Adelaide
Ineeded time.As selfish as it was, if I could change anything in the world, at this point I’d add more hours to the day.
I had no idea why I thought I could do it all. Working full-time, evening classes, modeling gigs when I could get them to pay for said classes. I’d gotten so used to asking my dad for anything I wanted, but when I wanted something he wouldn’t give me, I had to figure out how to pay for it on my own.
Over the summer, while Adam, Wren, and June had been gone, I’d been at loose ends, so when an old modeling friend called me, begging me to join her on a shoot, I’d done it just for something to do. It hadn’t been especially fun or fulfilling, but I had gotten a fat paycheck.
After, with Adam’s words from when I’d visited him in Austin still lingering in the back of my mind, I’d signed up for a music production course. I’d most likely never use the education I received. Probably wouldn’t even finish the course. But it was mine.
It was my secret. For two hours, three evenings a week, I was learning everything that went into making music in a studio, and I told no one. My dad could never know. And Adam…well, I was afraid to tell him. If I failed, if I didn’t finish, he’d be let down. For now, my cover story was I’d become a yoga addict and now went to classes after work.
Adam was cranky about it, had even deluded himself into thinking I had a secret boyfriend. It was laughable with how dead my dating life was.
Adam had come home after a wild summer, ready for my undivided attention, but I couldn’t give it to him. So, he snuck his way into my day whenever he could.
We were supposed to meet at the café down the block from my office, the one I always went to with my dad, but Adam being Adam, had other ideas. He was waiting for me in the lobby, chatting with Natalie at the front desk.
Natalie hated being at the front desk. That was the impression I got from the hellbeast expression she flashed me every day when I arrived at work. Though, she may have smiled at everyone else who came in and I was just super lucky to have earned her ire, but I doubted that. She didn’t have Wren to boss around anymore, and now I took the brunt of her dissatisfaction.
I did not care. She could glower at me all day. Natalie didn’t bother me.
Except when she drew her nails along Adam’s forearm and he didn’t pull away. That did my head in. She could screw all the men in Manhattan—she wasn’t allowed to sink her claws into my friend. The fact that Adam was letting her flirt with him that way made me feel like I’d swallowed a boulder.
“Hey.” I stopped right in front of him. He hadn’t noticed me walking up.
His arm dropped off the counter and away from Natalie as Adam turned his attention to me in full force. “Baddie! You snuck up on me.”
“I walked normally,” I deadpanned.
“Sorry.” He rubbed the back of his neck, turning sheepish. “Nat was telling me about this club that sounds like the shit. There’s live music and—”
“I don’t actually have much time for lunch today. Maybe we should postpone. We’ll just see each other at home.”
Nat?No. Just no.
“Postpone?” Adam turned from cheerful to stricken at the drop of a hat. “Fuck no, we’re not postponing.”
He rapped his knuckles on the desk. “Thanks for the deets, Nat.”
She practically shimmied her shoulders. “Of course, Adam. If you go, you’ll have to let me know. Or maybe I’ll see you there.”
“You never know.” He shot her a wink. “See ya.” He slung his arm around my shoulders, guiding me outside. I shrugged him off at the door.
“We can’t go outside like that. Someone might take our picture,” I reminded him.
“I don’t give a fuck. If I want to walk with my arm around my friend, I’ll do it.”
But he didn’t put his arm back, and I was grateful for it. I didn’t enjoy fielding conversations with my father about my life choices, but now, my feelings toward him were especially tender. I was doing the thing I’d always wanted to do, the thing he’d expressly forbidden, and having the time of my life. It was hard to speak to him casually, knowing if he could, he’d take it from me.
The restaurant seated us in a booth near the back, tucked away from everyone. Because he was extra, instead of sitting across from me, Adam sat right down beside me and slung his arm around my shoulders.
“I don’t like being told I can’t touch you,” he murmured into my hair. “I had a whole summer of not touching you. I’m making up for lost time.”
“You’re very needy.” I said it like a complaint, but it wasn’t really. I liked how needy he was for me.
“I am. That’s why you’re coming out with me this weekend to the club Nat was telling me about. Don’t even think about telling me no. It’s not acceptable.”
“Since when are you andNatbuddies?”