Chapter 10 Aurelia #2
We walked inside, and I found my friends seated together at the table.
It was Cindy, Bethany, and Danielle. Cindy still wasn’t herself since Timothée had left .
. . at least, that’s what she believed. I’d known Bethany since secondary school, and Danielle was another photographer I’d met in the business.
And I swore—all of their jaws dropped.
Their eyes were glued to him as he came closer.
Utterly transfixed by his beauty, they just stared like morons.
“Constantine,” I said, even though he clearly didn’t need an introduction.
“Almighty God,” Bethany said under her breath but loud enough for everyone to hear.
“That’s Bethany,” I said as he shook her hand. “And then Cindy . . . and Danielle.”
“Nice to meet you all,” Constantine said with that smug grin, fully aware of their rapt attention. Then he pulled out the chair for me, and once we sat down, his hand immediately moved to my thigh under the table.
The three of them continued to stare.
“Guys, I already showed you his picture,” I said, wanting the drooling to stop.
“But we thought you did something with AI,” Danielle said.
“Or you took another guy’s picture,” Bethany said.
“Thanks,” I said sarcastically. “I know he’s out of my league, but he’s real.”
“Come on, sweetheart.” He gave my thigh a squeeze under the table. “Look at you.”
My friends stared at him, then stared at me, probably completely beside themselves that this man was treating me like a queen. I was beside myself every single day because I couldn’t believe it either.
After a long bout of silence with lots of staring, Danielle spoke. “So . . . do you have a brother?”
He smirked. “A sister.”
“You know what,” Danielle said, “I can make that work.”
Constantine left the table when he got a phone call. He stepped outside to take it.
“Sweet baby Jesus,” Bethany said. “You’re the luckiest bitch alive.”
“I know,” I said. “But I also wonder if it’s karma . . . after Enzo.” Maybe the universe felt bad for what had happened to me and decided to send something good my way. Good . . . as in unbelievably good.
“Then I pray some man cheats on me.” Bethany put her hands together and said a quick prayer under her breath. “Please, please cheat on me . . .”
“Speaking of worthless cheaters,” Danielle said. “I’m pretty sure Enzo and Luna aren’t together anymore.”
“What makes you say that?” I asked. It’d been a clean break with Enzo and me. We didn’t have any mutual friends. He kept his friends, and I kept mine. So it wasn’t like anyone kept in touch.
“The stuff he’s posting,” she said. “I’m not sure if he knows I still follow him or if he wants me to know he’s single so I’ll tell you, but he’s alone in all his pictures.
He’ll take a picture of a coffee cup at a café or himself alone on a hike.
Sometimes him with his friends, but Luna isn’t there. ”
That information made me feel nothing—and it felt so fucking nice. I didn’t care either way. Didn’t care if they broke up or got married. It’d only been six weeks, but it felt like six months. “He came by the apartment and told me he’d made a mistake with Luna . . . and he was sorry.”
“Uh, why didn’t you mention this piping-hot tea?” Bethany demanded.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Guess I forgot?” Guess I just didn’t care? “Wasn’t sure if he’d try to make it work since I wasn’t an option or it just wasn’t going to work out, no matter what. Maybe she was the one who left. I don’t know.”
“What an idiot,” Danielle said. “Blew up his entire life for some married woman with two kids . . . and once reality set in, he tried to run. He abandoned you and then tried to abandon her. Such a worthless scumbag.”
I shrugged. “Yeah, guess so.”
“Guess so?” Danielle asked. “Shouldn’t you be more upset about this? Or at least happy? Spiteful? Smug?”
“Have you seen the man I brought in here?” I looked over my shoulder and saw him in the window, still talking on the phone.
“This is the man in my bed, and you ask why I’m not upset about Enzo?
” I gave a laugh as I waved off their comments.
“Yeah, I’m good. Constantine actually asked me to move in with him. ”
“Oh really?” Cindy asked. “What are you going to say?”
“Already said yes. I know it’s been like six weeks, but I was with Enzo for two years and he left me for a married woman. So . . . fuck it.”
“Sorry about that phone call,” Constantine said when we got home. “I had to take it.”
“Didn’t bother me. Gave us time to talk about you.” I smiled before I moved to the couch to slip off my heels. Medusa jumped on the couch next to me the second I sat down and put her paw on my thigh.
“Yeah?” He slipped off his watch and put it in his closet before he came back out, already shirtless. “Good things, I hope.”
“Oh, definitely good things. Told them I’m moving in with you.”
“Yeah?” He smiled like my commitment to the decision made him happy.
“I told them I know it’s fast, but I just don’t care.
” I put my heels to the side, then petted Medusa for a while, feeling bad for getting up when she’d just jumped up to be with me.
I rubbed her behind her ears, and her eyes softened like that was her favorite spot.
“They said it seems like Enzo and Luna broke up, based on the stuff he posts.”
“Didn’t see that coming a kilometer away.” He dropped his jeans and stood in just his boxers, his legs muscular with dark hair over his thighs and calves. His chest and stomach were mostly free of hair except for a few curls right in the center of his sternum. “How do you feel about it?”
“I don’t care either way. It’s hard to believe I was so upset about the whole thing six weeks ago.
” Now I had a new life and a new man and a dog .
. . and I didn’t know who that woman used to be.
I didn’t understand why she’d settled for so little.
Why she’d cried over a man who was vastly inferior to Constantine in every way.
Constantine walked over and took the seat beside me, leaving Medusa on the other side. Even though I hadn’t said anything to relay my emotion or my gratitude or relief, he seemed to know it was there. “Because now you’re the woman you were always meant to be—my woman.”