22. Trent
22
TRENT
C an’t make it tonight , I texted the guys, bailing on our squash game. I slumped back in my office chair, twisting to face the window. Dark grey clouds hung heavy in the sky, washing out the entire street. It was all just ugly and miserable.
My phone buzzed in my hand. I looked down at the group chat.
Ah, come on, Aiden messaged. I promise not to beat you and Dom as badly as last time .
I was off my game , Dominic replied. Don’t get too excited.
Aiden replied with a giant question mark. What are you saying?
That we obviously let you win.
Aiden responded with a GIF that said KISS MY ASS. #sorelosers
Trent, you gonna let him talk to us that way? Dominic replied.
Sorry. Too busy . The last thing I wanted to do was play goddamn squash with my friends. They’d totally know that something was wrong and try to talk to me about it. And I did not feel like talking this out.
Busy doing what? Aiden asked.
Probably spending quality time with Natasha, Vincent cut in. You know…going home to do those not-safe-for-work things.
I’ve done plenty of not-safe-for-work things at work, Aiden said. He followed it up with a smirking emoji.
I do NOT need to think about you getting action in the office, Dominic messaged.
Keep it G-rated, Vincent said. Or you’ll scar Paul’s delicate sensibilities.
Shut the hell up! I’ve been married longer than all of you, Paul responded.
Technically I was married the longest, Dominic said.
You’re divorced now, Paul said. It doesn’t count. You’ve been reset.
Ouch.
Trent? Aiden wrote.
I grimaced down at the messages, knowing the guys would get suspicious if I stayed too quiet but not feeling up to faking the usual banter. I just wanted to be left alone. I started typing, then stopped. I didn’t even know what to say at this point. The image of Natasha storming out of her office was still fresh in my mind, but so was that wretched feeling of betrayal.
She’d helped my mom very nearly take everything away from me. If I hadn’t earned the board members’ trust by pulling the company out of the gutter after their divorce, they may have been swayed by the garbage she’d spewed. It wasn’t just the thought of losing the job itself that had me on edge—god only knew what effect it would have on Nana Dee if she heard I’d been kicked out of the company. That kind of shock was the last thing she needed.
Hey, everything okay? Aiden typed, tagging me directly.
I sent a thumbs-up in reply, stuffing my phone away in my pocket. If I was honest with them about what happened today, the guys would insist I still come out—if not to play squash then to have dinner or just to go over to one of their places and talk it all out. But I didn’t want to talk things out, and I definitely didn’t want to see Paul, Vincent, or Aiden’s happy relationships right after mine had so spectacularly crashed and burned.
What I wanted was to burn today from my mind. But I only knew one sure-fire way to do that.
O’Malley’s was a small, run-down Irish pub I’d been frequenting in the Village for years. It was a dark, grimy space with forever-sticky tables and stained floors, filled with the kinds of people who weren’t interested in conversation. And that suited me just fine. I only ever spent time here when I really wanted to get away from the world, to step outside my life, and have a good think. Usually that was after an uncomfortable run-in with my parents. Though I’d also spent a night here after breaking up with Katie, my girlfriend post-college, and again when I’d first heard about Nana Dee’s diagnosis.
No one here judged you for how many times you asked the bartender to fill up your glass. In fact, most people in here seemed to be chasing the bottom of a bottle for one reason or another.
I lifted my hand, signaling the bartender—an older man who operated under the guideline “It’s none of my business”—from the tiny corner table I’d hidden myself away at, making it clear I was ready for my next round. He nodded once and brought me over another glass filled with amber liquid, taking the empty one that sat on the edge of the table. “Keep them coming,” I said.
My thoughts weren’t burning away fast enough. I wanted to be the kind of drunk where I couldn’t remember my own name, never mind that Natasha had cut me open, spilling my guts all over that boardroom. I wanted to black out this entire day. I gulped at my whiskey, taking down half the glass in one go. It set my throat and my chest on fire, but it didn’t do a damn thing to make me forget Natasha.
I was probably setting myself up for a horrible hangover, and I’d likely regret this in the morning, but I regretted a lot of things right now. Falling for Natasha Dryer most of all. I stared into the bottom of my glass. Every part of me wished I’d never walked into that coffee shop the day we met. Or better yet, that I’d never reached out to her account on 1stDibs. The universe had a wicked sense of humor, and here it was again, rolling with laughter as another one of my relationships self-destructed. I’d run the course of my usefulness with Natasha, and she’d sold me off to the highest bidder.
My thoughts started to feel fuzzy on the outskirts. When a shadow eclipsed me, I glanced up, expecting to see the bartender with my next drink.
It wasn’t him.
I blinked in surprise, but it was only a second before my shock gave way to irritation. “How did you find me?” I growled.
Aiden, Vincent, Paul, and Dominic crowded around the table.
“You’ve been coming to this crappy, hole-in-the-wall pub to wallow about life since we graduated,” Vincent said. He pulled out a chair and sat down in the seat next to mine. “You think after all these years we wouldn’t know where to find you?”
“I’m not wallowing,” I grumbled. “You didn’t have to send out the cavalry.”
Aiden gave me a look that said, Yeah, sure buddy . He plopped down next to Vincent. “You know a thumbs-up is the universal sign for ‘I am not okay,’ right? It immediately set off alarm bells.”
“Especially when it’s all you sent, with no other response,” Paul said. He clapped me on the shoulder before sitting down on my other side. “We were worried about you, man.”
“And it seems like we had good reason to be,” Vincent said, moving my glass out of the way as he leaned against the table. “Drinking alone? You know that’s not the answer to anything.”
Aiden picked up my almost-empty glass and sipped at the alcohol that was left. He winced. “Especially when drinking the shittiest whiskey in Manhattan. Oh, it’s bad.”
“Settle in, boys,” Dominic said. “I’ll sort drinks.” He disappeared up to the bar, returning with everyone’s drink of choice, including a Coke for himself and a glass of water for me. I glared at him. He shrugged as he sat down. “Consider yourself cut off. Now start hydrating. You can thank me later.”
Aiden sent off a message on his phone. “Just let Cora know we found him. She’ll tell Piper and Chloe that we may be a while.”
I rolled my eyes, my head fuzzy. “This is all unnecessary.”
Aiden set his phone down. “How about you tell us what’s wrong and we’ll decide what’s necessary.”
“Nothing’s wrong,” I insisted, annoyed. I knew their hearts were in the right place, but I wasn’t in the mood for brotherly love right now. “You’re all blowing this thumbs-up way out of proportion.”
“Mm-hmm,” Vincent said. “I doubt it. What was it this time? Nana Dee? Your parents?”
“Dee’s okay,” I said. As annoyed as I was at them, I wasn’t going to make them worry about that. “At least so far as nothing’s changed on that front.” If anything big had happened with Dee or her health, I would have called them all immediately. “It’s Natasha.”
“Is she okay?” Dominic asked.
“She’s…I don’t even know where the fuck to start.”
Dominic shrugged. “How about the beginning?”
I sighed, taking a sip of my water before explaining what happened at the board meeting and about the fight with Natasha afterward. I watched their expressions shift from horror at what my mother had tried to do to disbelief to pure shock when I told them I’d fired Natasha on the spot. Paul gaped so wide I could see the crowns at the back of his mouth.
“There’s no way,” Vincent said, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair. “Natasha isn’t the kind of person to sell someone out for money.”
“I agree,” Dominic said, shooting Aiden concerned looks across the table. “It’s not possible. Not the way Stacy’s always talking about her. If anything, she goes out of her way to help people. Natasha is a good person , Trent. You know that.”
“I thought so too,” I grumbled under my breath. “But apparently she had us all fooled.”
“Okay,” Aiden said, frowning like I’d just told him a load of bullshit. “Let’s just take a pause here. Your mother’s not exactly a reliable source. We all know that. Could she have been making the whole thing up? Lying about Natasha taking the money?”
“No,” I insisted. “Not possible. All the information she had was true about Dee and Jimmy and the issues we’d encountered with the new line. Outside of you guys, Natasha’s the only one who knew all those things. Sure, she’d tried to say it wasn’t like that, but she admitted that she’d been talking to my mom behind my back. Why hide it, unless she was selling me out?”
Aiden hummed uncertainly. “I don’t know. I still feel like something’s not adding up.”
I shook my head, my anger resurfacing. “She could have come to me at any time and told me that my mother reached out. But she didn’t do that. She organized secret meetings and shared my private business with the last person I wanted to know about it. She betrayed my trust. Period. End of story.”
“No, don’t leave it like that,” Paul said. “You need to talk to Natasha again.”
“Let her explain,” Vincent agreed.
“Don’t forget we all had issues in our relationships that seemed bleak at one point,” Aiden said. “Remember when I screwed things up with Cora and told her we shouldn’t see each other anymore?”
I did. Aiden had almost gotten into a fistfight with Cora’s ex—and a nosy influencer had witnessed and recorded the altercation. The PR nightmare would have been disastrous, but the group of us had stepped in to help him out. This was different though. Cora had never betrayed Aiden.
“Look,” Aiden continued. “When you’re in the middle of this kind of situation, it feels like you can’t possibly get past it together. That things can’t possibly work. But we’re the proof sitting right here, Trent, that things can work out, if you’re willing to put in the effort. I promise you, you can figure this out with Natasha.”
I took another swig of my water. “I really don’t think I want to. Making a go of things with Natasha in the first place was a big mistake. This was only supposed to be for Nana Dee’s sake. It was never supposed to be real.”
“But that’s what it became anyway,” Vincent said. “And you’ve got real feelings for the girl. I’ve been there, too, man. My relationship with Piper wasn’t supposed to be real, either. So take it from me. The biggest mistake would be turning your back on the best relationship we’ve ever seen you in.”
I looked over at Dominic. He’d been unusually quiet. I’d expected him of all people to be on my side. He’d had a relationship fall apart disastrously, complete with a messy divorce and a protracted custody battle with a toxic ex. He should understand that sometimes the person you loved, the one you envisioned spending the rest of your life with, could let you down in the most horrible of ways. “Well?” I said. “Aren’t you going to say something?”
Dominic cleared his throat. “I think they’re right, Trent. You need to hear her out, get her side of things.”
I scoffed. I couldn’t believe it. “You can’t be serious.”
“If you don’t get her side of the story, you’ll always wonder what really happened,” Dominic said. “And not knowing is worse. Trust me. Maybe it won’t work out for you two in the end, but this argument will hang over you forever unless you get closure. Do that, and then you can move on.”
I fought off a shiver at the thought of moving on. I’d never cared for any woman the way I cared for Natasha. Even knowing what I did and feeling the way I felt, my heart still beat for her, and it was rebelling at the thought of letting her go. But that was what I needed to do. She’d proven today that I couldn’t trust her and that what I had to offer her— myself —wasn’t enough to earn her loyalty in return. Love was transactional, and in this transaction, I’d lost.
“Seriously, dude,” Aiden started up again as my phone rang. “Take our advice.”
I ignored him, pulling my phone out, some traitorous part of my heart skipping at the thought that it might be Natasha. Instead, Sofia’s name flashed across the screen. “Hello?”
My pulse throbbed in my ears hearing her panicked voice on the other end of the line.
“What is it?” Vincent hissed.
I looked at the guys, the blood draining from my face. “Dee’s collapsed!”