Chapter 28 #3
I immediately shake my head. Have Nate and I been too flirty? We’ve not even talked. “Everything’s fine,” I insist. “You have a birthday to enjoy.”
“Right, but?—”
I put my hands on her shoulders. “Seriously. This is a massive, beautiful party. You have people to chat with, or corners to hide in if you’re overwhelmed. I’m good.”
“Are you and Nate good?” she asks.
Shit. “Um, we’re?—”
“Speech time!” Andrea is on the stairs, a champagne glass in hand. “My beautiful daughter is celebrating her thirtieth today, and we all need to shower her in praise.”
“Speeches?” I ask.
Quinn’s jaw is on the floor. If she wasn’t wearing makeup, her face would be beet red. “I thought she was kidding about that.”
“Who wants to go first?” Andrea asks. “I suppose I can, if no one else does.”
“Oh no. She’s gonna bring up the bathwater incident again. Maisie, you have to volunteer.”
There are many things in that sentence for me to process, but Quinn’s urging me forward, mortification in her gaze.
“What, but?—”
“Please!” she begs. “I’ll buy you whatever you want. Do whatever you want. Just stop my mother.”
I groan before collecting myself. I’m so going to regret this.
“Um, I will!” I say it loudly, and everyone’s eyes turn to me. Oh God. This is terrible.
“Oh.” Andrea says. “Fine, I suppose so.”
“I owe you my life,” Quinn says in my ear.
“You really do,” I reply through gritted teeth. Slowly, I walk to the stairs and try to think of what to say. Nate’s in the back of the crowd, watching me with widened eyes. He knows more than anyone that I hate this.
At least I’ll laugh about this later.
“Wow, what do I say about Quinn?” I begin.
I’m asking myself more than anyone else.
It’s not that I can’t talk about her, but a speech?
Unprepared? This is the worst. “She’s just so incredible.
She’s helped me through a lot, even this past week.
” I let out an awkward laugh. Nate shakes his head in the audience.
No talking about last week. Fair. “I never thought I would say this, but I’m so glad both of us had the worst teacher for algebra in college.
Bonding over trying to figure out what she was saying is one of my best memories.
I owe my degree to her. I owe a lot to her.
She’s the best friend anyone could ask for.
So, here’s to her. I hope you have the best birthday, Quinn. ”
I raise a toast, proud that I didn’t completely mess it up.
I rejoin Quinn in the crowd. “Maisie ...” She trails off.
“Please tell me that wasn’t terrible. God, everyone was looking at me.” I shudder.
“You called me your best friend.”
I blink. “Kind of. Mostly. It’s true, though.” Especially since Nate is more to me now.
“Really?”
Oh, boy. “Uh, yeah. But don’t worry about?—”
“My turn, if that’s okay,” a man says. It’s the very voice I don’t want to hear.
Fuck, Rob’s speaking. I haven’t seen him the entire time, and I’m not sure if that’s by design or if I’ve just gotten lucky.
“No,” Quinn says. “Anyone but him.”
Rob can’t hear her, nor would he care if he could. He walks in front of the crowd like he’s meant to be there. He’s wearing the same smile as he had in the video, and it sends chills down my spine.
“I can’t believe my sister made it to thirty. In all honesty, I thought she would stay eighteen forever. In some ways, she has.” He laughs and others join him. I can’t resist the urge to roll my eyes.
“But, you know, she’s my sister. So I’m here for her, even though I’ve had a”—his eyes find me in the crowd—“rough time lately, as you all know.”
“What the fuck?” Quinn asks.
I tense, wishing I could melt into the floor.
Or that Nate was with me .
“But, you know, I’m glad I came. I get to be here for my sister and see something I needed to see. My relationship is over, but I’m happy to say that’s not the only thing that went downhill. To Maisie and Nate, may your friendship get the same ending I did.”
Something shatters on the ground, and I realize that I’ve dropped my champagne glass. I don’t even remember my grip going slack. All I know is that he’s just wished Nate and me the worst , on Quinn’s fucking birthday.
At first, I’m rattled. But I’ve had my fill of embarrassment for the evening. It quickly erupts into something else.
Something fiery.
“Oh, shit.” Quinn grabs me and pulls me away. “Can someone clean this up? Maisie, we should find somewhere to?—”
I don’t even hear the end of the sentence. I’m tearing after Rob. Maybe I’ll skin him alive. Maybe I’ll rip his dick off. I’m not sure which will be more satisfying.
“What the fuck, Rob!” We’re in Andrea’s kitchen, thankfully out of sight from the rest of the partygoers.
“What?” Rob asks. “I had to honor my sister.”
“You made that about you. Like a complete dick .”
“Well, it’s exactly what you deserve.”
“Watch it,” a third voice says, and I immediately know it’s Nate. “Now that I know how you’ve talked to her, it’s not happening again.”
I turn to him, eyebrows raised at his dark tone. With me, he’s always so gentle. But this side of him, the part of him that would protect me from anything, sends a thrill down my spine.
He’s staring Rob down like he’s preparing to take him out. For me .
I shouldn’t love that as much as I do.
“Oh, come on.” Rob spits it out. “You two are supposed to be fighting.”
“Unlike you,” Nate starts, “we’re capable of being subtle.”
“Yeah, right. Everyone knows something is going on. ”
“Is that why you did that?” I ask. “You just had to call attention to it?”
“Maybe if you’d acted right yesterday?—”
“Don’t even try to blame this on her. You ambushed her in the airport, took her where she didn’t want to go, and?—”
“She gave me a chance anyway.” He smirks. “That pissed you off, didn’t it?”
“A chance to be a decent person,” I snap. “Which it’s obvious you can’t be.”
Rob laughs humorlessly. “I’m perfectly decent.”
“When you get what you want, and that’s not happening this time.”
“Is it not? You two are barely talking. I seem to have won.”
“Fuck off ,” Nate snaps, about to stalk over to Rob, but I hold up my hand to stop him.
Rob is a petty man. He played the long game to separate Nate and me, and now that he doesn’t have me, he’s acting out. I’m tired of it.
It’s time to play dirty.
“You know ...” I say it as softly as I can. “I actually owe you a thank you, Rob.”
Nate’s gaze cuts to me, but I keep staring at Rob, who only blinks. “You do?”
“I definitely do.” Tilting my head, I smile, and he starts to return it. “It’s because of you that Nate and I are in love.”
The smile immediately falls off of Rob’s face. Behind me, Nate laughs as he realizes what I’m doing.
“You’re together?”
“Yes. And you helped so much . So, thank you. I owe the fact that I’ll probably marry this man to you.” I lean on Nate, who presses a kiss to my forehead.
“You’re being mean,” he murmurs. “I love it.”
“No. No way.” Rob shakes his head. “You were just fighting.”
“Nate knows how to resolve a fight really well. It’s nice.”
“Oh, fuck you. Fuck you both .”
“No thank you. I’m a taken woman now.” I pat Nate’s chest and Rob goes red in the face before he storms out of the kitchen, pushing past us both.
The second we’re alone, Nate and I burst into laughter.
“Did you see his face?” I ask as I wipe tears out of my eyes. “It was perfect.”
“Like I said, mean . Please do that more often.”
We’re both still getting ourselves together when Quinn bursts into the room.
“I’m so sorry. It took me forever to get here. People kept stopping me. Are you o—” She pauses when she sees Nate and me. “Oh. Am I interrupting something?”
I take a step away from him and shake my head. “No. Definitely not.”
“If I am, I?—”
“Quinn, I’m so sorry for that.” My focus is entirely on her now. I hate Rob for what he did, but she’s the one who’s had her birthday messed up. Guilt crashes into me.
“Yeah, it’s not ideal.” She blows a piece of hair that fell out of her updo out of her eyes. “Mom shouldn’t have let him talk at all, but she always defends him.”
“I don’t want my drama to follow you here. It’s your birthday and my focus should be on you.” I glance out the door where Rob stormed through. I have no doubt he’ll bitch to Andrea immediately. “But other things happened. I completely understand if you want me to leave.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Nate reach out to comfort me, but he stops.
Quinn is the one who grabs my hands instead. “What? No. I want you here. We still have to talk about the cruise ...” Her eyes cut to Nate. “And anything else that could’ve happened.”
I tense. “You know, don’t you?”
She nods. “It’s hard not to know. But it’s okay. I wanna help. ”
“Help?” I ask and glance at Nate. He seems as lost as I am.
“Of course. If you and Nate are fighting, I wanna help.”
That gives me pause. “Fighting?”
“Yeah, obviously. You two are avoiding each other and acting stiff. Everyone’s talking about it.”
Slowly, my gaze slides to Nate, who’s staring right back at me.
Oh. Oh no .
We’ve played our part too well.
“We’re not fighting,” I say as I turn back to Quinn. “I promise. You should just focus on your birthday.”
“Don’t lie. I know something happened between you two. Was it Rob? He said Nate was mad at you, and while I had a hard time believing it at first, with how you two are acting, something’s gone wrong.”
“N-noo, Rob didn’t. Well, he mostly didn’t.” I shake my head. There’s no way to explain this in a simple way. “Quinn, it’s your party. Something you put a lot of time and effort into. Focus on that.”
“But—”
“Seriously, go back out there?—”
“Oh my God, Maisie, fuck the party.”
I blink. “I—what?”
She lets out a sigh before she rubs her forehead.
Her shoulders sink in the same way they did when she was planning it.
“I don’t care about this party. Or the speeches, or fuck , this stupid tiara.
” She rips it off of her head. “I’m done with it.
It’s taken over my life to the point that I really don’t even care about it.
I’d honestly rather be home eating cake, but Mom has to show off. ”
“Quinn, are you okay?”
“Obviously not. Mom’s been on a warpath, which is not your fault, but she’s a lot. Rob is a lot. And I wish they would just take five steps back and be normal. Or at least let me have a normal fucking birthday.”
“I didn’t know this wasn’t what you wanted. We should get together in a few days and do something more casual. Oh! What about a movie night? One where we actually finish the movie. I can bring cake.”
She gives me a half smile. “That would be nice. But I’d also like Nate to be there, and for you two not to be fighting.” She points between the two of us. “So. Tell me what the fuck is going on.”
“But—”
“ Please distract me from that out there,” she hisses. “Consider it my birthday request.”
Slowly, I look at Nate.
He shrugs. “It’s her birthday. You kinda have to do what she wants.”
“All right,” I say and take a deep breath. “Nate and I aren’t fighting.”
She rolls her eyes. “Do I also need to request that you don’t lie to me? I know something’s up. You called me your best friend. While I love you and consider you my best friend, with you, that title’s always been for Nate.”
“Yeah, you really slipped up there,” Nate adds, and I don’t need to look at him to know he’s smirking.
“I was on the spot. In front of people. I was in a sensitive place.”
“You’re always in a sensitive place,” he replies.
“Keep that up and you’re sleeping on the couch.”
“All right. Shutting up now.”
I shake my head and focus on Quinn, who’s looking between us as if we’re a puzzle and one piece is missing.
“So, Nate and I are together.” It’s the first time I’ve said it out loud to someone whose opinion I care about, and it speeds up my heart rate. This is so new and so important to me. Saying it out loud to someone who could easily judge us isn’t easy.
“Together,” she repeats slowly. “Like working on a project together? ”
Oh boy. Our years of insisting we were only friends hasn’t helped us out.
“N-no.”
“Roommates?” Her eyes go wide. “No way, are you moving in together? That makes so much sense. You’ll save so much money on bills!”
“We’re dating!” I rush to say. “Like actually dating.” She stares at us. “Quinn,” I say gently. “We’ve kissed. We’ve slept together. I’ve seen his pe?—”
“I’m gonna stop you right there, berry. I think she gets the message.”
“Oh. My. God.” Quinn starts it quietly. Then she grabs my shoulders. “You’re dating ? You and Nate?”
“Yes.”
She screams. “No way! Why didn’t you say that? Why didn’t you tattoo it on your forehead? This is great news!”
“I ... thought it would be more of a shock. And I have a feeling some wouldn’t take it very well.”
She sobers slightly. “Okay, fair. Mom does not need to know about this one yet. But I do. And why did you two act like you were fighting?”
“We were trying to be casual!”
She laughs. “You’re terrible at it. Absolutely terrible. Now we need to sneak into my room. I need to hear everything.”
“Not everything .” Nate laughs uncomfortably. “Right?”
Quinn cackles. “I’m gonna know how big your penis is, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me!”
Nate goes green in the face, but I put a hand on Quinn’s shoulder.
“Um, are you sure you wanna talk about that? I thought we avoided the topic.”
“We did when it was a man I’m related to.” She says it like it’s obvious. “But now it’s free game. Tell me, is it big?”
“I’m right here!” Nate says. “Berry, don’t you dare?— ”
I nod.
“Hell yes! Congratulations to you both .”
Nate sighs and rubs his face. “I have a feeling I’m gonna regret this.”
“You’re the one who said you’d take anything I give you. And this time, I give you embarrassment.”
“And there better be more.” Quinn bounces on the balls of her feet. “Start the story from the top. I want it all!”