Chapter 18 - Vanna
EIGHTEEN
VANNA
The next day we head back home to our apartment in New York.
Mrs. Belmont was in tears with our departure and hurriedly spews wedding plan ideas and dates to visit before the big day. I make promises to call her, which I intend to keep despite my relationship with her son ending in just a few short hours.
When we finally get the airport, she reluctantly lets us go.
On the flight, Stone takes the window seat and actively ignores me. After the first hour, I decide I hate it. After the fourth hour, I decide I miss him.
Then we share a silent Uber ride and when we make it home, he shuts himself in his room. I don’t know what I did to make him so upset with me, but I give him the space he needs.
The following morning, I get to work, and my boss pulls me into his office. Nervously, I lower myself into the chair facing his desk.
Clearing his throat, Gary folds his hands over the small stack of papers in front of him and painfully drags his gaze from his computer screen over to me. The grimace souring his face tells me this won’t be good news.
“Vanna, I want to first start by telling you that the last three years you’ve put in with David & Petersons Company has been outstanding.
You’re reliable, you meet your deadlines, and if it were up to me, I’d promote you within a heartbeat.
” He clears his throat again. “But the hard truth is, the Company has to make some cuts and unfortunately, this impacts your position.”
My heart plummets to the pit of my stomach. I swallow, then lick my lips.
“How long do I have?”
“Seeing as you handle proprietary information on a daily basis, we are obligated to walk you out now.”
“What?”
“It’s just policy.” His hands fly up in surrender, rejecting any fault. “Here’s your severance package. Sign there and don’t forget to enroll in your benefits.”
I drag the packet across his desk and start to read it. They’ll continue to pay me for the next three weeks, then I’m on my own. Not only that, but insurance is now well over five hundred dollars a month.
“Fuck!” I shout, throwing myself back against the chair and running my palms down my face.
“I’m so sorry, I wish there was something I could do.”
Sighing, I sign the severance package, push myself to stand and head back to my cube to pack my shit. To make matters worse, my boss follows me the entire time, but hey – it's just policy.
All within an hour, I’m back home, searching the internet for jobs and by Friday, I’ve applied to seventeen and heard back from none of them.
As I submit another application for a job I know I’ll hate, a certain someone comes striding into the kitchen with his grey sweats riding low on his hips and his hair still wet.
He combs the strands back with his hand, and I catch the small rivulets of water drip down his torso.
Sipping my wine, I pretend not to watch so closely, but I can’t deny the warmth spreading through my core.
Popping the cap off a bottle of beer, he leans against the counter and faces me. I contemplate telling him that I’ve lost my job, but he breaks the silence first.
“I forgot about the Plan B.”
I purse my lips. “Fuck.”
“I’m sorry. I told you I’d get it, and I didn’t.”
The red wine glistens in my glass before I toss the last sip back.
“I completely forgot.” I admit.
“Look, I’m sorry I blew up at you. I just would hate to see you in that place he took you to.”
“It’s fine.” I tell him. “Oh, here.”
I pull his ring out of my pocket and try to hand it over. He just stares at it.
“What am I supposed to do with that?”
“I don’t know? Return it?”
“Nah, just keep it. It suits you anyway.”
I hold it out a few seconds longer in case he changes his mind. When he doesn’t, I put it back in my pocket.
“Did you already break the news to your mom?”
He nods.
“How’d she take it?”
“Just as I expected her to.”
“Great.” I say with effort. “I - uh – I'm having company in a few.”
He stares at me, then nods understandingly.
“I’ll make myself scarce then.”
He turns to leave, and I want to stop him, but I don’t. I watch him leave me in the kitchen and lock himself away in his room.
Just as he disappears, a knock sounds at our front door. Hunter stands there with a bottle of wine and a relieved smile. I let him in and as he passes me, he grabs my face, placing a firm peck against my lips.
Pulling away, I shoot him a warning look.
“I said I would hear you out. That’s it.”
"Of course, I just can’t help myself sometimes. I miss you.”
He nods and finds his own way to the island, plopping down on a stool. As I uncork a new bottle of wine, Hunter tilts my computer toward himself.
“Applying for a second job?”
Snapping my gaze up, I scowl, slamming my laptop shut.
“No.” I snap. “I got fired.”
“Shit. Well, it’s not like you really liked that job.”
Shrugging, I sigh. “No, but it was good money.”
“Well, there's a bar down the street, Silvester’s. Expensive as shit and nearly impossible to get a reservation. Bet you’d make bank there. Bet you’d also look hot as fuck in their uniform.”
I grimace at his comment but decide to look into it after he leaves.
Handing him a glass of wine, he takes it and holds it up, “To the future.”
"Hunter.”
“Fine, to hearing me out.”
That I do cheers to, but I still get this gut feeling that I shouldn’t be doing this. I shouldn’t entertain this at all. A part of me feels like I’m just falling into the same pattern as my mother.
“I don’t mean to be rude, but get on with it… Please.”
He clears his throat and out slips a nervous chuckle, “Okay. Well, first off, I’m sorry. I know what I did wasn’t right. It was selfish and hurtful and not at all your fault.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
“Van, please?” He begs me to be patient. “I’ve gone to therapy, you know? I’m trying to be better. I want to be better. For you. I miss you. I miss what we had together. You made me into a person I could be proud of.”
“Did I? Because you cheated on me. Repeatedly. Then told me it’s because I wasn’t there for you enough.”
He winces. “I did say that, but I didn’t mean it.
You were there. I was exhausted of always trying to pull you out of that dark mind of yours, and it weighed on me.
I needed something light and fun and carefree.
I never had that with you. We were always too serious, and I think that scared me, but I’m ready now.
I’m ready to show you I’ve changed, that I can handle your lows and will cherish your highs. ”
I’m quiet while he rambles on, taking large sips of my wine. The more he talks, the worse I start to feel because he’s convincing me that this could work.
“Vanna. Say something. Please?”
“Hunt, this is a lot to process.”
“What if we start slow? Start as friends?”
The corner of Hunter’s mouth twitches into a small smile. He's hopeful and as I study him, I don’t find his usual arrogance.
“Fine. Friends.” I relent.
“Thank God!” He releases a breath. “Can I ask you something?”
I shrug, taking a sip of my wine.
“When we were together, you never seemed very satisfied. You know, with our sex life?”
“Okay?”
“So, you weren’t?”
“Why are you asking, Hunter?”
“I just want to know what I could have done differently. I mean do you need something more?”
“You could’ve not cheated.” I mumble into the glass.
“That night at that party, a few months ago, you seemed really... into it.”
He tilts his head until our eyes meet. I swallow what’s in my mouth and decide not to chicken out of this conversation. I don’t need to spare his feelings anymore.
“Yeah. It was fun.”
“Do you need stuff like that? Three-ways and foreplay and shit?”
Choking out a laugh, I shake my head. “Foreplay, always. Three-ways, it was fun for what it was, but not something I need. Hunt, I’ll be brutally honest. You were boring.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I did? You don’t remember the times I asked you to experiment with toys and you threw a huge fit because I didn’t think you were enough?”
He rubs the back of his neck and lowers his stare. “Yeah. Like I said, I’ve changed. I think I proved it that night, didn’t I? I fucking kissed another dude for you.”
“Oh Hunter.” I sigh. “You fucking liked it.”
He scoffs. “I don’t think I’d ever do it again.”
Our conversation is brought to a halt as Stone’s bedroom door flies open. Both our heads swivel to find him waltzing down the hall like he owns the place. His gaze finds mine and there’s a certain craze swimming inside the blue of eyes.
Leave it to him to insert himself in my business.
“Hey, babe. I didn’t realize we had company.”
He doesn’t bother looking at Hunter, but if he did, he’d find a challenging smirk staring right back at him. The amount of testosterone and tension in this kitchen is thick like a hefty fog.
I roll my eyes.
Hunter stands and takes a few steps toward Stone. “What are you doing here?”
“I live here... with my fiancé.”
He winks at me, and my insides burst into flames until there’s nothing but ash left inside me.
“Stone!”
As my warning falls on deaf ears, Hunt’s jaw clenches while Stone’s eyes glimmer triumphantly.
“Van, what the fuck is he talking about?”
He doesn’t turn to me, just continues to stare Stone down.
“She didn’t tell you? I moved in a couple weeks ago. Just took her home to meet my mother and announce the good news.”
"Jesus.” I grumble. “Don’t listen to him Hunt, we’re barely friends.”
“Barely friends?” He snorts. “Were we barely friends when I ate you out right there on the counter or when I slid that ring onto your finger? Or how about when we were talking about babies? I don’t know if I would call that barely friends.
” Unlike Hunt, Stone looks me directly in the eyes while he speaks, then turns to the man in front of him. “What would you call that?”
I hide my right hand behind my back. I had a hard time letting go of the ring Stone gifted me, so I wore it tonight, but not because it means anything. It would just be a terrible waste.
“You're delusional, man.” Hunt tells him.
“Am I? Or are you? I seem to recall she dumped you and you still can’t get the hint.”
“No? Ask her then. Ask her if she’s forgiven me.”
Stone catches my stare again and smiles bitterly. “Maybe she has, but at the end of the day, it’s always going to be me.”
My mouth opens, but the words don’t come out. I stand there floundering, unsure of what to do or say. Instead, I just walk straight past them both and out of the apartment.