Chapter Twenty-Nine – Verity
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
VERITY
C ullen?!
“So, you actually decided to show up.” Bridget bounces to her feet and slides around the table to give him a hug.
Something in my stomach curls at the vision of another girl touching my man.
No. Not my man. So not my man.
Ugh.
“My showing ran over, but I have a few minutes to spare before the next one.” He ruffles the top of her head in a brotherly way. “A little more heads-up would’ve helped instead of you dropping me your location randomly.”
“Just you?” She peers around his large frame, searching for someone.
He lets out a deep chuckle, the same one that I spend my nights thinking about, and pulls out the empty chair at the head of the table, next to me, and sits down.
“You really think Rafe is a brunch man?”
“He is so antisocial,” Bridget tsks, plopping back in her seat. “What about Weston? I thought he was in town. Or Sonny?”
Cullen shrugs. “No clue. I’m pretty sure Wes blocked my calls, and Sonny is definitely still asleep”
“You’re so useless sometimes.” She screws up her lips with a huff.
“I showed up, didn’t I?”
“It’s not like you came because of me.”
“You wound me, Bridge.”
“Cry me a river, Cullen.”
“You love me.”
“Unfortunately.”
I’m dumbstruck. All of my initial panic has dissipated as I lose myself to this interaction. I’ve seen Cullen with some of his friends briefly before, but most of the time we’ve spent together has been just with each other. I’ve only seen the different faces that he’s reserved for me.
I am absolutely reeling from Cullen and Bridget together. All my worries seem so unfounded in the light of them together. This playful side to him has a smile tugging at my lips. They act just like siblings.
“Snap a pic with me for Chlo. I want her to feel the FOMO.” Bridget holds up her shiny gold phone and angles it between them.
“You know she works on Sundays; did you really think she was going to close up shop just for you?”
He shifts to the side and raises his brow while Bridget makes a kissy face at the camera and takes the selfie.
“She hired employees for a reason.”
“She’s a control freak over that store, B.”
“Which is why she needs to let loose with some mimosas.”
“You’ve always been the worst influence.”
“I think you confused worst and best in your vocabulary.”
“I think not.” He reaches out and grabs one of the oysters, quickly slurping it down. “These are good.”
“They’re the Shigoku ones you like. Hannah and I already ate the Barron Points.”
Cullen glances at Hannah, who is giving him a feral smile.
“Good to see you again, old man.”
“Charming as ever, aren’t you?”
“That’s what all the men say.”
Then, finally, the moment hits.
“Verity.”
His gaze blazes against my skin, and I chug my mimosa out of desperation.
I wasn’t prepared for this at all. I haven’t even come to a decision about where I stand with him or where I want us to go from here.
Once again, I practically sprinted away from him as soon as the ballet ended, not giving him a chance to needle me for information after I let him give me the most delicious orgasm ever. It is becoming a pattern, me running away instead of facing the hard truth.
Because I know what I want, I am just too scared to take it. It feels selfish to love him when I’d put everything, so much blood, sweat, and tears, into getting where I am now.
I don’t want to be a statistic, a girl who gave up her life for a man only for him to leave her and her not have anything left. The issue is, I don’t think Cullen is one of those guys. It feels like he is one of the good ones—a rarity in this world.
Sure, he didn’t tell me he is divorced, but he never lied or manipulated me. Time and time again, all he has done is shown up and listened.
Bridget cuts the silence.
“So, you guys together now?”
Cullen and I say yes and no simultaneously.
He raises a flirtatious brow at me.
“What? After making you—”
I shove an oyster to his lips, the hard shell cutting off his sentence with a grunt.
“I’m using the bathroom.” I excuse myself and practically sprint from the table.
It’s only once I get to the bathroom that I realize Hannah has followed me.
“Vee, I’m all for playing hard to get, but you are being stubborn, girl.”
“Am not.”
She angles her head, making me feel a little childish.
“Fine.” I sigh. “But what do you want me to do, Han? I like the guy, but dating him could upend my entire life.”
She leans back against the marble counter, crossing her arms, “it’s your choice to make, but if I can give you one piece of advice throughout any of this it’s that if something feels right, don’t let it go.
Look at me.” She tosses out a self-deprecating laugh.
“The guys I date basically use me for sex. None of them have ever asked to be my boyfriend.”
“Hannah.”
“I’m not asking for pity; I mostly use them for sex as well.
Half of them wouldn’t even be good boyfriend material, but the option would be nice.
This city is brutal, riddled with commitment-averse men who are only focused on the grind.
New jobs always crop up, but your heart?
You only have one of those. Don’t forget that. ”
She leaves me alone, and I stare at myself in the reflection of the mirror above the sink. If it weren’t for all the makeup on my face, I’d splash a boatload of cold water onto my skin. My system needs a reset.
Instead, I just take a deep breath and head back through the restaurant to our table.
My feet slow when I see Cullen standing, pushing his chair back under the table.
“You’re just as much of a workaholic as she is,” Bridget complains. “No one loves me.”
“I told you I was busy today.”
“Hmph.” She turns her head to the side like a petulant child.
“You’re leaving?” My question floats through the air with a twinge of disappointment lacing the words.
The apologetic look Cullen gives me hurts more than I anticipated.
“My client forgot to put their key in the lockbox, so I need to go grab it.”
“Oh.”
He rubs the back of his neck. “I know. The buyer is only in town today, so I can’t reschedule.”
“It’s fine.”
I try to sound unbothered because what right do I have to be upset at him leaving?
It’s not like I own him, and he doesn’t owe me his attention.
And yet, I’ve gotten so used to it these last few weeks that it feels like he is mine.
There’s this possessiveness that has woven its way into my skin that I hadn’t even noticed until now.
God damn it. Everything he’s done to win me over…it actually worked.
“I’ll see you tomorrow.” He gives my shoulder a squeeze before letting his fingers trail down my arm to my hand and squeezing that as well.
As I watch him begin to jog down the street, the regret that pierces my heart tells me one thing: Hannah might be right, I shouldn’t let him go.
And maybe it’s all the mimosas I’ve drunk, but in a fit of desperation, I yell, “See you tomorrow!”