Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
Iris
Waking up next to Law was fast becoming one of Iris’ favorite things. After brunch at Marquis, it was finally time for her to head home, which she was not looking forward to.
“Let me know if your roommate gives you any trouble,” he said before closing her car door behind her. “You can always come over to my place.”
“Thank you, but honestly, I’m hoping that won’t be necessary. Not because I wouldn’t enjoy seeing you before going to Stronghold tonight, but because that’s how I want my home life to be.”
Law’s grin flashed, making her feel all warm and melty inside. She really loved making him smile.
“Understood.”
He leaned in for another kiss, then closed the door and stepped back so he could watch her drive away. Iris may have glanced in her rearview mirror a few more times than necessary. Driving away from him sucked, especially since she didn’t know what she was going home to.
She hadn’t lied when she said this wasn’t how she wanted her home life to be.
Dreading going home wasn’t pleasant. On the other hand, she wasn’t sure what other option she had.
Maybe Rae would be interested in moving in together.
Domi and Mitch had said a few things that indicated they might be heading that way, which would leave Rae out in the cold.
With her long friendship with Noelle disintegrating under the weight of living together, Iris wasn’t sure she wanted to take that risk again.
Being friends and being roommates could be two very different things, and with things between her and Noelle falling apart, she didn’t want to lose her new friends.
Maybe she could find an apartment on her own, though she didn’t think so. The Hills paid her well, but that would really strain her budget. A room might be more manageable, but if she did that, she might as well move back in with her dad for a while rather than renting a room from strangers.
Iris made a face.
Definitely did not sound appealing, but it seemed like the lesser evil between this and living with Noelle for much longer.
Unless things changed at home. She was so tired of walking around on eggshells.
At least when her dad disapproved of something, he just said so and didn’t give her the silent treatment.
That living with her dad sounded more appealing than living with Noelle right now was pretty telling.
When she arrived home, she got to the front door before taking a deep breath and putting the key in the lock.
From the muffled sounds coming through the door, she was pretty sure Noelle was home and watching television.
The minute she walked through the door, she almost sighed with relief when she saw Tyler’s blond head over the back of the couch.
We’re not alone!
Thank goodness.
The television was on to some cooking show, which wasn’t surprising since both Tyler and Noelle enjoyed them, but as soon as Iris stepped in, Noelle cleared her throat and started talking.
“So, like I was saying, I’m just so glad you were able to come spend the night with me last night, so I wasn’t all alone.” Noelle’s voice was a little louder than it probably needed to be for Tyler to hear.
“Sure, babe,” Tyler said.
Iris pressed her lips together. She might not be able to see his face, but she was pretty sure his eyes were glued to the screen, and he hadn’t heard her come in. He probably wasn’t paying attention to what Noelle was saying, either.
“Hey, Tyler.” Sure enough, Tyler jumped and twisted his head around, then smiled vaguely when he caught sight of her. He was a cute guy, even if he didn’t have the presence Law did. Tyler was more surfer boy, despite living on the east coast.
“Hey, Iris, nice to see you.” He gave her a wave and turned around to face the television. Iris held back a snicker. Very cute, very nice for the most part, and completely uninterested in making friends with her, which was fine with Iris.
“Yes, it is nice for you to see Iris, isn’t it?” Noelle asked, rather than sitting up to say hi to Iris. “It’s been a while.”
“Sure has, babe.” Unlike Noelle, Tyler didn’t sound at all bothered. He just agreed with her, the way he always did—the way Iris usually did—because it was just easier.
Yikes.
Shaking her head, Iris walked past them as Noelle kept talking, doing her best to ignore her roommate’s pointed statements.
“It’s so hard when someone who used to be a good friend just stops being around. Ditching her old friends for bright, shiny new ones and forgetting about the people who have always been there for her. I can’t—”
Iris shut her bedroom door firmly behind her before she had to hear whatever it was Noelle ‘couldn’t.’ She pressed her hand to her churning stomach. These weren’t anxiety butterflies, more like someone had swirled a bunch of saltwater, then shoved it down her throat. She felt sick and nauseous.
She definitely needed to find a new living situation if this shit with Noelle kept up.
Even now, the urge to go out there and apologize, to sit and hang out with Noelle and Tyler until Noelle was satisfied, was still prodding her. That’s what would keep the peace, but why was it always her job to keep the peace? Why didn’t Noelle ever have to be the one to bend?
Yeah, that was Rae’s voice in her head again, but it was right.
Rae wasn’t the only one who felt that way. Domi did. Avery did. Law did. Iris hadn’t realized how bad things were between her and Noelle until she talked about it and saw their expressions and reactions to the things Noelle said to her.
Tyler didn’t see anything wrong with it, but she wondered if the reason Tyler had lasted so long as Noelle’s boyfriend was because he didn’t pay attention to much of anything, and he always tried to please her.
Iris had always tried to please Noelle, too, but now that she had new friends and new activities that didn’t revolve around Noelle, it seemed like nothing she did was good enough.
Still, it was getting under her skin.
She opened up her group text.
Tell me I shouldn’t feel guilty for going out last night.
It took less than thirty seconds for the first response to come through from Rae.
What? Is the roommate who has chosen not to talk to you mad you dared not be there for her to not talk to?
Iris snorted, which reminded her of how she’d made Law snort last night, which made her giggle, her mood already lifting. By the time she’d changed out of her dress from the walk of shame and put on comfortable yoga pants and a t-shirt, her phone had been quacking almost non-stop.
Avery: You should definitely not feel guilty for going out last night.
Domi: Why should you feel guilty? Like Rae said, it’s not like she was talking to you, anyway.
Rae: She probably wanted Iris there, so she could ignore her. You can’t ignore someone who’s not there.
Avery: Maybe she really felt lonely? Not that I’m saying it’s okay that she took it out on Iris.
Domi: Mitch says you shouldn’t feel guilty.
Rae: Maybe she’s a cunt rag.
Domi: Rae!
Rae: I’m just saying.
Avery: She seems like a very unhappy person, but that doesn’t mean you should let her make you unhappy as well.
Now Iris felt bad. Maybe she’d been overplaying how Noelle had been. Did she really deserve to be called a cunt rag?
Yes.
Iris ignored the little voice in her head that sounded far too much like Rae for comfort.
Part of Rae’s biggest problem with Noelle was she didn’t like the things Iris had said about Noelle.
But Noelle had been a really good friend, too, even if she’d been difficult recently.
Rae and the others had only seen and heard a lot about a small part of that of her relationship with Noelle.
Iris: She’s not really unhappy most of the time
Staring at the text, Iris deleted it before sending it. That wasn’t really the truth, was it? Maybe it had been at one point, but lately, Noelle never seemed happy. She tried again.
Iris: I think she’s having trouble adjusting to me making new friends and feeling left behind. I think I’ve given you all the wrong impression of her, and that’s my fault.
Even though her stomach twisted, she sent it. She didn’t want them to think badly about her, but she didn’t think Noelle was that bad.
Rae: Nice try, hun, but I think you’re blinded by your long friendship with her. I think we have the right impression.
Avery: It was weird that she encouraged you to go out, then turned down the invitation to join us and picked a fight about it.
Domi: I don’t know if you noticed, hun, but even when we were all hanging out together, she kept saying things to make herself look good and you… not bad, but not as good as her. It was off-putting.
Iris had noticed but thought it was all in her head. Domi now saying it, too, meant she hadn’t imagined it this time. Maybe she hadn’t imagined it in the past, either, when Noelle had accused her of being too sensitive.
Rae: You’re still coming to Stronghold tonight to hang out with us, right? Avery got the night off! You can’t miss that.
Iris: Holy crap, Avery got the night off? No, I definitely can’t miss that.
She didn’t want to, either. Despite what she’d told Law about not coming over today, she felt trapped in her room. She didn’t want to bug him, so she was going to deal with it, but only because she had Stronghold to look forward to tonight.
Law
When he got home, Law started second-guessing himself. Last night had gone well. Really well. Iris was everything he wanted.
But was she everything he deserved? It sure didn’t feel as if he deserved her.
Did she deserve to be saddled with someone like him?
The doubt creeping in was hard to ignore, no matter how distracting Whiskers was, demanding attention after being left alone for another night. Every time he stopped petting her, as his thoughts distracted him, she head-butted his face. That helped a little.
“Sorry, Miss Princess,” he murmured, scratching under her chin and warily watching in case she suddenly decided she was done with him.
Chin scratches were particularly risky, but when she was in the mood, she loved them more than anything.
“Maybe I’ll see if Iris wants to sleep over here next time. ”
The moment the words were out in the world, panic tightened in his chest.
He hadn’t had a woman sleep over—ever.
It was easier to keep anything romantic out of his space. To keep anything intimate out of his space.
“Mrow.” Whiskers head-butted him, rubbing her whiskered cheek against his cheekbone, so her whiskers poked him in the eye. Talk about bringing him back to himself.
“Thanks, Miss Princess.” True to form, Whiskers went from little princess to demon in the blink of an eye. She hissed at him and jumped away, chin and tail high in the air as she pranced toward the kitchen.
At least she hadn’t clawed him.
Shaking his head, Law was about to get up and clean something instead of sitting around all afternoon overthinking when his phone rang. He picked it up without looking at it, thinking it might be Iris needing him.
“Hello?”
“You picked up!” His mother’s delighted tone made him groan inwardly.
It’s not that he didn’t like talking to his mother, she just talked too much, and what she wanted to talk about was usually whatever he didn’t want to talk about.
Voicemails he could eventually respond to tended to be easier.
She would tell him what she actually wanted instead of making him wait through twenty minutes of stories about her friends’ single daughters before getting to the point.
“Hi, Mom.” He kept the resignation out of his voice.
It wasn’t her fault, really. She just wanted him to have a certain life, the life she’d thought he would have when he’d married Elaine.
Instead, she’d been deprived of both a daughter-in-law and grandchildren when he fucked up.
Even though his two sisters had provided her with the latter, he was the only boy and the only child who didn’t live across the country.
Sometimes, he wondered if she would move to be closer to her grandchildren. So far, she didn’t seem to want to leave Delaware, and his dad would do whatever made her happy. So, they stayed on the east coast even though two of their three children and all of their grandchildren were on the west.
“Oh, it’s so nice to hear your voice.” Cue the guilt for not taking more time to talk to her. That was inevitable. “How are you doing?”
“I’m good. How are you and Dad?”
“Good, good, we’re both good. Have you heard about Elaine?
” The question was asked with a bit of disapproval, though he knew the disapproval wasn’t for him.
His parents were staunch Catholics, and Elaine had the gall to divorce their only son.
It still stuck in his mother’s craw, no matter how many times Law explained it was exactly what Elaine should have done.
“No, I haven’t.” This was why it was easier to bear the guilt of not answering his mom’s calls than picking up.
Elaine was definitely a subject he didn’t want to talk about.
“Is she okay?” That was all he really cared about.
He wasn’t in love with her anymore. He just wanted her to live a good, happy life and get everything she deserved after everything he’d put her through.
His mother made a hmphing noise.
“She’s engaged.” The words sounded almost like an accusation.
“Good for her.” Relief filled his chest, even though he knew it would rile his mom. That was exactly what he wanted for Elaine.
“Not good for her. She swore to live with you, for better or for worse.” The anger in his mother’s voice was real, as was the sorrow.
Law felt bad because he knew his mom had loved Elaine as if she were blood but knew she also needed to let this go.
“It was definitely for worse, Mom, and it wouldn’t have gotten better. Her leaving me was what finally made me hit rock bottom and admit I needed help.”
“She should have come back to you.”
“No, she shouldn’t have. She should have done exactly what she did and moved on.
” Law closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose.
He was about to throw himself on the sacrificial altar for Elaine.
His mom and her mom were still part of the same social circle, and Elaine didn’t need his mom’s drama.
He was pretty sure his mom would leave Elaine and her mom alone, but this was the only way to be one hundred percent certain. “Besides, I’ve met someone, too.”
“You have?!” The utter joy that filled his mom’s voice made him smile and shake his head.
She’d loved Elaine and thought Elaine should have stayed by his side, but at the end of the day, she wouldn’t complain if Elaine wasn’t who he ended up with. The quickness with which she pivoted made him laugh.
“We just started seeing each other,” he said in a warning tone.
“Yes, but you’re telling me about her, which means she’s special.”
She was. Maybe too special for him. He was glad to hear Elaine was getting the happily-ever-after she deserved but did he have it in him to try again for himself?
He didn’t know.