13. Adrian
ADRIAN
“ Y ou look happy this morning,” Wren says as she sidles up next to me in the break room on Monday morning.
“Yeah, the weekend was good. How was yours?”
Good would be an understatement, my body sore and sated after Jesse convinced me we needed to fuck on every surface in my apartment.
Getting up this morning had required more than one alarm to get me up and moving. The way Wren is smirking at me, there’s no doubt she can guess exactly why my weekend was so good.
“Mine was lovely although we did miss Jesse at family dinner.” Eyes sparkling, she rests her hip against the counter. “You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”
“Any chance I’m getting out of this?”
“Probably not.” She lifts a shoulder and lets it fall. “Even if you two are just hooking up, you’re going to have to come to family dinner eventually.”
“What? Why?”
“Because that’s how we are.”
“That…” I want to tell her that it sounds terrible and that there’s no way Jesse would allow that to happen, but I can’t quite get the words out.
“Leave him alone, Hellcat,” Merrick Ellis says from the doorway. “I’m sure we can find someone else for you to terrorize.”
“That sounds nothing like me,” she states haughtily, making him snort before nodding to me.
“Sorry, Adrian. She won’t bother you anymore.”
“He’s practically family,” she hisses.
“Family here at Mountain Side, yes. But you can’t interfere in your brother’s extracurriculars.”
Her response is cut off as he ushers her out of the break room, my heart stuttering in my chest at the exchange.
Because I can think of far worse things than being a part of the Sterling family.
The gym is empty as I rack the weights and grab my water bottle. Sweat coats my skin and I feel good, my mind clear, for the first time this week.
Being with Jesse last weekend and then dealing with Wren’s interrogation on Monday left me reeling the rest of the week.
But mostly, it made me realize how lonely I am here.
It made me wish that I was closer to my family and that my friends hadn’t blindly chosen Zack’s side when we broke up last year. Ending the relationship wasn’t nearly as painful as it should have been because even though Zack had apologized, I knew he wasn’t sorry.
He’d slept with a coworker during a retreat and claimed it meant nothing.
But that had just been the cherry on top of all the late nights at the office and canceled plans.
Jesse isn’t like that, and you’re not even dating him.
As if I conjured him, my phone lights up on the ground next to my keys.
JESSE: I had a shit week
ADRIAN: Do you want to go out and grab a drink?
JESSE: Am I crossing the friend line if I’d rather bring over pizza and beer?
ADRIAN: Depends on what you consider acceptable pizza toppings
JESSE: Are you flirting with me, Nate?
ADRIAN: Don’t be a brat
JESSE: Definitely flirting
JESSE: I’ll allow it—my ego could use the boost
ADRIAN: Why? Some other guy blow you off this week?
I watch as three little dots appear and then disappear before a message finally pops up on the screen.
JESSE: I guess I should have said it before but the only person fucking me is you
JESSE: I wouldn’t have asked you to keep things going if I wanted to fuck someone else
JESSE: Forget it. I’ll see if Lake is busy
ADRIAN: Dude
ADRIAN: Come over
JESSE: Nah, I’m shit for company
JESSE: Sorry I bothered you
Dragging my hand down my face, I count to ten before snatching my keys off the ground and stalking toward the exit, juggling everything in my hands as I type out a message.
Not to Jesse, but to Wren.
ADRIAN: Where’s Jesse?
WREN: Why?
ADRIAN: Because right now I want to strangle him
WREN: Kinky
ADRIAN: Sure, let’s go with that
She’s silent for a minute as I wait in my car, shrugging on a sweatshirt I found in the back seat.
WREN: Lake said he went to the tree farm—check the north corner
ADRIAN: Thank you
WREN: Take care of him
ADRIAN: I will