Chapter 30 #2
"The annual St. Lucius Gala is coming up, and I know for a fact that Preston and Sloane will be there. They go every year."
That sounded like fucking torture.
"So you think she should go with you?" Aria asked.
Tristan nodded.
"Ooh, here's your Carrie opportunity," Annalise said.
Aria elbowed her. "Not Carrie. Just talk to them, get confirmation, tackle the past head-on, then, and finally then, she can put this all behind her and move forward.
" She clapped her hands together. "It's the perfect timing really.
Get this negativity out of the way, out of your life once and for all, before you take on pregnancy and motherhood. "
It was easy to say, and it made sense and all, but thinking about the reality of doing that, actually walking into that room with a bunch of St. Lucius alumni and talking to those two, made me nauseous. Well, more nauseous than usual these days.
I had a lot to think about, an overwhelming amount really, so much so I was frozen with indecision. "I—I'll think about it," I finally said.
The door creaked open, putting us all on alert. I was so focused on what was happening in this cramped little closet, I forgot there was a whole world out there, including someone who might actually need this room.
Of all people, though, Archie stuck his head in, taking in the odd scene, until his eyes landed on his brother. "Dude, it took forever to find you."
"What on earth are you doing here?" Tristan asked.
"I was checking my phone to see where you were, if you were maybe getting food somewhere and I could hit you up, but instead I saw you were in this medical building, and I thought you'd either been kidnapped or you were diagnosed with a brain tumor, because you've been acting so weird lately, and that had to be why. "
"I don't have a brain tumor."
"So you've been kidnapped. You're being held against your will."
"I'm not being held against my will. Quite the opposite. I want to be here."
Archie took a long slurp of the drink in his hand. "You want to be here in a closet with a bunch of weirdos?"
"Hey, we're not weirdos," Annalise argued.
"This is Astrid." Tristan nodded his head in my direction. "Her sisters and their boyfriends."
"Astrid?" Archie asked. "Am I supposed to know who that is?"
"You know, Astrid. She's been to our place, watched a zombie movie with you, ate some popcorn..."
Archie's eyes nearly popped out of his head as he stared at me. "You? You're the masked woman that my brother is obsessed with?"
Tristan groaned. "Archie."
"The one he can't stop talking about? The one he's spent hours, and I mean hours, searching for on his phone?"
"Archie."
"The one he's thinking about when he takes these long showers lately and—"
"Archie! If you don't stop talking right now," Tristan said through gritted teeth, "I will tell everyone about what happened in the McDonald's play place."
The color drained from Archie's face. "You wouldn't."
"I will if you don't shut it."
Everything had happened so fast, I almost missed it. But had Archie implied that Tristan was... well, doing things in the shower while thinking about me? Me?
Absolutely no one in my life, in my past, had ever been so obsessed with me, and it was incredibly flattering.
Pathetic, I know.
Tristan's phone rang, and he whipped it out of his pocket, quickly silencing it.
"Who was that?" Ethan asked, a wicked gleam in his eyes.
"Huh?" Tristan asked, looking up. "I don't know. Just spam."
"Oh, yeah? Did you get on some weird list or something?"
There was a weighted beat before Tristan answered, brows lowering. "Yes, I did," he answered slowly. "And how exactly would you know about that?"
Ethan pressed his lips together, but even that movement couldn't suppress the amusement splashed across his expression. "No comment," he said.
"Anyway," Aria interrupted. "Back to the issue at hand, gentlemen. And that issue is..." She looked pointedly at the man standing next to me.
Tristan inhaled deeply then turned to face me fully, pinning me with his intense eyes, taking both of my hands in his.
"Astrid... God, I love saying your name to you," he said, voice raspy with emotion. "Will you do me the honor of being my date to the gala? And if you say yes, I promise you that if we get there and you feel uncomfortable in any way, we'll leave and, I don't know, grab a pizza or something."
"Dude," Archie said on a groan. "That was so lame. You call that a grand gesture? Pizza? What are you? A teenager? You're like a fucking billionaire. You need to do way better than that if you want to get the girl."
There were snickers of laughter all around the closed space, Tristan's eyes closing for a long moment as he took a breath.
After a tightly controlled exhale, he met my gaze. "Let me try that again."
"You don't have to," I said, wanting to spare him.
His hands squeezed mine, eyes staring straight down to my soul. "Let me show you. Let me show you the kind of man I can be. Let me earn your trust, prove to you that I'm trustworthy, that I care deeply about you, about this baby, about our—"
"Hold up," Archie interrupted. "Did you say baby? What baby? There's a baby?"
Hard as it was to glance away from Tristan and the incredible way he was looking at me, I focused in on Archie for a second, wondering what to say, wondering if it was too late to put that cat back in the bag.
"Are you—?" he asked, his mouth hanging open with his shock.
"I am," I admitted, deciding he'd find out eventually anyway.
"Holy fucking shit."
"Language, brother. Language," Tristan said in a low voice.
"You're on me for fucking language when you can't be bothered to wrap it before you tap—"
"Archie. For the love of God, can you please be quiet?" A look I didn't recognize crossed Tristan's face, his jaw hardening, his eyes glinting with frustration. "That is fucking it."
Before I could think or even question what he meant by that, I was swept up in his arms bridal style and carried down the hallway to a quiet, secluded corner where Tristan set me down, my back against the wall.
My heart pounded as he caged me in with his arms and leaned into me. "I had to get away from the fucking circus in there, had to get you alone where we could actually talk for a minute before I take you home so you can rest after this crazy experience."
"Um, okay," I said, breathless by his display of strength, the easy way he lifted me like I weighed nothing. The man wasn't even out of breath in the slightest.
He swallowed, my eyes going to his neck, attracted to this man's throat muscles, something I didn't even know a person could be attracted to, had never even noticed in any guy before.
His head lowered and he opened his sexy mouth to speak. "And what I really want to know is... will you go with me Saturday night? If not to the gala, then somewhere, anywhere, a proper date with no masks. No peanut gallery. You and me. Just us against the world."
I hesitated, my mind still whirling. "That's something you really want?"
"God, yes. More than anything in the world.
I'd love a chance to bury the fucking past, put it behind us, and convince you that we have a future together.
An amazing, incredible future. If you're willing to give me a chance.
I just want a chance to prove myself to you, to tell you all that I'm doing to try to be a better man. For you. And now for us."
With a gentle hand, he caressed my stomach, a place I usually didn't want anyone touching. But with Tristan, a man who clearly had no problem with my belly, it was different. It was sweet. And it was hot.
How on earth could I possibly resist that?
I couldn't. So I leaned in and said one word that brought an instant smile to his lips.
"Yes."