Page 26 of Envy
CHAPTER NINE
The cab drops me off in front of his apartment building, and I inhale a deep breath of second thoughts and regrets before I step inside. When I give my name at the security desk, the guard confirms I’m expected and tells me to go on up. I step off the elevator and find Wyatt waiting for me. He’s wearing a navy T-shirt, worn denim jeans, and no shoes. His hair is messy but sexy, and his early morning five o’clock shadow fade is sexy as hell.
For half a second, I think about stepping back on the elevator and running.
“Oh, fuck no, you don’t. We’re doing this today.” He grabs my arm and gently pushes me into his apartment. Once I’m inside, he locks the deadbolt from the inside with a key, then pockets it so I can’t escape.
“Wyatt, do you know where I left my keys?” A familiar female voice calls out from the hallway, and I turn and glare at Wyatt.
“Tell me you didn’t.”
Blair steps into the living room and stops in her tracks when she sees me. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you come in. Hi, Megan. I guess you didn’t expect to find me here, huh?”
At least she has the sense to look ashamed.
“Yes, I am. Wyatt didn’t mention you’d be here.”
“He didn’t know. When he told me you were coming over to talk, I asked if I could have a word with you too.”
“What do you want, Blair?”
“I want to apologize for how I treated you all those years. Not that it changes anything, and you may never forgive me, but I need to try to make this right. I’m so sorry for being so mean, and hateful, and nasty to you. I feel so horrible about it now. Looking back at my behavior now that I’m grown makes me cringe, so I can’t imagine how bad I made you feel. To make matters worse, you never did anything to deserve how I treated you.”
“Then why did you do it? Why did you make my life a living hell every single day?”
“Envy.”
“Excuse me?”
“You were the ultimate package. You’re so beautiful, Megan, but you never acted like you knew it. You were smart—I mean, you were our valedictorian. You were going off to college. Harvard, of all places. Your parents loved you and wanted to spend time with you. Your best friend defended you till the death. When my parents were around enough to talk to me, they compared me to you and told me all the areas where I was lacking. None of that was your fault, but I took it all out on you. I’m so sorry, and if I could go back and change it, I would in a heartbeat.”
“Thank you for saying that, for sharing all that with me.”
“Of course. Let me know if you want to meet for drinks and talk sometime. I’d love just to get to know you. I’ll go now so you two can talk.” She walks to Wyatt and hugs him tight. I hear her whisper “good luck” to him before she releases him.
He walks to the door and lets her out before locking it and putting the key away again. When he turns to me, he shrugs one shoulder and gives me a lop-sided grin. “I have a feeling we’ll both want to run away at some point today.”
“I’m sure you’re right.”
His expression turns somber, and he gestures toward the couch. “Make yourself at home. Can I get you anything before we get started?”
“Bottle of water?”
He returns with several bottles and sets them on the coffee table. When he sits beside me, he takes my hands in his and gently strokes them with his thumbs. “You go first.”
I stand and start pacing to release the nervous energy pent up inside me every time I think of that day and the hell that followed. I begin recounting what happened leading up to when I ran into the bathroom at school that morning, narrating it as if all the events happened to someone else, as if I’m not speaking directly to Wyatt. Any other way would be too personal and would force me to accept the terrible truth…
All the elitist, blue blood, spoiled crowd had that video of me…and they were sharing it with whoever wanted to watch.
I had to find Wyatt.
After rinsing my mouth out at the sink, I opened the bathroom door in the middle of a conversation in the hallway just outside.
“That wasn’t you, man?” Billy laughed, still holding his phone up for the crowd to see.
“No, that’s not me,” Wyatt replied angrily.
Then Wyatt looked up and saw me standing there. I was shocked and confused not only by his denial but by how he just threw me to the wolves without a second thought. He wasn’t standing by me. He wasn’t taking up for me. He didn’t demand they delete the video and stop sharing it all over school. He wasn’t the man I fell in love with.
