Page 78 of Ours

“Tell them to meet us at my place by the garage,” he said, walking away from us to open the car door. “You will not be sleeping in that car.”

“I should go get…”

“I already told them to hold all the items in the room for us,” his voice was tight, leaving no room for discussion.

Noemi slid down my body looking at me with worry in her eyes.

“Come on,” I said, shivering from the cold now that she wasn’t close to me.

The drive to Vincent’s place was quiet and awkward. Noemi sat in between us, stiff as a board and I knew my anger was making the situation worse.

“Is that them?” Vincent broke the silence when we pulled up to his garage.

“Yeah,” Noemi said, worry bleeding into her tone.

“Pull up along that jeep.” Vincent told the driver.

He lowered the window and so did Noemi’s friend. Two girls were in the car looking extremely young and one looked scared.

“Noemi?” The driver asked.

“Hey, you want to follow us inside?” Noemi responded.

“Ok…” She looked between Vincent and me.

We drove into the garage getting dropped off by the elevator. Vincent put them in the first parking space that was empty. Noemi rushed to the girls as they got out of the car, hugging them while they whispered amongst themselves.

“I did not expect that,” I said quietly.

“I didn’t think it was that bad.” Vincent took a deep breath. “I expected debt or maybe a crazy ex, but not her living out on the streets. I didn’t even know she had roommates.”

“We really don’t know much about her,” I concluded. “All we know is that she works for Lincoln and Cheryl's catering company. I feel…”

The girls opened the back of the car, cutting off my sentence. It was probably best if I didn't say what I wanted to say. As angry as I was, I was more upset that she didn’t think she could come to me or Vincent. I took a deep breath wondering if this arrangement was getting too personal. Noemi was right, this was a contract, and I should probably start acting like it.

21

NOEMI

All week, I had been looking for a place for all of us to stay with no luck. I found a place to stay instantly, but I couldn’t leave Carly or Marsha. It felt wrong and I figured at least if all of us were in the car together we would be safer.

If I didn’t need the money so badly, I would have canceled on Cheryl because working meant seeing Vincent and Easton. I knew one of them would see through my bullshit, but Easton had to go ahead and be fucking nice to me, and I lost it. It was like my emotions came crashing down on me no matter how much I tried to compartmentalize.

I freaked out, running before he could see how much of a mess I was, but I should have known better. Easton wouldn’t have just let me go, he tracked me down shirtless in his slacks and untied oxfords. Worry etched his gorgeous face, nose red from the cold.

Guilt instantly hit me and everything from the past week added on to me like a ton of bricks. I didn’t know what I expected to happen, but Vincent inviting the girls to his place was not where I thought I would end up.

“What the hell is going on?” Carly whisper yelled, looking behind me at Vincent and Easton by the elevator. “And why doesn’t he have a shirt?”

I looked back to see he was in fact shirtless, something my brain didn’t register when I had my little breakdown.

“Halloween party. Look, I don't expect you to understand, but I’m kinda seeing them and when they found out we were sleeping in the car, well, they went all protective cavemen on me,” I said, trying to keep the details vague.

“Them?” Marsha’s eyes went wide.

“Yes, them,” I said, feeling them staring at us. “Vincent is wealthy and well he’s got lots of room.”

“Why didn’t you ask to stay with him, when we got kicked out?” Carly looked confused. “Why did you stay with us?”

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