“But this is Olivia,” I say, finishing his sentence. “And the woman is richer than you are.”
“Exactly,” he agrees, “it doesn’t make any sense. I thought she would be happy to have me home more.” My guy is tackled, and the time runs down. I throw the controller onto the coffee table, and Nick laughs.
“Where is she now?” I ask.
“Right above us.” Nick looks toward the ceiling. “Girls’ night. Coach and Corrine are watching Reed at her place. I think the moving back and forth is effecting him. He doesn’t want to sleep anywhere but at her place.” He frowns.
“Who all is up there?” I ask, attempting to sound nonchalant, when what I really want to know is if Giselle is up there. The woman has been on my mind for days now. In a moment of weakness I texted her to see how she was doing only to learn she was out with another guy. It shouldn’t have affected me the way it did. I know what she does for a living. I know she dates and fucks men for money. But it did affect me. And now I can’t stop thinking about her. Everything doesn’t add up. There’s definitely more going on than she’s allowing people to see. And I want to know what it is.
“Giselle and Celeste,” Nick says, standing and heading to my kitchen. “Want a drink?” he calls out.
“Sure.” He comes back in and hands me a cold beer.
“If you’re worried about Olivia avoiding you, you should go see her.”
“Right now?”
“Yeah, she’s upstairs, so she can’t run.” I shrug, and Nick gives me a curious glance.
“How did your date with Giselle go?”
“Fine.” I take a long pull of my beer.
“Fine?” he parrots.
“It started out a bit rough…I may have said a few things that pissed her off…” Nick groans. “But I apologized, and by the end of the night I have to admit I was enjoying her company.” I don’t mention what happened with her mom and how it made me see Giselle in an entirely new light.
Nick eyes me warily. “Are you thinking about seeing her again?”
“What if I am?” I shoot him a what the fuck look. “Aren’t you the one who said I should give her a chance?”
“Yeah, I did, but I don’t want to see either of you get hurt. She never seems to last more than a couple of dates with the same guy. I think she just has a lot of shit going on. Her dad left, and from what I can see, she’s paying for her sister’s school and her mom’s bills. She won’t discuss it and she’s never confirmed it, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that when her dad left her mom, he stopped supporting his family.” I begin to do the math in my head: the mortgage, house bills, college can’t be cheap. I remember that the doctor mentioned she was self-paying. Does she not have insurance? That bill would be thousands of dollars.
“You don’t know shit, Killian. Don’t you dare make assumptions or pretend to know anything about me or my life.”
Jesus, is this why she’s barely making ends meet even though she’s living with Olivia rent-free? Why she’s working as an escort, even though she has a job as an interior designer? She’s taken on an entire family in her father’s absence. All the pieces finally fit together, and fuck if I don’t feel like the biggest piece of shit.
“Why don’t we go crash their girls’ night? You know…so you can see how your fiancée is doing.”
Nick laughs. “Okay, we’ll blame it on me.” We stand and head toward the door, but Nick stops me from opening it. “I know Giselle comes across tough, but this morning, when I was missing Olivia and Reed, I went over there to see them. I snuck in and saw Olivia, Reed, and Giselle all sleeping in Olivia’s bed together. Olivia and Reed were both asleep. But Giselle…she wasn’t asleep. She was watching them both…while crying.
“I think she’s in over her head, Kill, but she won’t let Olivia in. I know you don’t understand why I won’t push for Olivia and Reed to move out, but that woman was there for Olivia when I wasn’t. I owe her. She’s not just her best friend. She’s her family, which means she’s my family.”
“Got it.”
We get off on Nick’s floor, and without knocking, walk into his condo. The girls are on the couch laughing and talking animatedly. Giselle and Celeste have a wine glass in their hand, and Olivia is drinking a bottle of water. The three of them stop speaking and laughing the second they see Nick and me enter. Celeste smirks, Giselle’s eyes go wide and then she glares, and Olivia looks like she’s nervous.