“Don’t worry about her. The girl’s harmless. Just give it a few weeks and she’ll find some other guy to transfer her daddy issues onto.”
She nods, but she’s not convinced.
“Come here.” I capture her into my arms once more and kiss her forehead. After a minute, she tells me she has to hop into the shower before her cousin gets here. I watch her drag her feet to the bathroom and struggle to swallow the annoying lump occupying my throat.
My parents’ reception is on Tuesday.
Then there’s the prom, and on Friday, she’ll be leaving me.
We’re strong enough, I told her earlier, but I know we’re both wondering the same thing…
Are we?
30
Betrayal And Champagne
Winter
“Please don’t make me go,” I whine as I climb inside Haze’s car reluctantly. This is it. Tonight’s the reception I’ve been having nightmares about.
I pull the sleeveless black dress Haze got for me back up to hide my exposed cleavage and curse. It’s beautiful, it really is, but no dress could ever be beautiful enough to shake the bad feeling in my stomach. Nothing could numb the voice in my head whispering that the world’s about to end…
“We’ll be there one hour tops. Just long enough to know what the stupid announcement is,” Haze says for the third time as he joins the traffic.
“What if it’s a trap? What if he blows up the room and kills us all?” I say, aware of how overdramatic I sound. I don’t care. I wouldn’t put it past Tanner after what he’s done.
“And risk hurting my parents? No, he’s smarter than that. He’s way too desperate to inherit the company. He changed his mind a few years back. He’s been licking their boots forever.”
“Do you think he was right?”
“About what?” he asks.
“About your enemies coming after you now that you’re on your own.” I fidget with the soft fabric sticking to my thigh.
“I don’t know… but I need to get out there and show them that I’m not afraid. I’m not going to be looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life,” he says and ironically does just that to check his blind spot and switch lanes.
“You better take me out to eat after this,” I pout and look out at the neighborhood as it runs past the window.
“Behave tonight and I’ll buy your cute ass as much food as it wants.” He grins.
“And I want cuddles when we get home. A lot of cuddles.”
“Then cuddles you shall have.”
“I’m sorry, but I’m going to need you to pinky swear on that one.”
“You’re a child.” He laughs.
“Pinky swear or I’m staying in the car.” I cross my arms.
“We both know you’ll eventually get hungry and come inside for the free food,” he mocks.
Haze knows how much he’s asking from me. When he told me he was going, I went back on my word. I can’t let him go through this alone. His family is too much of a delicate topic. He says he’s only going because of his father’s threat to call the school and stop him from graduating, but I know it’s because he’s curious about the announcement. So, during the past few days, he’s been at my beck and call, treating me like his life purpose is to fulfill my every desire. He’s always been attentive to what I want but this… this is something else. He lets me choose the music during every single car ride and doesn’t even bat an eye when I put on the cheesy pop songs he usually can’t help commenting on.
It took a lot to convince Maria to let me stay with Haze. I have to call her every day after school to catch her up on how my exams are going. Most of them went a lot better than I expected. I didn’t run out crying once, and, for me, that’s a good sign.
The only way I could get some quality studying time living with Haze was by locking myself into his bedroom for a few hours every night.