight, and she said I could bring one of you. Could she have bugged the apartment?” I made a mental note to keep the plot in mind for Poor Relation.
“If she bugged the apartment, we would’ve been fucked over a long time ago.
” He slid to my side on the couch. “Art tonight, then. I’ll tag along.
Don’t worry, she’ll get tired of torturing you sooner or later.
Right now, you’re new, a curiosity and interesting to her, but she’ll move on eventually.
Before you know it, she’ll be trying to intimidate or show off to someone else.
She was always like this. We’ve all known each other a long time, so I remember when she used to wear braids to school.
Two of them. Long after a lot of the other girls stopped, she still wore them.
One of the girls said something to her about it once, then she just looked at them and they withered.
Still, she stopped wearing braids. She’s human like the rest of us.
In her strange Murial way, she might actually be trying to be friends. ”
I groaned. “I don’t want to be her friend. She frightens me. I already have Bethany to figure out. I don’t need a possible psychotic as a buddy, too.”
“Phoenix said Bethany chased you from class, which means we may like her. Marco might have a thing for her. Maybe we should try to see if we can set that up.”
I lifted my head to stare at him. “Jeremy Lent, you are a romantic at heart.”
“Only since I met you. Okay, this is stupid, but I was online last night when I couldn’t sleep, and there might be something I can do to help with the cramps.
First up, you should take an anti-inflammatory.
” He jumped off the couch and returned quickly with two pills, which I swallowed.
“Roll onto your back and pull up your shirt. I want to rub your stomach.”
He wants to what? I didn’t argue, though, because I trusted Jeremy implicitly. I blinked, surprised at the realization and the truth of it. I trust Jeremy Lent.
“Jeremy, I was just thinking…” My voice trailed off, and I chickened out before I said the words.
“Hmm?” He placed a gentle hand on my abdomen, his touch warm. “You were thinking what?”
“That I can trust you with anything and everything.”
He met my gaze, staring back at me for weighted moments. We didn’t speak, both of us breathing hard. When he answered, it was in a low voice, almost a whisper. “Thank you. I know what that means for you. I love that you told me.”
He placed his hands on my stomach, their warmth soothing. “I watched a video. If this gets uncomfortable or doesn’t work, tell me to stop. It’s just something I saw.”
“You couldn’t sleep? Did I keep you up?”
He shook his head, a piece of his blond hair falling into his eyes, the only blond of the brothers. I thought he looked like a surfer dude when I met him, and I could still see it.
Jer dropped to his knees and started to rub circles on my abs. I closed my eyes, sighing and relaxing into his touch. It felt magnificent.
“This circular motion is supposed to help. No, you didn’t keep me awake.
You’re the best cuddle ever. I was thinking about last night’s revelations.
I didn’t realize I know so little about my family, but I could list it all on one hand.
Our great-grandparents made money logging.
They died doing it. That’s one. Grandfathers and Granny made money on department stores, but they died in a car crash.
Granny sold the business, and she made a ton of money.
Secondly, the fathers used their money from working to invest in themselves.
They became huge, then stuck some of it in ever growing trust funds for us.
That’s three. I know three things about my family’s history.
I don’t know anything about my mom’s family, other than what she told us last night, and we haven’t figured anything out about you. ”
I tried to focus on his summary, but his touch made that difficult. I moaned in pleasure and closed my eyes. “Don’t stop doing that.”
“I won’t.” He chuckled, a soft rumble of sound. “I’m glad it’s real and not just an internet thing.”
Me too. Finally, I could think again. With my thoughts in order, I said, “You’ll find the answers. You accomplish everything you set out to do, so this won’t be any different.”
“I love that you see me that way.” He shook his head. “Most of the time I feel like I’m barely getting by, never quite living up to my potential. Either that or, conversely, I’m being overlooked.”
For real? I blinked, surprised at how different his description was from reality. “I don’t see you that way at all. I am so sorry if you’ve felt that way.” I wouldn’t call him a liar, even if it didn’t match with my mental image.
He replaced his hands with his lips, kissing my stomach. “Thank you.”
Tiffany looked hungover on our coffee meetup. I sipped my chai and tried to pretend it didn’t bother me. I’d never had friend time with another girl before, so I tried to focus on the high points instead of my frustration.
“How do you do it?” she asked as she leaned back in her chair. “How do you hang out with Phoenix and stay sober?”
“It’s not really an option for me, ” I answered honestly without thinking, and then I wished I’d said anything else.
She perked up, radar focused on my confession. “Why, are you some kind of addict? Dating Phoenix will be hard.”
Wow. She is tricky. First impressions can be so wrong.
She struck me as the nice one, and Phoenix had suggested our friendship.
She might have more in common with her snake boyfriend than I initially thought.
Not to mention, she knew Murial had summoned me upstairs, didn’t come with me, and didn’t even think to tell Phoenix what happened to me.
This despite her being supposedly convinced we were together and desperate for news about him.
I wished now that I hadn’t come to coffee.
The Poor Relation would have seen through her act sooner, but I sometimes seemed slower on the uptake.
Aloud, I said, “I’m not an addict, but I don’t trust people. You heard about my aunt’s boyfriend. If I wasn’t sober, I don’t know how that would’ve turned out. As for Phoenix, who said I’m dating just him?”
She laughed. “Can you imagine someone trying to take on more than just Phoenix Lent? Alone, he has got to take a ton of energy to maintain. He’s probably like my Hal.”
A ton of energy to maintain? I wondered if she wasn’t mean or manipulative but instead just overwrought.
I’d based my opinions on first impressions for years, thinking shoes told the stories.
Despite my theory, I’d read Tiffany wrong.
I’d read Bethany wrong. Murial…I didn’t think I had read her wrong.
Maybe I didn’t understand shoes in New York City?
Maybe shoes were different in San Francisco and Chicago.
Or maybe I‘m just not as smart and clever as I pretend.
I decided to be blunt. “Did Hal ask you to get information on Phoenix? Let’s just lay the cards on the table.”
She winced. “I’m not very subtle, am I?”
“Nope.” I sipped my drink, enjoying the way the chai’s spices filled up my tastebuds.
“Sure, Hal wants to know about Phoenix. He misses him. I know he thinks he fucked up, but I don’t even know what he did.
He won’t tell me or talk about it.” I kept my expression blank, so she wouldn’t guess I knew.
I could and would keep Phoenix’s private life private, his secrets safe with me.
“But he got excited when Phoenix said we should be friends. He figured it was an olive branch.”
I shrugged. “I think Phoenix figured we had something in common. He didn’t think you participated in a lot of the bullshit, and he wouldn’t use me in some secret conversation with Hal.
If Hal wants to talk to Phoenix, he should do that instead of trying to send you through me.
” I pushed back my chair. “I hope you feel better, Tiffany. I’ll see you at school. ”
Her face crumpled, and she reached for my arm. “Listen, I do want to be friends. I mean, I don’t really have any friends, I guess. It’s been a long time for me. I’m semi popular, so I’m invited places, but then again I’m with Hal. Hal brings the drugs.”
“I won’t ever tell you anything about Phoenix Lent. Not one thing. If you still want to be my friend despite that, let me know. Otherwise, we tried. No harm, no foul.” I smiled, but I could feel the lack of warmth in my expression, more for the act than any genuine emotion.
I’d never had something to protect besides myself before. But I would protect what was mine.
“Do you think I’m dressed okay?” I asked Jeremy as we walked toward the side entrance of the Met.
I had visited the museum twice over the summer, but I didn’t know Murial’s plan. I had no idea how to dress, or even what she might want.
So I opted for a black dress, simple cotton.
I pulled on a khaki overcoat to keep warm on the walk home.
Other than that, I wore black tights and black slip-on shoes and left my hair straight and down.
It probably wouldn’t stay that way, likely to frizz at the humidity.
I added Jeremy’s pearls and Phoenix’s sapphires, my secret confidence boosters.
“You look beautiful.” He squeezed my fingertips, dropping a quick kiss on my temple. “Don’t let her make you nervous. If she’s shitty, we’ll leave.”
He wore khakis, a blue business type shirt and a darker navy blazer—surfer dude turned finance bro by just a wardrobe change.
I asked, “Meaning she can’t hold me prisoner?”
He laughed. “No one will ever hold you prisoner.”
Curious, I asked, “Hey, have you ever surfed?”
He snorted. “Random, but yes, badly. The fathers all tried to bond with us for a little while after Phoenix came home from the hospital after the kidnapping. Eric took us to Hawaii, but Barrett hated it. He stayed in the room the whole time. Julian broke his finger slipping on something wet and complained the whole time, while Phoenix seemed practically catatonic. Prescription drugs, because of his trauma, so it left me to pretend I was happy. I tried to surf. It wasn’t pretty. ”
Wow. He gave me a lot more than I asked for, so I quirked a brow at him. “That sounds awful.”
“It was. Particularly for Eric, who honestly believed he could heal us all by flying to Maui. It didn’t help that we had to call him Uncle Eric the whole time.
” He shook his head. “But that was nothing compared to the disaster of Kit taking us to a dude ranch. Oh wow. No. Stephen thought we needed to hike? Patagonia.”
I stared at him. “And Daniel?”
“His was the best of the bunch, actually. He chose dirt bikes. We rode dirt bikes for a week, after Phoenix started talking again, too. He said shitty things mostly, but still…he spoke. Our vacations usually suck, if I’m honest.”
I lifted a hand, waving at Murial who I spotted up ahead. “I sometimes got brought on attempts at family vacations with my aunts and uncles. I usually tried to be as invisible as possible. The Hamptons was sort of a vacation. For a couple of days, at least.”
“Let’s go on a real vacation.”
I laughed. “Could we go right now? We have school.”
Murial wore a nondescript khaki dress and a pair of black heels I didn’t recognize. Her perfect ponytail and mascara made me think of a porcelain doll. Next to her, Davis wore almost the same outfit as Jer, but his shirt was white.
All in all, we modeled a page from some catalog for rich kids on the Upper East Side—proceed with caution. I didn’t know if I should be amused or ashamed for becoming part of the cliché.
“Lent.” Davis said then nodded to Jeremy. “Alatheia, you look lovely.”
There it is. The creep factor worked its way up my spine as his gaze traced up and down my body. His expression said if he got me alone, he wouldn’t let me leave if I said no. Maybe, like Tiffany, I read him wrong. I didn’t think so.
“Davis,” Jeremy replied, and I turned my attention to Murial.
“Thanks for inviting us to do…” I let my voice trail off, gesturing vaguely toward her.
“One of my uncles is investigating whether or not a painting he purchased was stolen from a Jewish family during the Holocaust. It would be bad taste to keep it, if it was, and he’ll return it.
I expect press, but it might be a forgery.
They’re in there now to make the determination.
Fake? Or the real deal. I thought you might like to see it happen. ”
The real deal? My hands went cold. Does she know?