17. Chapter 17
Chapter 17
Lis
I sink into the bath with a sigh. The water is far hotter than most people would probably like and it’s turning my skin pink. The bubbles smell like lavender, the music is soothing, my white wine is cold. Everything is perfect. I close my eyes and relax. Three weeks after I’d brought Spencer to dinner with my parents, I have another few weddings under my belt—including a weekend with two weddings—and I feel like I’m on a roll.
After the first wedding from hell, the rest of them have been pretty easy in comparison. But this past weekend had two weddings—one on Saturday and another on Sunday. So today, my big plans are to relax. I’d taken Cerberus out for a run in the morning, did my laundry in the afternoon, and now I have my eyes closed as I consider whether to read a book or watch a show on my phone. Until it starts ringing.
I sigh and answer it without looking.
“What is it?” I ask in a sing-song voice, assuming it’s my sister.
“What are you doing right now?”
I sit up quickly, sloshing water around the tub when Spencer’s voice comes through the speaker. We hadn’t gone on any more hikes since the event season started picking up, but he’d walked me home every time it was a nice enough night.
“Nothing,” I say.
“Lis. Are you in a bath?” he asks, humour lacing his voice.
“None of your business. What do you want?”
“I just need a second to scrub the image of you naked in a bath from my mind. No, wait. Image stays. Anyway. Derek just told me he forgot to invite you out tonight. He’s hosting his monthly game night. Last Monday of every month. You started at Blue Vista on the date of the last one.”
I blink, trying to keep up with everything he’d said. “Game night?”
“Yeah. I think we’re playing Cards Against Humanity tonight. If Daze and Sophie are free, they’re welcome as well. Unfortunately, Cerberus is not invited. Abyss would probably take him out in about three seconds.”
“Abyss?”
“Derek’s cat. So, are you coming? Or are you going to stay in your bath? Because honestly, I’m not sure which is a better option.”
“Staying in my bath is more relaxing. Which was my plan for tonight.” I pause, thinking. Spencer waits. “Where does he live?” I ask, resigned.
He tells me and I sigh.
“I’m going to have to drive.”
“Probably. Or you can take an Uber. We can share one back. There’ll be drinking tonight.”
I look at my glass of wine. “There fucking better be. All right. Give me an hour to get ready and get there. I’ll ask Daze and Sophie, but they both work tomorrow.”
“No worries. See you in a bit.”
We hang up and I drain the tub with a small pout. But if the rest of them are at Derek’s house for a night of fun, I want to be there, too.
After I’d been fired for dating a co-worker, I’d tried not to involve myself at all in my next job. As a result, I never created any rapport and it ended almost as badly as the previous job. I’d managed better with the next job, and I was determined to do the same with this one.
I ask Daze if she and Sophie want to join me, but as I suspected, they’re going to have an early night. I get dressed, take Cerberus out for a quick walk, and then order an Uber while I finish getting ready.
When I arrive at Derek’s house, I knock, and he opens the door.
“Lis! You came. Sorry I didn’t mention the game night. Everyone else knows. It’s a standing thing. And you’ve blended so seamlessly, I completely forgot you hadn’t been to one before.”
He ushers me inside and I remove my coat and shoes. I can hear loud chatter and laughter from deeper in the house.
“It’s no problem. I didn’t have any plans.”
“Spencer said you were just relaxing.”
“I was. I brought the wine I’d planned on drinking. The one I’d opened and an extra one. Just in case. Can I get a glass and put the rest in the fridge?”
“Right this way,” he says with a grin.
He leads me to the right into his galley kitchen and gets me a glass.
“Bathroom is on the other side of that wall,” he says, pointing as he pours my wine for me. “Everyone else is over there in the living room.” He nods toward the other end of the kitchen. “And that’s pretty much my place. Upstairs is my bedroom and office. Another bathroom. And further up is the rooftop terrace. We’ll spend more time up there in the summer. It’s a bit cold now.”
“A rooftop terrace sounds so cool. This place is great.”
Then I look down as a black, fluffy thing winds around my legs with a nudge and a purr.
“Well,” he says, handing me my glass. “You are officially Abby approved.”
“Abby or Abyss?”
“Either. Both. Her name is Abyss, but I tend to call her Abby more often.” He bends to pick up the cat. “Or your majesty.”
She’s pure black with long, soft fur and bright yellow eyes.
“She’s so pretty,” I say, petting her head. She purrs louder, leaning into my caress, accepting it as her due.
“She’s the queen of this house. I’ll take you up to the roof later to see her outdoor space. Spencer helped me build it two summers ago, just after I moved in.”
Derek is always sort of charming in that ready-to-have-a-good-time kind of way. But in his own house, holding his fluffy black cat, talking about her outdoor space that he built, I feel like I’m seeing the real Derek for the first time. His charismatic exterior is just a front for a marshmallow-soft interior.
We move into the living room where everyone is seated around a table, drinks and snacks laid out, the black box of cards in the middle. My eyes are drawn immediately to Spencer who has his back to me, an arm along the back of one of the empty chairs, legs stretched out in front of him under the table.
“Lis! You’re here!” Adalie says, jumping up to wrap me in a hug. “Derek really dropped the ball on this one.”
I hug her back, Spencer’s eyes finding mine over her shoulder. My breath catches in my chest at the look he gives me—one full of promise and heat that I crave but can’t have. Then he turns back to the table, letting me free. Adalie returns to her seat, pulling me with her and forcing me into the spot next to Spencer. His arm drops from the back of the chair, and he offers me a smile. His expression has cooled, so I no longer feel like sliding into his lap and making out with him. But the idea is there, just under the surface.
Derek hands me a pile of cards and we begin. Or at least, I begin. Everyone else has been playing the whole hour I was getting ready. Adalie is a little drunk already and Vic explains that she’s a lightweight and has been put on time out. I’m glad to see Vic out and loosened up. She always seems to be on, never letting herself have a moment to decompress.
“So, what did we pull you away from, Lis?” Derek asks after he reads out his black card and everyone decides what to give him.
“I wasn’t doing anything. Just trying to figure out if I wanted to read a book or watch a show.”
My glance drifts to Spencer, waiting for him to announce that I’d been in a bath when he called. But he says nothing, focusing much harder on his hand of cards than he needs to.
“You’ve been doing an awesome job at work,” Vic says, handing over her card. “You’ve really hit the ground running.”
“Drink!” Adalie says with a grin.
Vic rolls her eyes and drinks from a bottle of craft beer.
Adalie turns to me. “Since we work together, it’s so easy to fall into work discussions. So if anyone brings it up, they have to take a drink.”
“Fair rules. What do you guys talk about instead?”
“Anything goes,” she says. “Nothing off limits.”
“Nothing? I can ask super rude and personal questions?”
“Anything,” she confirms.
“But,” Spencer says, pulling my attention back to him. “Anything you ask, be prepared to have it asked back to you.”
Our gazes linger on each other for just a moment longer than I probably should have let happen. Then I snap back to the rest of the group.
“Well, let’s start with an easy one then,” I say, selecting a card and handing it to Derek. “How long have you all known each other?”
“You know Spencer and I met when we were practically babies,” Vic says. “These two joined us in university.”
“We did our MBAs together,” Derek says as he picks up the cards, shuffling them. “Became friends during one of the classes,”
“One class?” I ask.
“It was intense,” Adalie says.
We pause in the conversation as Derek reads out the options people have given him. Spencer wins and adds the black card to his massive stack.
“Do you win every round?” I ask him. He just smiles, but everyone else groans.
“It’s all about knowing your competition,” he says, leaning toward me conspiratorially.
Adalie is next, selecting a card and reading it out for us.
“It was a group class,” Adalie says, continuing the conversation from before. “At the beginning of the semester, we selected a group, and together had to come up with a business plan. Vic and Spencer were always going to be together. But the groups needed three to five people. To learn how to work well with other people. Spencer selected me and Derek. In fact, I was already part of a group and I remember Spencer coming up to me and saying, ‘You’re in the wrong group.’”
“What did you do?”
“I wasn’t going to do anything. I was going to ignore him. But then he said the magic words.”
She pauses, smiling, looking at Spencer to say them now.
He leans his arms on the table and says, “Do you want to get an A or not?”
Adalie sighs happily, as though in love. “I switched groups then and there. Turned out, we were the only group to get an A. We worked so well together that when Vic decided to start the business we’d come up with, she invited us all to be part of it.”
“You came up with the idea for Blue Vista in university?”
Everyone nods.
“What happened to the group you had been with at first?”
Adalie bursts into laughter. “They ended up in counselling and barely passed the course.”
Everyone joins her laughter. She reads out the options and selects Spencer as the winner again.
“How do you do that every time?” I ask, pulling a black card from the stack.
“I told you. It’s about knowing who you’re playing with. Knowing what the person receiving the white card will find funny and knowing what the others will offer. Then choose the card that beats them.”
Before I read out the black card, he selects a white one from his hand and sets it down in front of me with a smile.
“Like this one.”
I’m so tempted to just flip it over, but I read the black card first, something about never leaving the house without whatever is on the white card.
As everyone else selects their choices for me, I watch Spencer, who is just looking back at me, full of confidence.
“There is one card in this game that is an automatic win for me,” I say.
He nods. “That’s it.” He taps the card. “I’ve been saving it for you.”
I have all the cards now and I’m supposed to shuffle and read them out. But I just want to read Spencer’s card.
“Go ahead,” Vic says, resigned. “It’s the one you’re going to choose, anyway.”
I flip over the card and laugh. All it says is “puppies.” I hand him the black card.
“You’re right. That’s my automatic win. How did you know?”
He shrugs, but he’s smiling.
The game moves on.
“Okay. You asked us a question,” Derek says. “Our turn. Spencer mentioned you grew up in Maple Ridge. What made you decide to move to Vancouver?”
“A series of unfortunate events,” I say, realizing too late that everyone would want to know more, and I don’t really want to talk about it. I blindly hand Spencer one of my white cards, not even looking at it. They’re all waiting, though. So, I tell the story.
“After I graduated culinary school, I started working for a company in Burnaby. I wasn’t quite in the thick of Vancouver, but close enough to be able to get out here whenever I wanted.”
No one is looking at their cards now.
“I started dating this guy and it was going well. I got a promotion at work, my boss really liked me, I was moving up. And then my boss found out about my relationship. The guy I was dating was his sous chef and it was apparently against the rules. Except the sous chef never mentioned that to me. I’ve actually wondered if it was even a rule or if the chef was just being a dick. Anyway, I was fired. I’d worked there for almost three years, been dating the guy for four months. When I was fired, the guy broke up with me and I had to start all over again. Daze had just moved to Vancouver and so I moved in with her.”
I don’t say how much I needed to be with someone who loved me back then. Someone who I knew wouldn’t betray me. Daze had been my rock when everything was falling apart around me.
I look up to find everyone staring at me like they don’t know what to say. And I can understand that. Everyone here knows that Spencer and I slept together. And everyone knows that I decided not to pursue a relationship with him. Now, everyone knows why.
I stand, finding a smile. “I’m going to get more wine. Anyone else want something from the kitchen?”
I don’t wait for an answer before going to the fridge. I pour my glass of wine and stand at the counter for a minute.
“I’m sorry that happened to you,” Spencer says.
I’m not surprised he’s followed me.
“It wasn’t you, Spencer,” I say, staring at my wine. “I wanted…”
“I know.”
He wraps his arms around me, and I lean into him.
“But I just can’t go through that again. I can’t. I’m so close to where I want to be.” I can feel the tears fill my eyes and a hard lump form in my throat.
“I know. It’s okay.” He kisses the top of my head, a gesture he’s been doing more and more lately as we hang out more often. It feels so warm and safe in his arms and I wish I could stay there forever. He sighs. “You know, Burke. I don’t know which species is worse.”
I snort, my face still buried in his chest. “Who’s Burke?”
“Guess.”
I shake my head. “Not tonight. You can win this round. Just tell me.”
“It’s from Aliens .”
“So humans are being compared to aliens who eat people?”
“Something like that. It’s a commentary on how shitty humans can be. You ready to go back? No more hard questions. If anything comes up you don’t want to talk about, shift your wine glass toward me and I’ll change the subject.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
I take a deep breath and step back, grabbing my glass and head back to the table. Spencer follows me with a couple beers, handing them out and asking Adalie to tell him about her latest art project.
She launches into an animated explanation of a painting she’s creating.
Later, when we’re on our way home, we all share an Uber. It drops Adalie off first and then me. I’m about to get out of the car when Spencer mentions I don’t have a jacket.
I laugh. “I’m only going up the elevator.”
He follows me out of the car, telling the driver he’ll be right back and pulling his hoodie off and over my head.
“You’re ridiculous,” I tell him, but I also feel so cared for that I don’t complain any more than that.
“I don’t want you to be cold,” he says, walking me to the door.
“Well, thank you. And thanks for changing the subject earlier.”
He shrugs. “It’s easy. You can always count on Adalie if you need to change the subject. Though Vic and Derek totally saw through it. Probably Adalie, too.”
“I still appreciate it.”
He wraps me in a hug, warming me to my toes. “I’ll see you on Wednesday, firecracker.”
Then he presses a kiss to the top of my head and holds the door open for me to go inside. When I get to the elevator, I turn back and wave at him where he’s standing, watching me through the door. He waves and then goes back to the car where Vic and the driver are waiting.