Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
S kye
I step out of the shower in my towel with my long dripping hair and head toward Elisabetta's room.
"Hey," I say as I walk inside. "What do you think I should—" I pause as I notice Elisabetta is on the bed with a strange man.
"Oh, sorry. I..."
"Hey," Elisabetta says with a wide smile. "No need to apologize. We were just relaxing. Tombstone, this is my best friend and roommate, Skye. Skye, this is Tombstone."
"Hi," I say with a small nod, pretending that this is the first time I'd ever seen Tombstone. I am grateful that this time he's not buck naked and neither is my best friend. They do appear to just be lounging around on the bed. I wonder if he knows about her experience with Radium.
"Hey," he says, sitting up and looking me over, and I'm suddenly self-conscious that I'm just in a towel. "Nice to meet you." He steps forward and gives me a hug. I feel him pressing me close to him and holding me tight for longer than is polite.
"Nice to meet you too," I say as I offer him another wan smile.
His hair up close is sprinkled with gray and his blue eyes are not as warm as I would've liked to have hoped. He's definitely older than I thought he was going to be. He has to be in his late forties. I wonder what Elisabetta is doing with him.
"So what was your question, Skye?" she asks, as if everything is perfectly normal.
"I was just going to ask you what I should wear for my fun night with Kingston this evening," I say, blinking at her. "I don't know what we're doing, but he said make sure I am wearing something sexy and relaxed."
I lick my lips nervously. "But I don't want to disturb you. I didn't realize that Tombstone was going to be here."
"Yeah, well, when you told me you had a date, I was like, I don't want another Saturday evening by myself." She grins. "So I asked him what he was doing."
"And I decided to come on over," he says, nodding. "I figured I couldn't let a beautiful woman like Elisabetta spend a Saturday evening alone."
"How very gracious of you," I say politely, though I really want to roll my eyes.
"I try," he says. "Plus I got a little something for us to share tonight." He looks over at her and she looks excited.
"What?" she squeals. "Tell me.”
Is he about to propose to her? Is he as crazy as I think he is?
"I don't know. Is your friend here a narc?"
I raise an eyebrow. "A narc? Why would I be a…wait, you brought drugs?"
I stare at him, then look at Elisabetta. Please tell me she’s not going to encourage this guy.
"We don't do drugs."
"Oh, chillax, Skye," she says. "What did you bring? Not Molly. I don't do Molly. It gets people way too fucked up."
"No, just a little coke," he says, looking over at me. "You want some before you go on your big date?"
"It's not a date. It's a fun night, and no, I don't want any coke." I look at Elisabetta. "And you don't want any either, right?"
She shrugs. "I've been a good girl all my life. What's a little coke between friends?" She grins. "Plus, I know Tombstone will take care of me."
"Hey, can I talk to you in private?" I say, grabbing her hand and pulling her out of the room.
"Be right back, Tombstone," she says with a little wave.
I drag her into my bedroom and close the door.
"What the hell is going on, Elisabetta?" I say, glaring at her. "That dude is old as fuck. Not trying to be rude, but he is."
"He's older and he's distinguished and he is hot and he's packing and..."
"And what?"
"And I'm bored and I'm lonely and you never have time. You are always working and now you're freaking hooking up with your boss. Like, I need something to do too."
"You are not blaming me for the fact that you are about to do coke with some creepy old man."
"He's not creepy. He is good looking and he is not that old. He's only forty-two."
"He's got a head full of gray hair."
"It's salt and pepper and it's premature," she says.
"Really? Is that what he told you?"
"I saw his driver's license, Skye. What, do you think I'm going to fuck a sixty-year-old man because I'm bored?"
"I don't know. You're about to do coke with a granddad because I'm going on a freaking hookup with my boss. I can cancel it right now if that's going to stop you from doing drugs with this loser."
"He's not a loser. And we have fun. I know what I'm doing."
I look at her and shake my head. "But do you really? We don't do drugs."
"A little coke is not going to hurt anyone. And honestly, I didn't want to tell you this before, but this is not the first time I've done coke."
"What?" My jaw drops. "What are you talking about? We've never done hard drugs."
" You've never done hard drugs." She shrugs. "I may have dabbled in some things."
I sit on the bed, my brain processing a million miles a minute.
"When? And what drugs have you done?"
"Well, I've done coke a couple of times. I've done some Molly. I’ve..." She licks her lips. "Done some Oxy."
"What? When? How did I not know?"
"Maybe when you were studying and I was going to parties that you didn't want to go to. We weren't joined at the hip."
"But we've been best friends forever. We've lived together forever. You've never even told me."
"Because I knew you would act like my freaking mom and freak out and I didn't need that. It was just for fun."
I try not to show her how offended I am by her words. Does she really think I’m that judgmental? And that much of a stiff? "So is there anything else you've done for fun that you've never told me about?"
She stares at me for a couple of minutes and shrugs. "I don't need you judging me, Skye."
"I would never judge you, Elisabetta. I'm just curious as to what else you haven't told me."
"Well, maybe now's not the time. I've got a man waiting in my bedroom and you've got a man about to pick you up. Who, by the way, is your freaking boss that you can't stand."
I feel my face form into a hard scowl.
"What? I can't tell you what to do with your life," she says, raising an eyebrow. "I mean, you came home yesterday telling me how your boss practically sold his soul to the devil for money, and yet you're going out with him tonight to bang him."
"It's not like that," I say. "What he does is a job and yeah, maybe ethically I don't agree with his choice of clients, but..."
"But what?" she says. "He takes shitty-assed clients that do bad things to good people for money. And I do drugs, so sue me. It's not like I'm freaking popping pills every week. He brought some coke. We'll do some coke and then we'll fuck and do whatever we want. I'm an adult."
I stare at her, my heart sinking.
"Are you mad at me?"
"No, I'm not mad at you." She sighs and leans back on the bed. "Look, maybe I just feel lost. Maybe I just don't know where my life is going. I'm in my frigging mid-twenties and I don't have any dreams. I don't have anything. I don't have a job. I don't have a man."
"I mean, you’ve got Tombstone."
"Really, Skye?" she says, her lips twitching.
"What? I thought you liked him."
"You know he's not the man I'm going to be with for the rest of my life, Skye. Just like you know your boss is not going to be your forever."
"I know, but..."
"But what? We're both just making do right now."
I lick my lips. "Okay. I guess that's true." I shrug. "I won't judge you and you won't judge me."
"Exactly," she says. "Also, there's something else you don't know."
"What?"
"I'm not going to tell you right now because I think if I do, you're going to flip a switch and I don't want you to flip a switch before your date."
"Um. Now, you cannot not tell me."
She grins as she stands up and heads to the door. "Oh, I totally am not telling you."
She pauses for a second and looks over the dresses I have displayed on my bed.
"Wear that slinky black dress. No panties. No bra."
"What?"
She grins. "And borrow my silver pumps. It will look great. Again, no bra and no panties. Girl, this is your boss that you are fucking for fun. You might as well literally bang the living daylights out of him because that's what this is all about, right? I mean, it's not like he's taking you on dates so you guys can fall in love. It's literally a preamble to sex. Just like the coke is."
She shrugs. "And if you're going to do something like this, you might as well just go all the way. Totally. Be a vixen, be a bombshell, be a seductress. Do all the things in your mind that you've always wished you could do, but you felt too nervous to do."
"But..." I start, and she shakes her head.
"That's what I'm doing right now. We're in our twenties. Let's live our lives. We have plenty of years to be the good girls and do the things everyone expects of us. Right now, we're in a place where we're having fun and I know tonight I'm going to have fun." She pauses. “You're not coming back tonight, right?"
I frown. "Why are you asking me that?"
"I will have company and I just want to know if?—"
"I won't be back tonight," I say, groaning. "Be safe, okay?"
"I'm always safe," she says. "I promise."
I let out a deep sigh.
"And I can't talk you out of doing the coke?"
"There are a lot of things that you're going to wish you could talk me out of tonight," she says, grinning. "And you’d be wasting your breath to try."
"Why do I not like the sound of that? You're not going to do heroin or anything, right? Please tell me no. You know, people freaking get addicted to heroin. And don't do meth and?—"
"I'm not stupid. I'm not going to do heroin. I'm not going to do meth. I'll do a couple bumps and have some fun. That's it."
She steps forward and she gives me a hug.
"I know you're probably questioning our friendship right now, Skye. I can tell from the look in your eyes and I know that a part of you wants to stay here and protect me and make sure I don't do anything crazy, but I'm not going to. I know what I'm doing. And tomorrow, when you get back, we'll have brunch and I'll tell you all about my crazy evening and you'll tell me about yours. Okay?"
I stare at her and nod slowly. "I'm worried."
"What are you worried about?"
"You. I've never seen you like this. I..."
"It's okay. You don't have to be worried about me. To be honest, I'm kind of worried about you, too."
"Why?" I ask.
"Because I'm mentally equipped to deal with craziness like this. Whether or not you believe me."
"I don't know that you are."
"What does that mean?"
"It means I was pretending I was innocent for years. You were actually living the innocent life and now we're both going buck wild. The only thing is I know if the stallion knocks me off, I'm going to get back up again. I don't know about you."
She squeezes my shoulders. "Please, if at any point you feel like you don't want to go through with this, leave. Call me, do whatever you need to do."
"It's fine. He's not going to do anything crazy. He's not going to make me take drugs."
"I'm not talking about that," she says, kissing me on the cheek. "I love you. I just want you to protect your heart. Have fun tonight. Do everything that I would do."
"Well, it seems to me that you would do absolutely everything."
She grins and nods. "That is true. Here's to us and here's to tonight."
"Here's to us," I say, and hold her tight.
"I love you."
"I love you too," she says, then opens the door.
"Now let me get back to my man. I don't want him thinking that I've disappeared."
I stare at her for a couple of seconds. "And what would he do if he thought you disappeared?"
"I don't know," she says. "Maybe he'd call another woman." She shrugs. "Not that I'd care if he has another woman, of course, but I am pretty dead set on the plans we have tonight." She grins, her eyes twinkling. "And yes, I will tell you all about it tomorrow."
And with that, she leaves the room.