29. Chapter Twenty-Nine #2
Someone shuffles past us, knocking her into me. I steady her and she rests her head against my chest.
“Then tell me, Mandy, how it is?” I say with disdain.
I’m not sure where my agitation is coming from.
“It’s… complicated,” she says.
Complicated? Fuck, Mandy doesn’t know the half of it. I could give her complicated…
“Try me.”
I tighten my grip on her as she clings to me.
“Juliet’s in another coffin,” she says with a sigh.
“What?”
“Romeo…”
And then it hits me. Romeo, the guy she’d been seeing…
“Romeo is Reid Stone?” I hiss. “Doesn’t he have a girlfriend?” I blink. “And a kid?”
“Yes,” she says bitterly. I curse under my breath.
“But I mean, they broke up a couple weeks ago.”
“Mandy…” I sigh. “How long?”
She wraps her arms around me tighter, looking away.
“How long?” I ask, feeling a strange sense of protectiveness and sadness.
“It started right before he signed with the Rioters,” she says, her voice low. Scared.
“Before he signed with the Rioters?”
I try to do the math, but I’ve had a lot to drink, though I’m fairly sure that means it’s been a little more than a year…
And from my understanding, Stone’s got a one-year-old.
I blink, the alcohol hitting me harder than it should. Or maybe it’s the heat.
Which would mean…
“You’re having an affair?”
“It’s not like that, Trey, I swear, I—”
I feel hurt but also strangely relieved. Suddenly so many things make sense, but before I can say anything, Alex bumps into us, handing us both drinks. I don’t know what it is, just that it’s not beer. The glasses are small and filled with blue liquid.
“What’s this?” I ask as he toasts us.
“Blue Balls.” He laughs. “That’s what it said on the menu anyway.”
I take a sip as Mandy lets go of me.
Reid and the guys come up behind Alex, dispersing onto the dance floor.
“Hey, Mandy, you have a minute to talk about that endorsement deal?” Stone asks, trying to appear nonchalant, but he’s been drinking just as much as the rest of us, so it is quite apparent how thinly veiled his excuse is.
Part of me wants to shove him away, tell him to fuck off, but then I see the vulnerability in his eyes. The way he looks at her.
Like he’d do anything just for her to look at him.
I know that feeling, too.
My phone buzzes in my pocket, but I ignore it for the moment.
I look at Alex, and the words make it out of my throat, resting on my tongue.
There are so many questions in my brain, questions he could help me answer.
Or maybe it would just be easier to tell everyone else if I tell Alex first.
If I can trust him with my secret.
Something tells me I can, but it’s still terrifying to think about.
“Alex, can we, uh…. Can we talk?”
Alex looks at me with a raised eyebrow as he texts someone.
“Yeah, sure,” he says, holding his phone up.
“Smile, Kelly,” he says.
Click.
“Maybe later,” Mandy says.
Stone looks hurt and I have half a mind to offer him a deal of my own, but… I won’t.
Mandy’s my friend. And as much as I could use the commission, because landing Stone would be huge for Nutri-Go, I realize as I stand here with my friends how the idea holds no value to me anymore. Not really.
This—this world of travel and parties and contracts, and dollar signs, it’s… it’s not who I am anymore.
Later never comes, though. For Stone and Mandy, or for Alex and I.
Though the alcohol definitely does. And it definitely has me feeling better about a lot of things.
“Say cheese, asshole!” Alex says with a laugh as he wraps his arm around me, holding his drink up as he sticks his tongue out.
Click.
Click.
Click.
Everything is a flash of lights and sound, of memories long forgotten and moments undiscovered. Memories of all those years ago. Of me and the guys and Huds. I’m having fun, and it feels good, but…
I miss Hudson. I miss him like fucking crazy and though it’s only a few days away that I will get to see him and our friends, it feels like an eternity.
The first time, when we were here… I had so much fun. With him.
Drinking with him and flirting with girls. Trying to get him laid. Which feels like something that should make me jealous, but at this point, it’s just funny. Swimming and playing volleyball in the pool, eating all the amazing food…
Even the clubs and the strippers were more fun because he was there.
He should be here. With me.
I’m not alone, I have my friends—Alex and Mandy—but they aren’t who I want.
Not now, not ever.
I think, as I stand here in some club I don’t know the name of, drunk, I’ve never felt more alone.
I wish Hudson was here, dancing with me.
I wish it was his arms around me, his body against me.
That he was leaning against me and burying his face in my neck, groaning about how he was never going to have fun again.
That we could lay in bed together and cuddle and kiss and fuck until the damn sun comes up and eat chocolate croissants and drink coffee in bed.
But he’s not here. My fingers hover over his text thread.
I know it’s late, and he has work in the morning. I shouldn’t call him, but fuck I want to hear his voice.
“Trey!” Alex calls my name.
“Huh?”
“Your fiancée’s talking to you.”
I blink, opening my mouth to tell him she’s not my fiancée, but before I can speak, Mandy does.
“I think it’s time to call it a night,” Mandy says as she leans against me. I look at her, and suddenly I feel tired as shit.
“Yeah, you might be right,” I say, looking back to Alex.
“But before we go, I need to—”
“Fuck, that’s Jordan,” Alex says with a grunt. “I’m going to peace the fuck out, too.”
Alex grins as he types something on his phone.
“It’s been fun, Kelly. See you Friday.”
And with that, Alex Brewer leaves me and Mandy in his dust.
I glance around the club, but Stone and the guys seem to have disappeared. “Come on,” she says, squeezing my hip. “I think we’ve had enough fun for one night, right?” she teases. I nod. “Yeah. I guess.”
I feel like I forgot something, but I don’t know what.
Thankfully, Mandy is staying in the same hotel as me, though she’s on a different floor. When I get to her room, I hand her her heels she forced me to carry. Not that there was much resistance on my part.
She looks up at me with glassy eyes.
“Are you in love with him?” I ask.
“Who? Alex?” She laughs, but it’s not genuine. She might be drunk, but she’s not dumb.
“No. Stone.” I don’t know why I ask, maybe because on some level, I know. Maybe I just want to focus on someone else’s problems instead of my own.
I have the strangest desire to tell her everything.
About Hudson and I.
About applying for Power Play’s administrative position.
About how I don’t want to play these games anymore because it just doesn’t feel the same.
We’ve always pretended to be together because it worked for us, but now…
Now it feels like we’re breaking up, but we’ve never been together.
“Yes,” she says honestly.
“Does he love you?” I ask, my voice careful.
She twists her lips. “I don’t know.”
Her words hit me harder than they should. I pull her into my arms and hug her and she starts to cry.
She sets her hand on my chest and her fake ring catches the light. I take her hand in mine, my thumb brushing over the sparkly stone. It’s cubic zirconia, but it looks legit.
“Maybe you should ask him?”
Mandy drops her hand, rubbing her ring.
“I’m not sure that’ll change anything, Trey.”
“Why not?” I ask, suddenly feeling more vulnerable and drunk than ever. All my feelings, the unspoken ones, push forth.
“You said they broke up, right?”
She nods. “He said they did, yeah…”
“Did he say why?”
She shakes her head, tears filling her eyes.
“No. I… we didn’t get… that far…” She averts my eyes, her cheeks blushing.
I let out a chuckle.
“So that’s why you were busy ?” I shove her playfully.
She laughs. It’s genuine.
“No, I mean… maybe…” She runs a hand over her face.
“It’s complicated…”
I pull her into a hug. “Good things usually are.”
She nods, letting me go.
“If you need me to beat his ass—”
She laughs. “I’m good, but…”
Mandy opens her clutch and pulls out her key card, opening the door.
Then she leans up on her tiptoes and kisses my cheek.
“What was that for?”
She gives me a smile.
“Thank you, Trey,” she says warmly.
“For what? I didn’t do anything.”
Her smile is genuine. “Whoever she is, she’s a lucky girl,” she says.
“What?”
She reaches out and pats my shoulder.
“Your girlfriend. I know you’ve been seeing someone for a while now, too.”
The alcohol hits its peak, and I look at her, the words stuck in my throat. I want to tell her.
“Mandy—”
She gives me a warm smile.
“It’s okay, Trey. I get if you want to keep things to yourself.”
“You do?” I ask, my throat getting all tight. It’s the way she says it. Like secret relationships are totally fine and not problematic.
But looking at her, knowing how I feel about Hudson—her step-brother—and knowing now that she’s been tangled up in some affair with hockey’s hottest rising star, I guess I get it.
Sometimes it’s safer, easier to keep the things we love just for us.
“Yeah.” Her voice is faint. “So I’d appreciate it if you could, you know… keep Stone and I to yourself. You know, so we can… figure things out? Before throwing a grenade into other people’s lives.”
Other people.
His girlfriend—er, ex-girlfriend I guess—and his kid.
I nod, recognizing the vulnerability in her voice. I pull her close again and hug her.
She lets out a sigh of relief.
“Of course, your secret is safe with me.”
“Thank you,” she says carefully, letting me go.
It's on the tip of my tongue to tell her.
I’m in love with your step-brother, and I have been for months.
I’m terrified of telling people I’m in love with my best friend.
But most of all, I’m terrified he doesn’t love me the way I love him. That he doesn’t want the things I want with him…
“Text me tomorrow when you land in Athens, okay? I mean it.”
“I—”
Mandy’s smile is friendly and warm, and full of appreciation I probably don’t deserve, but…
It warms my heart nonetheless
She turns to look at me, half in the door.
“I mean it, Trey.” She narrows her gaze, her eyes glistening with drunken warmth. I give her a knowing smile back as the words stick to my tongue.
“Of course. I’ll text you tomorrow.”
And with that, she shuts the door, and I head to my room.
My phone buzzes away in my pocket, going off the whole way there. When I pull it out, I see I have several missed calls from Hudson.
Shit, I hope everything is okay.
I make my way into my penthouse. My eyes are heavy and I’m tired as shit, so I toss my phone on the bed and strip down to my underwear.
It’s damn near 3:00 am back in Minnesota.
I open my thread to see a bunch of group chat notifications and Hudson’s texts.
I hit the button to call him back but it goes to voicemail after two rings. I stare at my phone, frowning. I hit the button again. Goes to voicemail, this time after three rings.
I type out a text.
Me
Why aren’t you answering?
Panic swells in my chest as I stare at my phone… he read the text but he isn’t answering? What the hell?
I call again. Same damn thing.
Me
What is going on, Hudson? Why aren’t you answering my calls or my texts?
Another text pops up from the group chat, so I close out of this one to check it.
I skim through the texts that stemmed from Alex sharing the photos he took of us and then an IG post that he put up.
He’s always sharing those so we can like and comment on them and hype him up.
I don’t click on it or pay much attention to the texts at all. I can’t even focus.
A text comes through from Hudson, and I swipe out of the message so fast to get back to the other one.
Huds
I’ve been calling you for hours and you didn’t answer. It doesn’t feel very good to be ignored, does it?
“What the hell?”
Me
You know I’m working. I don’t understand????
Huds
Right. Working… out at the club.
With your fiancée.
“Fuck,” I hiss. How did he find out about that?
I call him but he ignores it again.
Me
Answer the phone so we can talk!
Huds
I don’t want to talk to you, Trey.
I actually think maybe we should take a break.
It’s obvious this is too much for you.
Me
Too much for me? I’m the one who told you I loved you!
Huds
And then you let every single one of Alex’s followers know how happy you are with your “sexy fiancée, Mandy.”