Page 174 of Bend
“Okay, the trash has officially been taken out,” he announced, a bit ceremoniously.
Cain shook his head and began to retreat towards the door, but not before tossing back the words, “We’ll talk in the morning, Paige.”
I looked over at Eli for help. But he had nothing to give me except for, “Yeah, you fucked up.” He made his way over to an exit from this overly dramatic scene, “Bad.”
And with that, the door closed.
This…wasn’t good.
~~~
I felt as if I were back in junior high school.
Perched on a kitchen chair, Eli leaning back against the counter, arms crossed staring at me, while Cain was standing in front of me, hands once again on his hips, sort of glaring, while they both took turns verbally laying out the ground rules to me.
“Last night can’t happen again,” Cain started off, leaning in a bit to make sure I knew that he was dead-ass serious.
"Yes," I nodded, putting a bit of meekness into my voice for sincerity.
“Jesus, Paige, what was that?” Eli quipped in.
I met Cain’s gaze before focusing all of my attention onto Eli. Yeah, I already knew that my day was shot. Waking up to these two and having to go through drinking my coffee in utter silence was definitely not my idea of starting out a good day.
What really put the emphasis on the whole morning suckage, was the fact that I didn’t have an answer for either of them.
Should I have brought Trevor back here last night? Probably not.
Did I possibly have way too much to drink last night? Probably yes.
What would have happened if Cain and Eli didn’t come in with their super-dude capes? I didn’t even want to think about the answer to that one.
“Paige?” Eli said my name again, trying to regain my focus on the issue at hand.
“I get it,” I told the both of them, crossing my arms and probably coming off as a petulant child.
But, shit! These guys held all the cards right now, and this could all play out in a million ways. And I damn well wasn’t going to gamble by giving them an answer I wasn’t sure about.
Another moment of silence.
Clearly, when they saw I wasn’t going to give them the speech about how last night happened and why, Eli switched tactics. “It’s not about the sex.”
What?
“It’s about judging character,” Eli continued.
“Uhh…well, if you’re saying that I should have seen what happened coming, then—”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Eli deadpanned.
Okay. I was struggling with the decision of either giving him a WTF? look…or the finger. Because I, honest to God, didn’t know how in the hell I could have possibly known that Trevor was going to go all “The Accused” on me.
“Okay,” I said, getting up from the chair. “If you guys are seriously trying to convey that I asked for that last night, then screw you both.”
I started to walk off when I felt a hand on my arm. Turning around, prepared to give one hell of a verbal lashing, I was surprised to see that it was Cain who had the vise-like hold on me.
“That’s not what he’s saying,” Cain explained, meeting my gaze. I looked down to where he was holding me, and he let go.
“Then what is he saying?” I didn’t even spare Eli a glance as I kept my eyes padlocked to Cain’s.
