Page 106 of Electric Touch

“Men are coming. I will wait for you to decide what to do, but I want to know.”

I agree as Jordan sits back down.

“What’s wrong?” he asks.

“Why something have to be wrong?” she rolls her eyes. “Girl talk. Not your business.”

I will never understand their relationship. Not when he grins like she’s flirting with him, when she is actually telling him to butt out. He takes her hand and kisses her fingertips. Nash returns and sits.

“There’s a club next door if anyone wants to go for more drinks,” Jordan says.

“No,” Alessa says, not giving anyone else time to agree or not. “You take me home.”

“I like the sound of that,” he wiggles his brows. “Sorry guys, but when my woman wants something, I gotta answer that call.”

“Get the fuck out of here,” Nash laughs, but he eyes me. I can tell he is thinking the same thing.

I don’t know how I am going to tell him what his ex is doing. Or how I am going to deal with it, while simultaneously keeping Alessa from raging out. Perhaps it wasn’t the best idea to let her know.

One thing is for damn sure, I’m not prepared to let Riley mess with me.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

“What do you think I should do?”

My sister cocks her head and stares at me. I spent the night with Nash at his place, agonising over not telling him about the text from Riley. I don’t want to hurt him. Telling him, and not telling him is going to hurt. I drove all the way up here to get advice from someone who is not Apollo. I’ve avoided discussing it with him.

We’re at the coffee shop on the grounds of her complex. She’s drinking a fruit cooler from a plastic straw while I sip on my coffee.

“Cut a bitch.”

“Ariella,” I snap.

“What? She’s trying to break you guys up. Let me at her,” she scowls.

“I’m being serious. I should have told Nash about the text. I hate lying.”

She leans forward and takes another sip of her drink without having to pick it up off the table. It’s getting cooler, but even when she was little, she’s never felt the cold. She has a long sleeve top on and a huge scarf around her neck, she isn’t wearing a coat. Her thick hair is piled up in a lopsided bun on her head, with a woolly headband that covers her ears. I worry about her catching a chill but she hates being babied, so I keep my opinions to myself.

Something my sister has no such reservations about, apparently.

“That was a blatant gauntlet she threw down at you, Tia. It deserves retaliation to shut her down.”

“I’m an adult,” I remind her. “I’m also a college professor. I can’t do anything controversial.”

“Like post all over Instagram what a psycho she is?” Ariella laughs. “Oh, come on,” she can tell I’m getting agitated. “It was a shitty move and you have every right to be pissed. I vote for letting Alessa handle it. She sounds like the kind of person who’d throw a grenade at someone’s life.”

“Riley is her friend and, more importantly, a band member. Regardless of what Nash says, there is a lot of tension between her and the band.”

“All the more reason to expose her for what she is. Maybe then they’ll dump her,” she goes to move her cup, but her hand knocks it, luckily it doesn’t fall over. She stares at it for a moment, then looks up at me. “Oops.”

I bite my tongue.

“Back to your problem.”

“Getting her kicked out of the band is not up to me, Ari.”

“She isn’t even that pretty,” she muses. “Your way better looking. You have great tits and a shining personality. I bet talking to her is like talking to a rotten floorboard.”

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