51. True
Don’t make a scene.
Don’t make a scene.
Don’t make a fucking scene, True.
I coached myself over and over when all I wanted to do was tell the woman in front of me we had nothing to talk about. Instead, I yanked away from her touch and walked out to the front of the venue, away from the music and toward the hall where valet and coat check were stationed, waiting for guests to end their night.
Keeping five feet between us, I turned to look at Mischa Hunt with a raised brow. “What do you want to talk about?”
Instead of answering, she inclined her head to the right and my eyes landed on two men in suits. Noah and Michael.
“Why did you?—”
“Just listen, dear. I think there’s something you might want to hear.”
“This is why you so loyal to this boy? Because y’all laid up?” Michael scoffed and my spine stiffened. “Let me ask you something, does True know?”
Did I know what? And why had his mom called me out here to eavesdrop?
I hated him saying my name. I hated the disgust in his voice when he looked at his son. I hated everything about this man.
“I’m not cheating on True, and now ain’t the time for me to explain my fucking love life to you. You’re here for Lottie and Cal, go support them.” Noah’s voice was tight, leaving no room for argument. But of course, his father had to toe the line. I’d just met him today, yet his actions were so easy to predict.
“You watch how the hell you talk to me, Noah.” He lifted a finger that Noah just looked at. When he realized he wasn’t intimidating his son, Michael tried to hit a different nerve. “You could have been so much. I never met another grown man as complacent as you. My folks wouldn’t let me show my face around town if the only thing I did was work for another man’s dream. Now you dating him? Shit, I hope you are if you were kissing him like that in public. And you want me to believe your girlfriend is okay with that?”
“I don’t give a fuck what you believe, Michael .”
His father flinched like he was slapped in the face and his lips curled into a nasty smile. “Boy, I tell you, this generation is too freaky for me.”
I was moving before I could process it. All I knew was that a hand tried to halt my progress and I flung it away. My heels clicked against the hall’s floors and I didn’t stop walking until I was right beside Noah. I didn’t give him time to say anything before I whipped my head in his father’s direction. “I don’t care that you just called me freaky because your opinion of me doesn’t mean shit. But what I won’t let slide is you coming out of your mouth crazy to Noah ever since we got here.”
Michael scoffed and ran a hand over his collar. “You just met me, little girl. Watch your mouth.”
“And I hope I never meet your miserable ass again. I’m not watching you belittle your son because he won’t jump when you say jump. You ain’t shit but a bully and you don’t scare me. You or your weird ass wife. Noah is one of the best men I’ve ever met. Your son deserves so much better than you and I swear if you ever?—”
“True!” Noah’s voice cut through my blacked out thoughts seconds before his arm was around my waist, pulling me away from his father. I hadn’t realized how close I’d gotten when I was talking, but he had to drag me a few steps before I struggled out of his hold and shot another defiant look over my shoulder.
Michael was smirking at me, the cold glint in his eye triumphant as Mischa rushed to his side.
Adrenaline pumped through my veins and my chest heaved from trying to exhale more breaths than I was taking in.
I didn’t get a chance to ask Noah why he pulled me away before Greyson came around the corner, tucking his phone into his breast pocket. He smiled on instinct at seeing us until his gaze clashed with Noah’s. Then mine.
A million questions filled his eyes.
“We’re going home,” Noah bit out roughly, dropping my arm and leaving me and Greyson to stand there in the hall.
After we got our coats, Noah walked out of the venue ahead of us and climbed in the backseat of Greyson’s truck without a word. The way he slammed the door told me that he didn’t want company back there, so I let Greyson help me into the front passenger seat.
The ride home was a silent one.
No radio.
No small talk.
None of the banter the three of us usually shared.
Greyson kept splitting worried glances between me and the rearview mirror to check on Noah.
Between chewing the inside of my cheek and picking at my cuticles, I didn’t know what else to do with myself. The weight of the silence pressed in on me, making my chest tight and my right knee jump.
By the time we got out the car to walk in the house, I was so nervous I didn’t even feel the bite of cold clinging to the snowy air.
“I need somebody to tell me what the hell is going on,” Greyson demanded, stopping by the couch to look at us.
Still silent, Noah pulled off his coat before walking over to me with a heated scowl.
I didn’t let his irritation deter me. “Noah, are you okay?”
“I didn’t ask you to speak up for me, you should have just let him talk. That’s all he ever does.”
My brows bunched and I tried to close the space between us. “He wasn’t just talking , he was antagonizing you for being poly and you just let him!”
“So what! What you think you did tonight? You think blowing up at him made it better? That the next time he sees me he’s finna respect me because my girlfriend called him out? You just made that shit worse. I don’t need you speaking up for me, True. I don’t need you doing anything for me.”
“Are you serious right now? You’re mad at me for defending you?” I crossed my arms over my chest and focused on the ball of fur sleeping on the couch. “All this energy for me but he can talk to you however the fuck he wants?”
“I need both of y’all to calm down and stop yelling at each other.” Greyson stepped between us, his expression as confused as I was feeling.
“I’m calm,” Noah bit out, but I couldn’t see him around the wall that Greyson was. And maybe that was a good thing.
I couldn’t handle him looking at me like I’d shattered his world into a million pieces when all I did was check his father.
“Would it have been better if I didn’t say anything? If I just let him talk?—”
“Nah, it would have been better if you didn’t meet them at all.”
Greyson snapped his head toward his best friend. “Noah, wait?—”
“I’m going to bed,” Noah announced before walking down the hall.
I watched his retreat with my mouth sealed and a shudder working through my body. When I couldn’t see Noah anymore, I turned back to the front door and pulled it open.
“True, you don’t have to go anywhere! Y’all both need to sleep on this shit and we can figure it out in the morning.”
“Can you walk me to my door?” I asked pointedly, stepping outside instead of listening to another protest from him.
Greyson didn’t have a choice but to grab his discarded coat and pull it back on, kissing his teeth.
“Red, I don’t know what the hell happened, but?—”
“Noah’s dad saw y’all kissing. He tried to corner Noah because he thought I didn’t know. And when Noah didn’t give him the reaction he wanted, he tried going low. That’s where I stepped in. I didn’t know he had a fucking allegiance to—you know what? It doesn’t matter. I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
We both fell silent with the exception of my teeth chattering. And I was only fifty percent sure that had something to do with the snow still falling from the sky.
We were at my door before I could make sense of anything, so I turned to Greyson with a half-hearted wave.
“Goodnight, Grey.”
“True, please sleep with us tonight. Your cabin is going to be freezing.”
“I have space heaters and I know how to build a fire. Don’t worry about me.”
“True.”
I couldn’t look at him. I couldn’t look at anything. Of all the emotions rolling through me, sadness had finally gained some ground and tears pricked my eyes. It was dark, it was snowing and I needed to get inside before I had icicles hanging off my lash extensions.
“You should go home,” I sniffed. “It’s cold out here.”
“True!” Greyson called through the screen door when I grabbed the knob to close the larger one.
“Good night, Greyson.”
Thirty minutes later, my face was cleaned, I was in my flannel pajamas and a fire crackled in the fireplace. My feet were tucked under me on the couch and I had my phone in my hand, waiting for a message from Noah to tell me everything was okay. But it never came. And when I fell asleep on the couch hours later, one question played on a loop at the front of my mind.
What the hell just happened?