“Who’s the asshole taking up your time and stopping you from being in my bed, naked with me in you?”
Britta smiled, and I knew she was replaying some of the scenes from the last two nights. And then the smile faded, and the conversation turned serious once more.
“I’m meeting with Rebekah. It was supposed to be over lunch, but Kathy needed help with the makeup, so I pushed it to dinner. I’m already having anxiety about it.”
“Do you think it’s wise going to meet her? Especially after we just had Roman’s new floozy in here?”
“All seems coincidental, doesn’t it?”
“I’m not sure what the hell is going on, to be honest.”
“Okay,” she announced, clapping her hands together. “I’m off so I can get it over and done with.”
“Make it quick,” I added. “Being deprived of you for too long sends a man crazy.”
She laughed on her way out, jiggling her ass by the door for the added tease.
“Keep wiggling, and I’ll make that ass mine.”Chapter 15BrittaThat redheaded woman seemed to be appearing everywhere, first with Hawk then with Roman, and then back with Hawk. I didn’t know how I should feel about that. Either Ms. Redhead wasn’t all there, or Hawk was hiding something from me.
And then it struck me that I shouldn’t even care.
In Hawk’s own words, we were ‘friends who fucked.’ Nothing more. We had no claim to each other, no reason to be jealous. Both Hawk and Roman were serial womanizers, and she just happened to maybe have had them both. But unlike Roman, Hawk was more business orientated now, and his womanizing ways had decreased over the years.
Walking out of the office and across the street to the restaurant, I saw Rebekah already seated and waiting for me. It was late and I was hungry, so hopefully, this meeting wouldn’t take too long. She spotted me from across the room and stood to greet me. We didn’t hug or kiss the way we used to. Instead, there was an awkward exchange of hand and shuffling before we both sat down.
“Thank you for coming,” she said, laying her napkins across her lap.
When I went to pick up the menu, she stopped me. “Oh,” Rebekah said, looking shy. “I hope you don’t mind but I ordered for us. I figured you still like the same things.”
Before I could respond, a bowl of carbonara was placed between my knife and fork. It smelled absolutely divine and my stomach grumbled loud enough for Rebekah to hear.
“I’m glad you approve,” she said, smiling.
“Thank you,” I replied gratefully. “I forgot to eat lunch and I’m starving.”
I tucked into my food, but when I looked over at Rebekah, she was toying with half a cherry tomato. She wasn’t smiling, and there was a sadness to her. Perhaps she’d seen for herself the real man she was married to.
“Is everything okay?” I asked tentatively. She was in a completely different mood from when I’d walked in only moments earlier.
She placed her fork down and swallowed hard.
“What did you want to talk about?” I continued when Rebekah didn’t say anything.
She wiped her mouth with the napkin. “He said you would know.”
I was taken aback by her words. “Who said I’d know what?”
“Roman.”
“Roman? I haven’t spoken to him since the wedding, and you were there for the entire conversation.”
She appeared visibly sick and I realized she must know.
“You saw them together,” was all she said.
I placed the fork down, my appetite suddenly gone.
“I’m not sure what you expect me to say.”
“I want to know what you saw.”
I could feel my blood pressure rise. “Why can’t Roman fill the gaps for you?”
“Because he’s a coward.”
“Yeah, I know that...” I paused. “Look, Rebekah... you didn’t tell me that this was the meaning of our dinner and I’m kind of feeling railroaded here.”
“When I rang, it was because I genuinely wanted to see you. But after we spoke, well... things changed.”
“What changed?”
Rebekah’s face reddened, tears ever so close. “I caught them together.”
I wasn’t sure how she expected me to respond, so I didn’t.
“When I confronted him about it, he got all angry and spiteful, saying I should talk to you about it. When I asked why, he left, and I haven’t seen or heard from him since.”
“It was a painful thing to witness, Rebekah. To be brutally honest, I just wanted to get out of there at the time.”
“She was my bridesmaid.”
“You... were my best friend. I considered you a sister.”
She played with the seam of her napkin. “I guess I got what I deserved, huh?”
“I don’t wish that on anyone, but I hope that now you can see why the path to forgiveness has been so hard for me.”
“I know, and I’m sorry. I want to try and fix this,” she waved her hands around, pointing first at me and then herself, “... and try to explain that this isn’t my sole purpose of seeing you. Until, we... until last night.”