Wesley #2
He got water and drained the glass before speaking.
“Sorry, I’m late. I got stuck on a call with Liza.
I think we broke up, but sometimes the way she says stuff confuses the hell out of me.
Either way, I don’t think she’ll be there tonight.
I got here as fast as I could. What did you want to talk about? ”
The trash took itself out.
“Nothing. Just have your clothes for you.” I held up a paper bag.
“Wes! Earth to Wes!”
“Yeah?” I blinked, trying to focus. We were all seated at a circular VIP table. After everything with Liza and Maddie, I kept zoning out. When Avery came to pick me up earlier, I hadn’t even changed.
I used to dissociate a lot, stepping out of my own body when I went to events with Maddie. I could convince myself I was someone else, somewhere else. That I didn’t feel her hands on me or her breath against my skin. That it was happening, just not to me.
But I was with Avery, Evelyn, and everyone else now. I didn’t want to drift away, but it was an effort to be present. I hated that simply sitting across from Maddie for a few minutes could ruin what was supposed to be a great night.
“Do you want a shot?” Evelyn said, waving a glass under my nose. Tequila, from the smell of it.
I shook my head. “Nah. I’m good.”
“More for me!” she said, after checking that everyone else had taken shots from the tray. I didn’t even remember them arriving.
“Ev, don’t.” Luca attempted to wrangle the glasses from her, but she ducked away and downed both in one go. He looked better than he did earlier today, but we were always at our best when we were together like this.
Still, I couldn’t entirely shake my encounter with Maddie. What if the articles were just the start and she had something else?
Avery’s leg bumped against mine under the table. “Hey. Are you okay? You seem a bit out of it tonight.”
My hand found hers and our fingers tangled together. What was wrong with me? Avery was the most important person in my life, and yet my mind kept slipping away. Her touch helped, though, gave me something to focus on. Her rough callouses rasped against my skin.
“Just a bit tired. I had coffee earlier, but I swear I was accidentally served decaf.”
“I know one way to wake you up.” Her teeth sunk into her bottom lip.
“Is that so?” I arched my brow.
She slid from the booth, and I followed eagerly as she pulled me to the crowded dance floor.
Rapid music throbbed out a beat that rivaled my racing heart.
Multi-colored lights bathed us, painting hypnotizing patterns on Avery’s pale skin.
We claimed an open space as her body molded to mine.
Her arms wrapped around my neck, my leg threading between her thighs, locking us together.
I knew her like a habit. Instinctually.
I leaned in, lips brushing the shell of her ear. “Happy anniversary.”
“Happy anniversary.” Her teeth found my earlobe and gave a tug. “Are you going to kiss me or what, Gaflin?
“I don’t think I heard you.” I liked hearing her say it, how she needed something from me. She was fierce and independent, yet she chose me to be the one who showed up for her.
“Right here.” Her lips landed on my thrumming pulse. “In front of everyone.” They trailed up to my jaw. “Kiss me.”
I grabbed her chin, guiding her mouth.
My hands skimmed up her sides, fingers knotting in the fabric of her dress where it pooled on her lower back above the curve of her ass.
The sharp point of her heel dug into my calf as she hooked her leg around me.
She’d pull back, teasingly, and I’d follow.
I was willing to go to extreme lengths for her red lips.
“You might want to clean up,” she said. “I ruined that pretty face of yours.”
“I’d argue you improved it,” I challenged.
“True.” She pressed one last lingering kiss to my cheek.
A riot of cheers came from the direction of our table. Evelyn’s jaw hung open. Jared wolf-whistled. And just like that, I was on top of the fucking world. I had the girl, the friends, and the life we all dreamed of having together. No one could take that from me.
“I’m going to go talk to them. Explain how I finally gave you a chance.” She smirks.
“Go. I’ll be right behind you.”
I went to the bathroom and stared in the mirror. Anyone who saw me could tell how fucking gone I was for her. I couldn’t stop smiling. No way in hell I was going to wipe off the lipstick she’d left all over me.
The face looking back at me belonged to the man Avery Fucking Sloane had no problem ruining in public with her kisses.
I was feeling a dancing in the clouds, could die happy from that moment alone, type of good. It seemed like cosmic proof that everything would work out. We’d waited and been thrown around by life. But we’d walk out of the club and into the rest of our lives together.
Pushing out of the bathroom, I found Avery leaning against the opposite wall, the multi-colored lights sweeping over her, casting her form in otherworldly hues. My heart leaped.
“Hey, miss me that much?” I teased her, desperate to hold her again in front of everyone. The guys were going to have a field day when I got back to the table. I could deal with an endless barrage of I told you so, if it meant I finally got to show her off.
She slid out of my reach, eyes narrowed and mouth pressed into a hard line. “Is it true?
“What?” I asked, blinking in shock at her expression.
She held up her phone. “Don’t say it’s fake or old or a coincidence. That’s my shirt from yesterday, and I know she stopped by this morning.”
On it was a tabloid post.
Two photos. One of Avery getting two coffees from our favorite spot across town the day before. The other is Liza in the same shirt right outside my apartment.
Which of Wesley’s girls wore it better?
The club was a furnace fueled by writhing bodies, but I went cold.
“Really, Wes? Is this why she isn’t here? I leave for a few hours, and she swoops in. I know we weren’t exclusive, but she was dating Luca. Tell me this isn’t what I think it is?”
I could see it in her eyes. Hope vanished like sunshine choked out by a storm. She was waiting for me to tell her she was wrong, that it was just another lie. No one believed in me like Avery. Every fight we’d ever had was because she knew I was capable of more.
But I saw the headline for what it was: A warning. Maddie’s gift .
If I kept going with Avery, this would just be the start. I could handle what Maddie had fabricated and sold about me. It burned me out a bit, but if I was the only one whose reputation was on the line, so be it.
But this was Avery and Luca. Maddie wouldn’t stop with them. She’d keep going until everything we’d all worked for was gone.
I wouldn’t let her do it. It was me she wanted. Fine.
“It’s exactly how it looks.” I shrugged casually, as if I wasn’t about to lose my entire world.
Because the only way to keep Avery safe was to push her away.
If she wasn’t with me, Maddie would leave her and everyone else alone.
I could learn to be okay without them if it meant they didn’t get hurt because of me.
“And she begged me to kiss her the same way you did.”
I hoped Avery would leave right then and there, let me start to pretend to get over her.
Instead, she stepped toward me, giving me the perfect view of the rage flaring in her eyes.
“You’re a fucking coward.” A finger jabbed into my chest, forcing me back until I hit the wall behind me.
“I hope you’re proud of yourself because you betrayed the people who have stood by you through everything.
How could you do that to Luca?” Her voice cracked as her fury grew. “To me?”
“Sorry to pop your bubble, princess. This is reality. Take it or leave it.”
“Fuck you,” she spat. “If you ever cared about any of us, if there’s some part of my best friend still in there, you’re going to quit the band. You’re going to leave us alone because we’re all better off without you.”
And she left.