Tess
“Thank God,” Kendra exclaimed when I called her on the way to the elevator. “You were really beginning to freak me out!”
It was a thoughtful gesture, worrying about the friend who hadn’t come home, but I was a hundred percent convinced she was only freaking out because my absence would have been an inconvenience to her.
“Sorry. I slept in and forgot to plug my phone in last night. I’m only at ten percent right now, so if I lose you, that’s why.”
“I’ll say you slept in. It’s almost noon.”
I really didn’t need her judging me at the moment. “So the five o’clock train?”
“Yes. Did you get the ticket?”
I moved the phone away from my face so I could check my email. “Yep.”
“And you have my parents’ address?”
Of course I had their fucking address. I was her assistant. I had all the important deets. Not to mention, I knew her parents. I sent them an annual Christmas card. I’d been to the house myself on several occasions.
“Yep.” I bit back the real response I wanted to give. “I’ll be there with an overnight bag and your purse. Anything else?”
“Nope. But make sure it’s the right purse. The one I sent a picture of.”
“Got it.”
“Can you take a picture of it so I know you have the right one?”
Oh, for fuck’s sake. Did she trust me with nothing?
She wouldn’t let it drop until she saw the purse, I knew that from experience. I wasn’t going to admit that I wasn’t currently at her house, not after I’d suggested I’d just woken up there. Fortunately, I’d just stepped in the elevator, and the call dropped.
Good. I’d pretend my battery died and send her a pic when I got to her apartment.
As soon as I was out of the elevator, though, I called Tey.
“Help!” I said in lieu of a greeting.
“I got the text from Kendra, so I figured shit is up. Spill it.”
I went outside and hailed a cab while I caught her up, grateful that the clouds overhead hadn’t burst because getting a cab was impossible in the rain, and I was not wearing appropriate attire.
Safe in the car on the way to Kendra’s apartment, I should have felt calmer, but instead I only felt worse about everything.
“It’s all going to crumble down, Tey. It’s a house of cards, and Kendra’s going to find out, and Scott’s going to hate me, and the DRF won’t be chosen for sponsorship, and Sarah won’t give me a job, and Scott is definitely going to hate me. ”
“You already mentioned the last one.”
“It’s important enough to mention twice. Were you not listening when I said last night was fucking incredible? And he likes me. He said he likes me! He doesn’t mean it, does he? It’s just a line, isn’t it? I’m being played, aren’t I?”
Yeah, I was beginning to unravel.
“Calm your tits, girl, and breathe.” She was best-friend-good at pulling me together.
Even though I was usually the one coaching Teyana through POTS-induced panic attacks, she’d had her fair share of talking me down as well, which was embarrassing considering how my anxiety was most often centered around a stupid-hot boy.
“Okay. I’m breathing,” I said in between breaths.
“Now listen to me. Sure. He might be playing you. I saw the way he looked at you that night at the opera though, and the character he displayed did not seem likely to say shit like that if it wasn’t true.
“But this is not the time to figure that all out. Now is the time to focus on Kendra, and I know she can be a bitch of a woman to deal with, but she’s also a genuinely kind-hearted person who means well, and I would bet money she’ll understand if you are honest and upfront.
Focus on that tonight. Tomorrow deal with the boy. ”
Right. Right. That had to be the plan.
“Did you just say nice things about Kendra?”
“I did. Don’t tell anyone. And I mean them. She’s not an asshole. And she’s going to care about making things right with the DRF, which means honoring whatever you’ve already started, and she cares about you. So she’s going to be hurt, but she’s not going to kick you to the curb.”
Something in my gut said that Teyana was probably right. She’d spent so much time hating on Kendra—we’d spent so much time hating on Kendra—that I’d convinced myself she was worse than she was. “She really does care about us, doesn’t she? Why do we rag on her so much?”
“Because we’re jealous, and she’s privileged, and she hurts us a lot more than she realizes or means to. And because it’s what girls do.”
I felt bad about that. Mostly I felt bad that in all of this going behind her back, I hadn’t considered she’d be hurt by it. Probably because considering it meant that I’d feel the way I did now. Like shit.
“Remember you were trying to do something good for the DRF,” Tey went on, seeming to sense my self-loathing over the mobile network and wanting to make me feel better.
Actually, I’d been just as focused on doing something good for myself. But thinking about that right now only made me feel worse, so I dismissed that bit of truth from my mind.
“That’s why I have to pull this off. For them.” For Tey.
“And you will. Do you want me to come with you to Greenwich? For moral support?”
Yes. “No. I’d never put you through that.”
“You’re running short of time, though. I could pack a bag for you and meet you at Kendra’s and help clean.”
“No fucking way are you cleaning her house.”
“I’ll meet you at Grand Central then.”
“You’d be down for the rest of the weekend after that kind of excursion.”
“I’d do it for you!”
“I know, and I’m not letting you.” Especially if I wouldn’t be there to help take care of her afterward.
She gave a frustrated sigh. “Then I’ll have your bag packed for you so it can be a quick in and out.”
That I’d accept. “Thank you, Tey. For always being there when I need you.”
“Only giving back what you give me.”
“Love you, and see you soon.”
I rushed like a locomotive once I got to Kendra’s.
I hung up the dress I was currently wearing in her closet, hoping it smelled fresh—I really hadn’t worn it long—and changed into a pair of yoga pants and a T-shirt of mine that was overdue for a wash.
Then I plugged in my phone, gathered dirty dishes from around the house, and stuck them in the dishwasher without a rinse first. It probably wasn’t good enough, but it would have to do.
The rest of the place didn’t look as bad as I’d remembered since the housekeeper had been there the day before.
Her closet required the most work as I tried to arrange things as close to how she left them as possible.
I gave up after spending too much time on it, deciding I’d tell her that I’d had to hunt for the purse she’d wanted since that was true.
After that, I picked up the dry cleaning and dropped it back off at her house, collected my bag of laundry and phone and her damn red purse, and splurged on a cab to Jersey City since taking the city transportation would have required both a subway and a bus trip and even if it rained, going by car would shave off thirty minutes.
As promised, Tey met me at the door, handing over a packed overnight bag and a battery pack in exchange for my dirty laundry. “Do you have time for a shower?” she asked.
I didn’t really, but I smelled like sex and Scott, both fragrances I didn’t mind holding on to in other circumstances, and there was no way I was fit to be present in front of any of the Montgomerys in my current state.
“I’ll make it quick.”
Twenty minutes later, with wet hair and a sandwich Tey had thrown together for me while I’d showered, I got in another cab and headed to Grand Central station.
I made my train just as they called for final boarding.
It was an hour ride to Connecticut. Not too long, but long enough to get myself together and decide what I was going to say to Kendra.
Stupidly, I didn’t do either and ended up spending most of the time googling Scott Sebastian.
Something I should have done ages ago because the search results that came up were a definite reminder of who I was dealing with.
Image after image after image of Scott looking all suave and devastating, a different gorgeous girl on his arm each time.
Some pics were posed for the camera at formal events.
Some were candid. Then I found a paparazzi shot with him and a woman on the couch/bed on his balcony.
It wasn’t close up, but her head was in his lap, and it was obvious what she was doing.
I studied each one, waiting to feel the stab of jealousy that I usually felt when I saw a man I liked with women more beautiful than me.
It didn’t come like I’d expected, though.
I was too high from waking up in his bed to be brought down.
Too high off the fact that I’d seen him last night and was seeing him again tomorrow when none of the other women he was posted with were seen with him twice.
That didn’t mean anything, I knew. What was captured in pictures was only a splice of real life.
I hadn’t had any pictures (to my knowledge) with the man, after all.
But it was a gut feeling, an instinct to believe I was special that was probably way off base and totally made up, and even knowing that in my head, my heart chose to believe there might actually be something real.
Was that the most crazy thing in the world?
Then I came across the one image that did jab at me—one with Scott and Kendra.
It was a group shot, and I wasn’t even sure she and he were a couple in it, but she was at his side, and though the smile on his face didn’t hit his eyes, hers looked genuine.
It was only one picture, taken at a huge charity event sponsored by the Montgomerys.
There were so many reasons that Kendra could be happy in the picture that had nothing to do with Scott Sebastian.
But there was an unsettled ache between my ribs at the possibility that it was. Was that why she hadn’t wanted to pitch to the Sebastians? Because she’d been pining over one of Henry’s sons? If so, did she like him enough to ruin a potential partnership if she discovered I’d slept with him?