13. Andi #2
“Bullshit.” I puff my cheeks out, narrowing my eyes on him.
His lips quirk up in amusement when he sees my expression.
“Don’t lie to me. Please,” I push.
His expression quickly grows serious, and he nods.
“Of course. The honest truth is that it’s...
difficult to look at you now without wanting to do something that would get me arrested because it’s a reminder of everything that’s been done to you.
” Despite his voice being pitched low, there’s still a strain there that betrays just how important these words are to him.
“But that doesn’t mean I don’t find you beautiful.
Because you’re—you’re you, Andi. Even when I first met you and thought you were... ”
“A vapid bitch?”
“I wasn’t going to say that,” he huffs. “But even then, I never thought you were anything less than stunningly attractive.”
“Okay, so you thought I was a stunningly attractive, vapid bitch,” I tease, the words feeling light.
I haven’t had the opportunity to tease someone like this in months. I’ve never felt safe enough to with Ezra and I sure as hell wasn’t going to snark back at Gina or anyone on the team.
“You’re putting words in my mouth,” Cameron huffs.
“I don’t mean to cut this reunion short,” Ezra says, standing from his seat on one of the sofas. “But we’ve gotta go. Any longer and Stuart will probably question why I’m lasting this long.”
Cameron stiffens in front of me.
“What did you say?”
Ezra just holds his hands up in surrender, shrugging.
“Had to say what I had to say to get her outta there.”
“He made Stuart think we’re fucking,” I sigh, fighting the urge to scrub a hand down my exhausted expression, but that would ruin the makeup Juno did.
“You did what?” Cameron’s voice is a low growl that has my eyes widening, turning slowly to face Ezra.
I’ve never heard him speak like that.
It shouldn’t be hot.
Cameron is momentarily distracted from his anger, by the sweetening of my chamomile perfume. He turns back to me, blinking like he’s shocked.
Honestly, I’m shocked too. My perfume hasn’t done that since I was locked away.
“Sweet Tea,” he rasps, shaking his head. “Rein it in, or I’m not going to be able to let you walk out that door with him.”
Something about his voice makes it even harder to try to calm down my explosive perfume, but I manage it with a few deep breaths, my hands clenched into fists by my sides.
“Sorry,” I say, when I’ve finally managed to get things under control.
“You’ve got nothing to apologize for,” Cameron murmurs, shaking his head sharply before turning his gaze to Ezra. “You, on the other hand?”
“Dude, I did what I had to do, okay? I’m wasn’t going to actually do anything.
I swear to god,” Ezra says, holding his hands up like he’s surrendering.
“Stuart takes orders from Gina, and Gina’s got a hard-on for Andi and I getting back together ‘cause she’s obsessed with my dad.
I had to figure out a way to get Andi away from the guy so we could come here. ”
“I’m okay, Cameron, really.” I reach out and gently tug on Cameron’s surprisingly muscular forearm. Why is he so jacked if he spends all day typing documents on his laptop?
It’s a silly question. Obviously, the answer is because of his natural alpha physiology, but still. It’s surprising.
“He didn’t even say anything super crude, just that he wanted me in the bathroom with him.
Stuart was the one to make the stupid comments,” I continue, keeping my tone soothing.
I’m lying; the shit Stuart said was pretty damn crude but I also need Cameron to calm down so I can muster the willpower to leave.
My natural omega urge to comfort and reassure is rearing its head right now. But it’s selfish too. I don’t think I could leave this bathroom if Cameron were upset, especially not after his earlier comment.
I need to make this separation as easy as I can on myself, too.
“Fine,” he says, offering me a jerky nod. “I’ll see you soon. We all will.”
“Okay.” My voice is barely above a whisper. I’m afraid if I speak any louder, I won’t be able to hide the tremble there. My gaze drifts to the twins, who’ve been watching everything go down with sharp, intelligent eyes. “It was really nice meeting you guys. I hope the offer still stands later.”
“Oh, you know it will!” Cleo says with a bright grin.
“Hang in there, Andi,” Juno nods.
I take a final steadying breath before turning to Ezra and offering him a small nod.
“Ready?” he asks, his hand resting on the doorknob.
“Yeah.”
I do my best to calm my frayed nerves as we step out into the hall. Without the reassurance of Cameron’s physical presence, the air around me feels far too cold. All I want to do is run back into that bathroom and sink back into his arms to hide away from the rest of the world.
“So... That’s why you were acting weird,” I murmur softly, my heels clicking against the floor as I follow behind Ezra.
“Yeah. Everything was going wrong. I was supposed to snap photos of how shitty your living arrangements were myself before tonight. This was supposed to just be a backup plan.”
“Oh.” I guess it makes sense why he was acting so weird then. It almost seemed like he wanted to deck Stuart where he stood when the guy said that he wasn’t leaving the two of us alone.
“Now you’ve got that phone, though.” He glances over his shoulder at me, his dark eyes full of emotions too complex and jumbled for me to name.
“I think part of me wanted to be the one to help you. But I think... I’ve realized that you’ve got a lot of people in your corner, Andi.
A lot of people who are far less shitty than me.
Plus, you’ve always been good at saving yourself. ”
“No, I haven’t,” I snort, the protest automatic.
“I’m not gonna argue with you about this,” he says with a roll of his eyes. “Take it from me, okay? We’ve both got bat-shit insane parents, but you—you didn’t let it fuck you up as bad.”