Page 55 of Friends with Benefits (Club Risqué)

All the grief and misery Bianca had caused was at an end, hopefully not just for him, but for any other poor, unfortunate soul.

Except that wasn't quite true. The damage Bianca had caused had further reaching consequences than how it had affected him. And Christian still needed to find out whether her manipulations had crushed his relationship with Trinity, for good, this time.

ChapterForty

As soon as he could, Christian drove away from Club Risqué, still in a bit of a daze.

He was, on the one hand, elated that all the shit with Bianca had been well and truly shovelled, without him having to fork over half his family fortune to see the back of her. Hell, he'd have been glad to see the back of her even if it had cost him a small fortune. On the other hand, he was subdued that he hadn't managed to see Trinity because it had taken so long to deal with the situation.

Now, he was trying to weigh up whether or not it was too late to go to her and try to explain what had happened.

It was shortly after one o'clock in the morning. Not exactly the time of day people normally made social calls.

Of course, if Trinity had stayed at work, she probably wouldn't have expected to return home until almost three am. But if she was upset enough about the things Bianca had told her to go home early, then she was likely upset enough that she wouldn't want to see him, so maybe it would be best to leave things to calm down and tackle everything in the morning, after they had both had a decent night's sleep.

Yet Christian knew there would be no sleep for him tonight. Not with the way he was stressing about the amount of damage Bianca had caused. Maybe Trinity would feel the same and not find sleep easily when she didn't know what was going on.

He cursed himself for not telling Trinity about Bianca's allegations and threats when she had made them at the charity ball, but at the time, he’d thought she was just trying to cause trouble and he hadn't wanted Trinity anywhere near her.

And just look at how that had backfired on him, so perhaps he needed to go with his gut this time around.

His gut was telling him to get to Trinity as soon as humanly possible. His gut was telling him he needed to set her straight about Bianca's lies and manipulations before she had too much time to decide that he was a bad bet all over again. He didn't have the best track record after all.

Already, this clusterfuck had the potential to end him. Endthem.

Without making a conscious decision, Christian found himself parked outside her apartment block.

Looking up and trying to locate which windows were hers, he saw a dim light in the one he calculated was her living room.

That was enough for him. He took it as the sign he was looking for and hurried up to her door, taking the emergency stairs two at a time, for the entire three flights, because he was too impatient to wait for the elevator.

Standing outside, Christian took a breath to regain his equilibrium and resisted the urge to hammer on the door like some kind of crazy lunatic. Knocking softly but determinedly, instead, he prayed that he was doing the right thing.

The door opened just a crack, and a defeated looking Trinity peeked out at him.

Christian found himself placing a precautionary hand on the door to prevent her from closing it on him, even though she had yet to speak.

"Trinity," he implored. "Please let me in. I need to speak to you."

She looked at him with the saddest eyes, which held a telltale sheen, and shook her head slowly as if all her energy had been sucked out of her. "I don't think that's a good idea right now, Christian," she said quietly, politely. Too damn politely.

"I need to explain, Trinity. Please!"

"There's no need, Christian. I don't need excuses and justification. In fact, I'd prefer to avoid that kind of scenario altogether, thank you, so you're off the hook. You can just finish your business here, and we can all move on with our lives; no harm, no foul."

"Well, there is harm, and I do call foul," he declared, crowding close to the door, and managing to wedge his foot into the opening but not daring to push any harder. "She lied, sweetheart. You need to believe me. She lied to you, and to me, and to a whole host of other people," he urged earnestly.

He felt Trinity's weight lifting from the door rather than any other sign of acquiescence, but he was desperate enough to take any tiny crumb of hope she threw to him. He pushed the door gently and it opened up a little bit more, until Trinity took a step back and promptly burst into tears.

That was it. Christian pushed the door open wide enough to step through, then kicked it closed with his foot, his attention never leaving the distraught woman in front of him as he scooped her up in his arms and carried her into the living room.

Sitting down carefully in the corner of the sofa, Chrstian settled Trinity onto his lap, pulling her in close and banding his arms tightly around her as if she might run away at the slightest provocation. He stroked and soothed as she buried her head into his neck, her chest heaving with the noisy sobs that soaked his shirt.

"Shh, it's okay, I'm here. Let it all out, baby. We've got all the time in the world, and I'm not going anywhere," he crooned as he rocked her backward and forward on his knee, comforting them both.

When her sobs had eased into quiet hiccups, Christian relaxed back into the cushions, bringing her with him, and they both sat quietly until they had each regained their composure.

"Was it really a lie?" Trinity finally asked, ages later, a kind of muted hope distinct within her voice as if she so very much wanted to believe but didn't quite dare to do so.

---