Chapter 37
WINNIE
“Winnie! Winnie!” My sister shakes me awake. “I think Knox is cheating on Brinley.”
I snort awake. My mouth tastes like cotton. There’s a note on my chest. My stomach flip-flops, then I remember—the stalker, the dangerous one, has been captured. Fitz says he adored me. My family has moved out of my house—well, temporarily.
“I mean, if he’ll cheat with you—”
“Winnie, Brinley is nice.”
I grasp at the note. “I drank too much,” I mumble. My eyes are blurry as they try to focus on the words.
I’d fuck you awake, but your family showed up.
“What’s that?” Kathy asks.
“Nothing. Why is it so early? Why are you all here? I thought Fitz got you a hotel.”
“We already had breakfast at the hotel and checked out,” Mom calls.
“The morning’s almost over, Winn,” my dad adds cheerfully from the kitchen.
“It’s nine a.m.,” I groan.
Vroom! In the kitchen, the blender goes off.
I pull the blankets back up over my head.
“Yeah, so anyways,” Kathy chatters on, sitting on the edge of the couch. “Brinley and I really bonded last night.”
“Yeah,” Brinley says from somewhere near the window. She sniffles. “We really compared notes, and it sounds like Knox is doing the same things to me that he did to Kathy.”
“Well, I’m shocked that a young woman actually takes seriously what us millennial single ladies have to say about shitty men. That’s awesome. Congratulations. Maybe in like ten hours we can go out for dinner—girls’ night.” I give her a thumbs-up from under the blanket.
“See, I told you,” Kathy says excitedly to Brinley.
“Told her what?”
“I told her that she could stay here with us. She’s worried about confronting Knox because she doesn’t have any money and would be out on the street.”
“Kathy says I can stay here with you.” Brinley’s excited. “And she says I can work at the café.”
“Carolina says you’re opening up another location soon.”
“Oh, hell no.” I am wide-awake. I do not have everyone out of my house yet, and I am not looking to keep adding permanent residents.
“Okay, back to regularly scheduled programming. Now we’re looking for two rich boyfriends—one for each of you.”
“Well, we don’t know if Knox is cheating. He might have turned over a new leaf.” Brinley chews on her lip.
“He is, and he hasn’t.”
“I can’t be the cheater,” Brinley demurs. “I should wait until we officially break up. If ever.”
“So changes have not been made, and you woke me up for nothing.”
“It’s all good, girls. This guy is rich enough for the both of ya!” Gran says proudly. “Got you gals a date tonight.”
“Sounds good, Gran. Kathy’s in.”
“What does he look like? Is he nice?”
“He’s rich. Who cares? You can live in a whole separate part of the house. You and Brinley.”
“We need to go find something for you to wear, Kathy. Dress to impress.”
“You’re coming, too, missy—you and Fitz.” Gran clears away the empty wine bottle.
“Um. What?”
“Of course Fitz has to come.” Gran hauls me up. “He needs to pay!”
I’m rummaging around in my bedroom. Seems the Pittsburgh troll has opted to stay in the hotel. Thank you, Fitz. I am happy to be dating a billionaire.
Winnie: You’re getting a blow job tonight.
Fitz: …
Fitz: Damn. I’m not going to say no.
Fitz: Should I ask why?
Fitz: Might need to repeat it.
Winnie: Honestly, the fact that the troll is out of my house gets you at least a month of them.
Fitz: Full disclosure. I did that for me.
Fitz: If you have any other unwanted house guests that need to be housed indefinitely in exchange for gratuitously filthy sex I’m willing to negotiate.
I hum happily as I type out a response.
Then I look in the mirror. Should I straighten my hair for this? Probably. Who knows who this guy Gran found for Kathy is. Might be one of those traditional men.
I see the little scrap of paper in the drawer with the flat iron. My stomach is sour as I unroll it.
Ticktock. I’m going to make you pay before I make you disappear.
Shit.
Winnie: Did you send this?
Fitz: No.
Fitz: Must be old.
Winnie: Yeah, must be old.
“Creampuff!” Fitz scoops me up and twirls me around right there in the lobby of the fancy restaurant.
It would be cute with Kathy, the negative, traitorous part of me whispers. You just look stupid.
I shove it down and lean into the kiss. It’s, like, five p.m. There’s hardly anyone in the restaurant except for the staff. No one is looking at you. Get a grip.
“I would have come to your house to pick you up,” Fitz tells me, “but I’m currently seeing how much of tonight’s tasting menu can be served as a puree.”
“Gran,” I hiss when Fitz nods to the two drooling elderly men nodding off. “Seriously? These are the dates? Did you steal them out of a nursing home?”
“That’s why we’re eating at five. Ernie’s got an early bedtime.” Gran tries to shake one of the men awake.
“That was nice of Fitz to send a limo for us,” Kathy says earnestly, briefly resting a hand on Fitz’s arm.
My stomach flip-flops.
“Yeah, I don’t think either of these old guys have their licenses, let alone are with-it enough to realize they even needed to come get you.” Fitz shakes his head.
“Ernie! Ernie, we’re going to get dinner now. Do you want a scotch?” Gran claps loudly at Ernie.
“Is he still alive?” I whisper to Fitz.
“He was five minutes ago when I had to help him to the bathroom.” He kisses the top of my head. “This is when you tell me I’m a saint.”
“Call in an airstrike!” One guy snorts awake. “Linda?” He peers at me. “That you? I need my glasses. I don’t remember your rack being that big.” He pats his sweater vest.
“Yes, she does have nice breasts,” Fitz says earnestly, hauling the elderly man to his feet.
I shove his walker in front of him. “I don’t even know if Kathy can legally marry him. He doesn’t look like he can sign his own name.”
“I want to go home.”
“We’re eating dinner now,” Gran says loudly as we follow Fitz to a table in the corner of the restaurant overlooking a killer view of the bay.
Kathy winces.
“Don’t look too put out,” Fitz tells my sister cheerfully. “I think the old geezer you’ve been assigned to has an eight hundred million net worth.”
“Let’s order something really rich and artery-clogging for apps,” Gran says, peering at the menu. “How about the Wagyu egg rolls?”
Kathy keeps looking at Fitz and smiling.
I pour more wine.
“And let’s also do the foie gras s’mores. Do you guys sell those bloomin’ onion things here? Ernie, let’s eat some more of that lobster thermidor.” Gran shovels a spoonful in his mouth. “More red wine, everyone! How about some truffle butter and bread?”
I take a roll.
“Now.” Gran beams at the old men. “Tell me about your underlying health issues.”
“Gran.” I sigh. “Stop force-feeding him.”
“If you eat this cheeseburger,” Gran tells Ernie, “I’ll let you hit it from the back tonight.”
“Well, let’s tuck in!” Bob says creakily as Kathy helps him with his napkin.
“Well, hello there, girls!”
“Lo—I mean, Laura! Hi,” I tell her, standing up and straightening my dress that’s riding up.
“This is the spot to be.” Laura gives me a strained smile.
“That’s why we’re here.” Could this night be any worse?
Laura’s face lights up. “Fitzgerald Svensson! Didn’t even see you there.” Laura wraps him in a hug and kisses his cheek for good measure. Then she gives me a one-armed hug.
“Winnie. Kathy. I saw a few other people we knew floating around, didn’t we, babe?”
Her fiancé nods. “Funny to run into the boss here.” He shakes Fitz’s hand.
“Ladies, we’ll chat about the wedding planning. Loving the ideas for the cake, Kathy. Winnie, let’s step it up.” She gives that braying fake laugh. “Winnie’s supposed to be the organization queen. Oh! You’re making the wedding cake, right?”
“Sure will.”
“Great, I’ll send you what I’m thinking. I need you to copy the photo exactly. Fitz, are you coming to the engagement party? I hope it will be up to your taste level.” She rests her hand briefly on his chest.
“I’m assuming it’s not hockey themed?” Fitz jokes.
“She won’t let me.” Nolan grins.
“Now, you can hang up a couple hockey things, men.” Laura laughs again.
“Actually, you know…” She draws out the word.
“You know, I was thinking. Winnie was going to have it at one of her so-cute-and-precious cafés,” she says as she tosses her head back and forth.
“But I was thinking, what if we had it at one of your restaurants instead, Fitz? I’d hate to have all these men shutting down Winnie’s café. ”
“Sure.” Fitz shrugs. “How about the Raincloud? They have a rooftop bar.”
“But we already have things set up at the—”
“Oh, Winnie. She’s always Miss Independent. Thank you, Fitz, you’re so generous. Free drinks for Fitz at the engagement party, yay!” Laura shakes her fists.
“Right.” I rock on my heels.
“I’ll leave you to your dinner. It was so great to see you, Fitz!”
“Dammit.” Bob is listing to the side. I push him back up in his seat.
“Are we having a threesome?” he asks, confused.
“Not right now. Eat your potatoes. They’ve got extra butter and cheese in them,” Gran adds.
God, this fucking dinner. Gran’s trying to feed some elderly guy to death. Loony Laura is pulling the rug out from under me. I cut up the green beans for Kathy’s date that she’s ignoring in favor of flirting with mine.
“No, no healthy food,” Gran hisses to me.
Fitz is laughing at some story Kathy is telling him.
“…stands up in the middle of the assembly and goes off about how eighty percent of the school’s funding goes to sports. They try to take the microphone from her, and she kicks the football coach in the balls.”
Fitz grins at me. “Winnie’s not going to suck up to athletes just because everyone else is. Well, guess we’re not doing any more sports dates.”
“You just take me there to cheap out on a date ’cause you already own the stadium,” I snap.
It comes out meaner than I intended, but Fitz just leans in to give me a kiss.
“See?” Kathy laughs. “Winnie’s hard on guys.”
“I’m honored that I made it into your inner triple-date exploit-the-elderly circle of trust.”
Kathy giggles into her wine.
“I need to make a call.” I push back my chair.
“She’s always busy too…” Kathy continues to tell him. Their voices drift off.
The restaurant has gotten a lot busier. I’m glad because it screens me. And they can sit there and laugh at me.
“Kathy’s just trying to be friendly,” I try to tell myself. I lean against the wall to the bathrooms, trying to get my bearings.
I’m being stupid and paranoid. Kathy’s probably happy to get out of the house and have a nice dinner away from the Pittsburgh troll.
I’m not like those boy-crazy girls who are like Don’t talk to my man, rawr. I am a rational adult human being, and I—
“Winnie.”
Shit. I jump as Knox slaps a hand on the wall next to my head.
I steel myself. He’s just trying to intimidate me.
“Did you buy a house yet?” I ask him snidely. “I don’t want your mother in mine anymore.”
“What the hell is it with you women?”
I raise an eyebrow. That makes him even angrier.
“You’re always in my shit about something. You should be grateful my mother even wants to be around you.”
“Seriously? I can’t stand your mother. No one can.”
He grabs my arm. “Don’t say shit about my mother.”
“Then man the hell up and stop foisting your problems on other people. I’m not with you anymore. I’m not doing your emotional dirty work.”
“You want to be, though. You think Fitz actually wants you? Look at him. He’s all over your sister. He wants that pussy.”
I shove at him as he digs up all my insecurities.
“He’s doing it right in front of you because he knows you’re just going to come crawling back to him.
You need to ditch him, get back with me,” Knox says, pressing a hand to his chest. “I realize I made a mistake letting you go. I’m not going to treat you like shit—treat you like him.
You and I go way back, Winnie. Shit, you helped me negotiate my first entry-level contract.
You care about me. We were each other’s first love. Winnie, let me show you how much you—”
“Get the fuck off of her.”