XLVI
Hazel Winters
“ These boys! I swear to God, I’m going to need to purchase some blunt shears so I can castrate them.”
I frown from my position on the bed, recognising the familiar voice. I’ve been curled up on top of the master bedroom’s king-sized bed in the apartment Sean brought me to. Although I’m in New York, my period decided to visit and stop me from enjoying the place.
That and the feeling of betrayal.
“Hazelllll! Show yourself!”
My lips form into a small smile when I realise the voice is Sabrina’s. I’d spoken to her on the phone multiple times in Italy, keeping her updated on my situation with the guys.
“In here,” I call out. The door opens and I hear her footsteps before she jumps on the bed, next to me.
“How are you doing, my love?” she asks, her eyes sympathetic as she stares down at my sorry self.
I must look awful, having not showered in a few days. I’ve barely eaten, despite Sean trying to force food down my throat. My hair feels greasy and my eyes are red raw from crying.
I fucking hate my period.
“They’re idiots, who don’t realise what they have,” she pulls me into a hug. I end up crying in her arms, letting all the emotions I’ve been bottling up for a while, seep out and onto her hoodie.
“What are you doing here?” I finally look up at her as she wipes away my tears.
“They called me and told me you were in New York. Offered me a free ticket to come see you and I took it,” she smirks, peering at her own perfect nails before making a face of disgust at the sight of my own.
“Let’s get you dressed and I’ll do your nails,” she says. I nod and climb out of bed, ignoring the painful cramps as I stand up. She leads me into the bathroom and starts the shower before bringing me some clothes to change into after.
By the time I’m showered and dressed, she’s set herself up a little station in the living room. I hadn’t had a chance to fully take in the apartment until now. It’s a penthouse, atop of a high-rise building in the city. The floor-to-ceiling windows brush against the clouds, whilst showcasing a 360 view of Manhattan.
The living room itself is open plan, with both a large cream sofa and kitchen in the room. A chandelier hangs from the ceiling, dripping in luxury and illuminating the whole space. Although there is a hallway leading off from the kitchen, I assume they are just more bedrooms and don’t explore them.
“Come sit,” Sabrina beckons me over to the dining table, where she’s set up her station. It’s a long, glass table with enough seats to sit at least twelve people.
“How did you get all this stuff?” I ask her as I sit down.
“Seanie-boy and I have an agreement,” she winks over my head to the gruff, ginger bodyguard and I giggle at her.
She begins to file my nails and encourages me to tell her everything, which leads to me crying again. Sean nudges the tissues over to me with a sympathetic look and I smile at him pathetically before wiping my face with them.
I’m pathetic.
“Okay, I’m giving you ten more minutes to cry over these boys before we work on getting over them,” Sabrina instructs me, her voice determined.
“It’s hard to get over them when they’re the ones keeping you trapped in an apartment in another country,” I shrug. I start laughing at how ridiculous my life has become.
“Okay, I see we have reached the hysteria part of grief,” Sabrina mutters.
“Sorry,” I choke out as I laugh, “I just realised how different my life was a few months ago.”
“Would you change it?” She asks, stopping doing my nails to look at me. I swallow, thinking over her question for a second before answering it.
“No,” I shake my head, “It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions but if I had the option not to know them, I wouldn’t take it. I just would wish it would have ended differently.”
“Do you think it has ended?”
“I don’t know. I mean, they sent me to another country without them instead of coming with me, so, whatever that means,” I shrug before sighing, “Anyway, I’m done being sad and emotional about this shit. It’s so not me.”
“I was going to say… I barely recognised it was you when I saw a girl crying in bed,” she laughs and I join in. Sean stares at me with a tilted head and narrowed eyes, like he doesn’t believe that I’m not a full-time emotional wreck. I glare at him and he smoothly looks away, shaking his head with a small smirk.
“So, Seanie-boy, do you have a girlfriend?” Sabrina asks him, directing his attention to her. He scoffs but doesn’t answer, opting to stay silent as if it will save him from Sabrina’s interrogations.
Spoiler alert: it won’t.
“I’ll take that as a no,” she smirks, her eyes lighting up as she starts to add builder gel to my nails.
“Run, Sean. I think she’s flirting with you,” I show-whisper to my guard, immediately regretting it when she shoves my hand under the UV light so that the builder gel starts to burn my nails as it hardens.
As my nails set under the light, she looks up at him with her classically seductive face. She flips her chestnut hair over her shoulder and winks at him, “You’d know if I was flirting with you, Seanie-boy.”
He stares at her like a deer in headlights for a few moments before standing up and leaving the room. She fans herself dramatically as he leaves, making me laugh at her antics.
“I’m definitely going to try to get him to walk away from me more often if his ass looks like that,” she winks at me and I laugh harder.
“He’s all yours, babe. I have enough problematic men to deal with,” I reply, my heart aching instantly as I accidentally draw my attention back to Atlas and the others.
“Nope, we’re not thinking about them, right now,” Sabrina snaps her fingers in front of my face before starting to add builder gel to my other hand, “We’re going to brainstorm how I can get Sean into bed with me.”
“You’re shameless,” I shake my head as I laugh.
“I’ve got to make this trip worth it,” she shrugs. Once the builder gel has set on both my hands, she files them down and starts to apply gel to them. I opt for black French tips, with black and white flowers on my middle and ring fingers.
Once she has finished applying the topcoat, she pulls out her phone and takes a picture of my finished nails to add to her social media. I beg her not to add New York as the location, and after a lot of persuasion, she listens to me.
The whole reason I was sent away was so that Alexei couldn’t find me. He knows Sabrina since she was my childhood friend, so I have no doubt he would be stalking her pages for any hint of where I am.
Luckily, there is no way to know they are my hands, since I took off my rings and bracelets to hide my identity. To the online world, I’m just a girl getting her nails done by a very talented nail technician.
As she packs away her kit, I brew us two cups of tea and wait on the sofa for her. She joins me after a few minutes and we gossip about things she learnt in her nail salon, before eventually getting bored of other people’s drama and turning the TV on.
I text Sean to deliver us an abundance of snacks and he pulls through, before sitting on the other side of the sofa. I don’t miss the way both Sabrina and him sneak secret looks at each other as the night goes on.
Interesting.
If only she knew what he was really here for.