Page 14 of House of Scarlett
Two weekslater
The days that follow bleed together. Work, inventory selection, client consultations, meetings with Amy, makeup and hair with Kelsey, public appearances, dinners at the hottest new and old restaurants with the girls.
Through it all, no one mentionshim. It’s like those two weeks of my life, the two weeks I felt the mostalive, didn’t even happen. Like it was some alternate reality never to be discussed again.
But I can’t stop thinking about it. About him. About Bump. Roux. Q. Zoe. The club. Any of it.
I keep reliving it over and over. The way he touched me. The way I felt. Then ... the aftermath. A million thoughts I can’t speak bounce around in my brain like pinballs gone wild.
It all comes to a head one morning when Kelsey is dabbing a bit of concealer on the awesome pimple that popped up last night along my jawline.
“I saw him.”
Her statement requires no context for me to know exactly who thehimis that she’s referring to. My questions come rapid fire.
“Where? When? How?”
“A few days ago. At a sandwich shop a few blocks from the club.”
I jerk my head around to stare at her, not caring that the concealer is now everywhere. “You had dinner with me last night. Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I didn’t think you wanted to talk about him. Especially not around everyone.”
She holds the blending sponge in midair, and I grab her wrist before she can fix the concealer mess.
“I think about him a million times every day. What the hell am I supposed to do, Kelsey? It’s been two weeks. That’s the same amount of time I even knew he existed. I shouldn’t care anymore, but I can’t stop thinking about him.”
“I know, babe. I know.”
I shake my head and slide off the stool, taking a step to my bathroom counter where all Kelsey’s supplies are laid out. I pick up the tubes and pots and compacts one by one and space them out evenly on the towel.
“You don’t know. You don’t know what it’s like to think you’re broken and can’t enjoy sex, and then you meet the one guy who lights you up like a goddamned Christmas tree, and then hethrows you outinstead of asking how soon you can do it again.” My voice is rough with tears by the end, but I blink them back, not wanting to ruin her hard work.
“Oh, honey,” Kelsey whispers from behind me. “I had no idea. You never said anything ...”
I spin around and lose my battle with my emotions. A drop tips over my lids. “Chadwick destroyed my self-confidence when it came to sex.He sent me to a sex therapist, Kelsey!”
Her head jerks back, and her features crease with rage. “Oh no, he didn’t.”
“He did! Because he told me there was something wrong with me. But, let me tell you, there wasn’t a damn thing wrong with me when Gabriel touched me. Not a fucking thing. I felt like I was going to lose my mind, in the best way possible. What if I never find that again?”
She reaches for a tissue and carefully dabs beneath my eyes. “So, itwasjust the sex then? That’s why you’re hung up on him?”
I wait for her to pull the tissue back before I shake my head. “He took me go-karting. He held my hand. He made me laugh. He—”
“Oh shit,” Kelsey whispers, her lower lip wobbling. “You were really, really into him.”
The threat of more tears is strong. “I told him I wanted to make it real. To give us a serious try.”
Her hand covers her mouth. “And that’s when he pushed you away.”
“If bypushed me away, you mean told me to leave and said we couldn’t see each other again? Then yes, exactly.”
“I want to kill him, but I also want to go kidnap him and tie him to a chair in your living room until he listens to reason and realizes that you’re the best thing that could happen to any man, especially him.”
I choke out a watery laugh, because kidnapping is what started this whole thing in the beginning. But I can’t tell Kelsey that. She’d definitely want to kill him then, even more than she already does.
“How can I chase him after that? What about my pride? My self-worth?” I finally voice the questions I’ve been grappling with for weeks.
