Chapter 10
The coffee sizzled as I poured it into a mug.
Katie and Tera shifted quietly on the couch, still fast asleep even though it was nearly eleven in the morning.
I heard a groan, and soft feet padded across the floor.
Leaning forward on the island counter, Sydney squinted her eyes and pulled herself up onto the bamboo barstool.
I slid the mug across the counter. “Why are you being so loud?” she hoarsely grumbled, rubbing her temples. “And I want pancakes in an hour.”
I chuckled and turned around, opening another cupboard for a second mug.
“What happened last night?” she whispered.
More groaning filled the house, and I watched as Katie and Tera both plummeted from the couch, crashing against the rug. Sydney clamped her hands around her ears. “Why is everyone so noisy? It’s too early…”
“It’s eleven, Syd. It’s not that early,” I replied as quietly as I could. Katie and Tera stood from the ground, stretching. Their same outfits from last night lay as haphazardly upon their frames as the makeup that left dark smudges beneath their eyes.
A shrill ring pierced the air, and all three girls screeched.
“Make it stop!” Katie shouted.
“Answer your damn phone, Cosi!” Tera exclaimed.
“It’s not mine.” I shrugged my shoulders as Sydney tugged her cell from her sweatpants pocket. I’d helped her change into them last night after she’d puked all over her other outfit.
“It’s mine.” She rubbed her eyes and blinked rapidly, trying to focus on the screen.
All at once, she was no longer hungover. Snapping upright, she gasped. “No. Way!”
“What is it?” I asked.
“Oh my gosh! Why is she calling me back? I can’t believe she’s calling me back! My voicemails must have finally gotten through.” The barstool nearly flipped over as she flung upright and squealed.
“Everyone shut the fuck up! I need to take this,” she said and rammed the phone against her ear. “Hello? This is Sydney Davenport.” She rushed from the room and slammed her door closed.
“I have to pee,” Katie mumbled with a groan, and stumbled down the hallway toward the bathroom. She clicked the door shut as Tera walked my way, scratching an itch on her head. Sliding onto the barstool that Sydney had vacated, I pushed the next mug of coffee her way.
“Thanks,” she said and lifted it to her lips as I turned around to get a third mug, and hopefully the last.
Reaching up, I gripped the handle as Tera spoke again. “I know what happened last night.”
Pausing, my stomach fell to the floor.
“Wha-What do you mean?” I stuttered, hesitantly pulling the mug from the cabinet.
“I wasn’t as drunk as I pretended to be, so I remember everything. And I know what I walked in on when I opened that door.”
Closing the white cabinet, I remained with my back facing Tera. “It’s not what you think,” I replied, panicking.
“So, you didn’t sleep with Asher last night?” she drilled.
“No, I didn’t.” That wasn’t a lie.
“But you were tying your shorts?”
“You really think that there was enough time for both of us to undress, have sex, and get dressed again before you showed up at the room?” I turned around, and the coffee hissed as I poured it into my mug.
“Besides, why would someone like him, a famous rock star, have anything to do with the likes of me?”
“True…” she mumbled, taking another sip. “So you haven’t slept with him, at all? Like not once?”
I swallowed stiffly. “No, I haven’t,” I hoarsely said. That lie sucked to tell.
She shook her head and sighed. “What’s going on with you?
I could see this coming from Katie, but not you,” Tera replied, narrowing her gaze.
Spinning my finger around the top of my mug, I stared at the black liquid.
Steam rose upward, the aromatic smell coating my senses did nothing to dull the twinge of guilt boiling within me.
Telling a lie was nothing new. This one, however…
“What do you mean?”
“You’re a terrible liar, Cosi. Always have been. And you just told me a bold-faced lie. Plus, I know he wasn’t looking at Sydney at the concert.” She slid her finger up and down the handle of the mug.
“I-I-I’m not sure what you’re talking about.” I cleared my throat, hiding the phlegm building. This lie was so different. This lie hurt the people I cared about, even if denying myself of Asher hurt me even more.
Dipping her hand in her pocket, she pulled out her phone and scrolled through it for a moment.
Once she’d found what she was looking for, she slid it across the table.
“I was suspicious when he showed up last night and his reaction to Sydney saying you play piano. As if he should’ve already known that tidbit of information.
Then he kept staring at you, and you two disappeared together for a bit. ”
“I was trying to convince him not to come to my birthday, Tera,” I stiffly replied. “Void showing up at my party won’t do anything but hurt my parents.”
“Right.” She pointed to her phone.
Cautiously, I glanced down and snapped my teeth together.
Guilt wrecked me like a crumbling castle wall, split in two and torn between what was the right thing to do and what I absolutely longed for.
She’d paused a video on a single moment where it was very clear who Asher was looking at.
It was probably the only clear moment in the whole video that captured this, but it was undeniable.
“Please, don’t say anything to Sydney,” I whispered, knowing that I couldn’t get myself out of this. Tera knew and had evidence. Nausea curdled my stomach.
“I never expected you to do something like this. Katie, yeah, I could see that. She doesn’t exactly think before she acts. But you? Cosi, you never do anything without complete thought and control over it.” She shook her head, disappointed.
“I know, Tera. I honestly don’t get it either.”
“Then what happened?”
I shrugged my shoulders. Finding my bottom lip with my teeth, I chewed, staring at Asher. At his undeniable desire bleeding toward me.
“What happened?” she asked again.
“I don’t know.” Tears brimmed in my eyes, the weight of the penitence spilling the words over and loosing my tongue.
“He slipped me his hotel room key, and before I knew it, I found myself there. With him. Things happened, we fell asleep after, and then I left his room before he’d even woken up.
I’m so ashamed because I didn’t even think about Sydney until after I was driving home.
Please. I am begging you not to say anything. It was a mistake. I… I…”
“I’m not going to say anything to Syd, unless you do it again. This is so out of character for you. Sydney’s always come first to you, and I can see how sick it’s making you,” she said, and I nodded fervently.
She studied me intensely, a warning scowl on her face as her gaze seared through to my soul.
Then she suddenly leaned forward, a wicked grin slipping across her features, and she glanced over her shoulder toward the hallway. “Is he as good as I imagine him to be?”
I bit my lip, unsure if I should answer. Wouldn’t this make things worse?
“So, he’s not?” She gasped and clamped a hand over her mouth. “Did you even, you know, finish…?”
Was that even a question? I nodded slowly, uncertainty still swirling within the guilt.
Her squeal jolted me out of my nerves. “I need more details!” she quickly said. “Please tell me he’s better than Danny.”
“Girl, in one night, Asher got me off more times than Danny did in our entire relationship,” I spilled, and then slapped a hand over my mouth.
“I knew it! He’s kinky, isn’t he? Wait.” She paused and sighed. “You wouldn’t know, would you? Danny was all you’d ever had before Asher.”
“I didn’t have to know,” I muttered, my mind drifting toward Asher, and she squeaked again.
“Oh my goodness, so he is kinky!”
I sighed and leaned forward on the counter, lost in all the delicious desire that he’d given me.
“I bet he gets off on getting you off, doesn’t he?” she asked.
I furrowed my brows. “Yeah? I mean, I guess most of the time he does?” Other than the bike ride, most of his arousal and even a few times he’d finished had come from watching me.
And last night, while between my legs, that sight of him, absolutely lost in his own world of pleasure while taking care of me…
“I knew it. He totally seemed like the pleasure-dom type, and he actually is.” She let out a deep breath of admiration and then reached forward, snatching my hands.
Warning crossed her face, all exciting gossip gone.
“Cosi, you really can’t be with him again.
Once is a mistake and easily forgivable, especially knowing you.
But are you really willing to risk your relationship with Sydney?
You two knew each other long before we all showed up. Before he showed up.”
“I know that.” I shook my head, confused.
“I just can’t seem to control myself when he’s around.
I’ve spent my entire life making sure that I had everything just as it needed to be because if I hadn’t, who knows what would’ve happened to my family.
” Pausing, my shoulders sagged in defeat.
“So, why is it when I’m with him, I can’t seem to? ”
She chuckled. “Because he’s everything you’ve never let yourself have. You can let your guard down and not worry about losing that control when he’s around because he has no issue taking charge. There’s no pressure for you to be in control.”
Groaning, I bumped my head against the counter. “Tera, I’m a horrible person.”
“No, you’re exhausted. This was bound to happen, considering Danny and how much pressure your parents put on you. I’m just surprised that it took this long.”
“But I knew. Before I’d even met him or gone to that stupid concert, I knew Sydney had called dibs on him. And yet, that didn’t cross my mind once when I was trying to reason myself out of going there after the concert.”
She clicked her tongue and inhaled deeply. “I get why you were trying to tell him no last night. Does he know about Sydney?”