9. Preston #2
“Seriously pranking my ass. Did Travis put you up to this? He did, didn’t he?”
“Funny about that,” I said, scratching at my jaw. “He walked in on us when it happened.”
A burst of laughter had me whirling around. “Oh, Preston.” She shook her head and patted me on the chest. “Tell Travis he’ll have to do better than that. I need to get back to work, and you should probably go home and change. Is that the same outfit you wore to dinner?” She started for the door.
“Yes, because I slept at your dad’s house last night.”
Wow, way to put all that out there.
Her feet faltered and she slowly turned to face me. Maybe it was my expression, maybe it was that she was finally hearing me, but her brows pulled together as she said, “You’re not joking?”
Fuck, please don’t let her hate me.
“No. I’m not joking. And I can explain.”
Her eyes widened to saucers. “Chair.” I quickly dragged a nearby chair over just in time for her to fall into it, and then dropped to my knee in front of her.
“Do you need a paper bag?”
“Uh, not yet. Unless you’re about to give me details I don’t want to know, and then I might have to vomit.”
I’d meant to breathe into, but no, she seemed to be breathing well enough.
“Just…rewind. You kissed my dad?” she said, shaking her head. “Preston… What the hell? Why?”
Why? Because he was the most beautiful man I’d ever seen in my life, and I couldn’t not kiss him when the opportunity arose.
“It just happened?—”
“At the charity event?”
“Yes—”
“Last month ?”
When I nodded, she smacked the shit out of my arm.
“You kept this to yourself and didn’t tell me for a month ?”
“I know, that was a fucked thing to do, but I didn’t want to lose you, and I didn’t think it’d ever happen again. I thought it was just all the champagne and whatever he was drinking and just…”
“Preston,” she admonished me, before sighing.
“I know. Feel free to yell at me. Throw something. Throw me out the window.”
“They don’t open. But I might actually need that paper bag after all, because ew. You couldn’t choose someone else’s dad?” She dropped her hand back into her lap. “I mean, you’ve joked about thinking he was hot, but I didn’t think you were serious.”
I didn’t even bother trying to deny it. “Where do you think you get your good looks from? Yeah, he’s hot.”
“And he…” She swallowed hard, her face starting to contort. “He kissed you back?”
Kissed me, felt me up…let me come over his hand last night…
“Yeah, he did, but then he acted like it never happened, so I didn’t know if he even remembered it. But then I went to his office to help with the Winter Ball stuff, and there was all this tension and I wanted it to happen again.”
Serena was just staring, hanging on every word like she wanted to know but didn’t. “And did it happen again?”
I shook my head. “No, he kept turning me down. Can you believe it?”
“Can I believe you are the one pursuing my dad? Not in a million freakin’ years. Who are you? And what the hell happened last night?”
Oh God, like I wanted to admit the whole embarrassing ordeal to anyone, much less Serena. I’d leave out the dirty details, but I supposed she deserved to know what her fake boyfriend had been getting up to when she wasn’t around.
“Okay, I’ll preface this by saying I’m not proud of my behavior, but he might’ve texted me that I was a mistake and the kiss was a mistake, and I might’ve let East get me a little drunk?—”
“You let East give you drinks?”
“Shots.”
“Oh my God.” She dropped her face into her hands, and her voice was muffled as she said, “Go on.”
“So I was drunk and a little pissed about the texts, and I might’ve shown up on Archer’s?—”
“ Archer’s? ”
Shit. “—your dad’s doorstep and basically forced my way inside, and…” I didn’t need to go further than that. “I mean, we didn’t do anything…” Not like I didn’t try . “But I want to, and that’s the problem, and that’s why I’m here.”
It was dead silent for way too long, so long I thought maybe she’d fallen asleep in her hands. But then she lifted her head, propping her chin on her fists.
“You like him.”
I hesitated, then nodded.
“And you think he likes you?”
I nodded again.
She looked past me, thinking that over.
“So basically, you seduced my dad.”
“Um. Yeah.”
“ Twice, Preston.” She held her fingers up just in case I didn’t hear, but I was pretty sure the entire showroom heard that.
“I know. I didn’t plan it, but when I got there and saw him, it just kind of…happened. You know how it is.”
“I know how it is?” She cocked her head to the side. “Yeah, I’m not sure that’s a great argument. You see, I’m not trying to sleep with your father.”
“Ew.”
“ Exactly .” She let out a sigh, and when she got to her feet, I followed.
“You get how embarrassing this is, right? You kissed my dad when he thought we were a couple. So when I was pouring my heart out to him the other night, thinking I was telling him some kind of big secret about you and me, he already knew. That’s kind of humiliating. ”
“No.” I shook my head vehemently. “He didn’t know. He didn’t know anything. He thought I was insane at the charity event—that’s why he kept insisting it was a mistake. Well, until I insinuated you and me were, um, something else entirely.”
“I see.”
Silence stretched between us then, and the longer we stood there the louder it grew, until I could barely stand the own noise in my head.
“Please don’t hate me.” Again with the word vomiting. It was like I’d woken up this morning and someone else took control of my brain.
“I don’t hate you.” She reached for the hands I didn’t even realize I was twisting in front of me. “I could never hate you. I’m just… This is just… It’s a lot. I’m processing. Give me a minute.”
I walked over to the window and stared out at the city, wondering what Archer was doing in that moment and how he’d feel if he knew I was here telling Serena everything that had happened between us.
“So, um, you and my dad…” I turned to see Serena’s cute nose scrunched up like she was still trying to make sense of this. But news flash, I was still trying to, and I’d felt this way for weeks now. “That’s kinda crazy, Preston. I mean, if anyone finds out, that shit is going to blow up.”
“I don’t plan on anyone else finding out. I’m good at keeping my private life private. But I needed you to know. I hate lying to you.”
“Well, I appreciate that.” She flashed a rueful grin. “Even if I feel like I need an emergency session with my therapist.”
I snorted and then grabbed her hand, tugging her into my side. “I really am sorry for lying.”
“Uh huh. But not sorry for kissing my dad.”
“Well…maybe not that part.”
She bumped into my side as we headed for the door, but just as we were about to step through, she stopped and looked up at me.
“Wait, does that mean you want to end our arrangement? I know I asked you the other day if you wanted to date?—”
“No. No. I don’t want that to change. I don’t even know if anything else is going to happen. I just wanted you to know, just in case…”
“So this is just asking permission to bone my dad?” She waved her hand. “Gross, but whatever. Go forth. Just please, for the love of God, don’t tell me any -fucking-thing.”