Chapter 13 X
X
Ihated seeing Violet sad. It ate away at me like a buck-toothed rabbit with chlamydia.
Or maybe that was koalas who had STDs. I didn’t know. But I didn’t like it.
We gave her and Devin space to talk, but it was killing me not to go over there. My fingers twitched to pull her into my arms and tell her stupid jokes until she laughed.
It was a relief when Devin finally hugged her and walked away.
She came back over to us, her cheeks tearstained. We surrounded her, the three of us enclosing her like the rest of the world would hurt her and we weren’t having it.
“He’s a cop,” she whispered.
I was pretty sure my mouth couldn’t have dropped open any farther. “Are you serious? Skinny Devin?”
She nodded and filled us in on their conversation.
Whip let out a long breath. “Does he know anything…more? Did you say anything about us?”
She shook her head quickly. “No. But there’s something else. Travis was here. He’s still saying I owe him.”
I rolled my eyes. “That little fuck? I’ll get rid of him.”
I waited for Violet to tell me not to again. But she didn’t.
Excitement lit up inside me at the very thought of taking that fucker out. It had to happen eventually anyway. The guy was on the list. But I hated the way Violet shrank in on herself every time he was around.
I would take great delight in ending him.
Maybe I’d get some of that koala chlamydia from somewhere and give him a good dose of that so he suffered first.
I found that idea oddly delightful.
She didn’t exactly seem happy by the idea though, and that brought me right back to being sad. I clapped my hands together, startling the three of them.
“Okay, so how about I cook dinner tonight? I think we deserve a nice meal after all of this.”
“You cook?” Levi asked, skepticism rich in his voice.
I didn’t miss a beat. “I also vacuum in heels and throw dinner parties for my imaginary friends. Try to keep up.”
Violet covered her mouth to hide her smile.
And my job was done. I’d pat myself on the back later.
“So, you in?” I asked Levi.
He shrugged. “I’m never going to say no to someone who wants to feed me.”
“Violet? You trust my cooking abilities?”
“Of course. I can’t wait.”
We reached Whip’s car and took up the seats we’d had on the way here, me in the front with Whip. I pulled my seat belt on and waited for him to say something, but he didn’t.
I snapped my fingers in front of his face. “X to Whip. X to Whip. Do you read me? Are you coming to dinner?”
His gaze fell to his hands on the steering wheel. “I can’t, not tonight.”
Levi poked the back of Whip’s seat with his knee. “Come on. What else do you have to do?”
I snorted. “Maybe he has a hot date.”
Whip said nothing.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Wait, do you have a hot date?”
He started the car without looking at me. “It’s not a date. But I have a client, yeah.”
“You’re going to get naked with someone other than us?
” I moved my mouth around, silently repeating the words.
“Well, that was a sentence I never thought I’d say.
” I pinched my jaw and opened and closed it a few times, distracting myself from why I suddenly felt weird about the very thought of Whip rolling around in the sheets with some random woman.
Unlike Levi, who was probably well acquainted with Whip’s naked form by now, I had no desire to do the same. I was a one person sorta man, and Violet was the only one I wanted to be naked with.
But despite popular belief, I wasn’t stupid.
I knew she was in love with Levi. And I knew Whip was her safe place.
I wasn’t even entirely sure how I fit in, but maybe I was a bit of both.
She’d made room for me, and I wasn’t going anywhere for as long as she let me occupy that space.
If that meant sharing her with the two of them, then I would.
I would give her whatever the hell she wanted. If she wanted me to build her a bed big enough for ten men, then I would.
I didn’t know how I would afford the wood, ’cause that shit was expensive, but hopefully one of those other guys was a builder and had a trade discount.
Whip backed out of the parking lot. “I have to work. It just is what it is.”
He’d said it matter-of-factly, but his gaze kept flicking to the rearview mirror, and I knew he was trying to get a glimpse of how Violet was reacting.
I folded my arms across my chest. “I don’t like it. On behalf of the people in this car who have sucked your dick, I vote you quit.”
Levi punched my arm, a lot harder than a playful slug. “You’ve sucked his dick? When the fuck did that happen?”
I flinched, rubbing the spot and twisted so I could see him. “I never said that! I said on behalf of the people who had. Meaning you two!”
Levi crossed his arms over his chest and stared out the window.
I hid a laugh. “Oh, look at jealous little Levi. All mad because for a split second he thought I’d had Whip’s anaconda in my moist cave of wonders.”
Whip groaned and shoved me with one arm without taking his eyes off the road. “Please shut up before I run us into a tree. And never say moist again. Especially not in conjunction with cave of wonders.”
I gagged. “Okay, I’m sorry. I heard it. It was bad.” I glanced back at Levi. “You gag like this when his steel pole is tapping out Morse code on your tonsils?”
Levi rolled his eyes. “It’s such a shame your mother didn’t drown you at birth.”
The banter continued the entire way back to my apartment, mostly courtesy of me trying to keep it light after an afternoon that had felt all too heavy.
I kept glancing at Violet, waiting to see if she reacted to any of our antics, but by the time we were all piling out of the car outside my building, it was clear she was very quiet.
She got out of the car quicker than the rest of us and walked ahead. I trotted to keep up with her, leaving Levi and Whip to lock the car.
“Hey,” I said quietly. “You okay?”
She lifted her head, but her smile was forced. “I’m fine.”
“You’re allowed to not want him to go.”
She sighed heavily. “It’s his job. And we’ve made no promises to each other. I can’t ask him not to leave just because the idea of him with another woman makes me crazy.”
I pushed open the door to the lobby and waited for her to walk through.
Then let it swing shut in Levi’s and Whip’s faces.
I slung an arm around Violet’s neck and pulled her in close, so my lips were to her ear. “Tell him not to leave.”
She shook her head. “I can’t. And don’t you say anything either. It’s not our place to make decisions like that for him.”
I let it go, respecting the boundary she’d set, but not liking it.
“Promise me, X.”
“I promise I will not say anything.” I mimed pulling a zipper closed across my lips.
The other two caught up with us at the elevator, and we all rode up in it together, until it stopped at my floor.
I let us into my apartment, and the three of them found various places to settle, Violet perched on a swivel stool at the breakfast bar, Levi and Whip both taking up spots on the couch.
Levi leaned over and found the TV remote, flicked it on, and channel surfed until he found a game replay.
I rummaged through the refrigerator, searching for something to make for dinner.
I kept the thing pretty well-stocked, because for all my joking, I actually didn’t mind cooking.
I didn’t do it all that often, since it was mostly just me to make meals for, and going to all that effort just to sit at the table alone was pretty fucking pathetic.
But I’d gone shopping just last week with the hope that Violet would be around more, and so I’d bought all sorts of things I thought she might like, just in case.
Everything from fruit and meats to Doritos and caviar.
I’d also stocked the bathroom with all sorts of girly things.
I’d found the same brand of bodywash she kept in her shower and cleared out a drawer to fill with tampons and a spare toothbrush…
I eyed the two guys sitting on the couch and realized that maybe I should have bought a couple more.
I shrugged and pulled some beers out of the fridge instead. Maybe if I got Whip drunk enough, he’d stay.
But I already knew that would be impossible. He was too controlled. And he never would have had more than one when he knew he had to drive later.
My fingers brushed a bundled-up package of oysters that I’d bought with full intentions of making Violet horny. “Do you guys like oysters?” I handed a bottle each and then went back to the fridge for two more for me and Violet.
“Not for me,” Violet replied. “Had them once when Toby and I went to a fancy restaurant for his birthday. Horrible.”
Levi cracked open the lid on his beer. “Never had them before but have zero desire to try. They look nasty.”
Whip just took a sip of his beer and shook his head. “You two don’t know what you’re missing. They’re the best.” He leaned back over the couch, twisting in my direction. “I’m in if you are.”
I pointed at him. “That’s the spirit!”
I gathered up the oysters and set them on the countertop.
It was only after Violet swiveled on her stool to take in some of the game playing on the TV behind her that I noticed the expiration date on the oysters was two days earlier.
I cringed and went to throw them in the trash can, but then Whip pulled Violet off the stool and onto his lap, and her laughter tinkled around the room.
She smiled happily in his arms, both of them sipping their beers, watching the game, all loved-up.
How could he even think about leaving her when she looked like that? She’d been so sad all day, but now she was smiling and relaxed wrapped around him, the two of them the perfect couple.
He couldn’t leave. He couldn’t just walk out the door and go have sex with someone else.
I eyed the out-of-date oysters again. And then shrugged.
If getting him drunk wasn’t going to keep him here with us, then maybe a minor case of food poisoning would.