Page 155 of Tempting Fate

Seven weeks later

“This is too much,” I protest as Nadia rips the sheet from the mirror on my dresser.

“It’s perfect, Anna. Don’t be a wimp.”

“Just look.” Bebe holds the mirror to the back of my head to show me the little braids Nadia placed throughout my hairdo.

With my hair lightly curled around my face, my best friend blow-dried the long locks in a way that hides the couple of bald spots Alex caused. They’re going to take time to grow back in, so I’ve been forgoing my usual hairstyle—bun on top of my head—to leave my hair down.

“I look like metal Barbie.”

Bebe’s voice is tight when she tells me, “You look like a walking wet dream.”

I lightly trace the diamond pattern in the fishnets Nadia talked me into wearing under my leather skirt. My over the knee boots hide most of my legs. The loose see-through shirt with the zipper up the middle that I’m wearing over my best push-up bra adds to the illusion that I’m uncovered, but the inches of thigh between my footwear and skirt hem are all the skin that’s exposed.

“He’s going to die when he sees you,” Nadia pronounces when I can’t find the right words to respond to Bebe. My best friend bounces on the bed and squeals. She claps her hands. “I can’t believe Isaiah got us backstage passes to Apologies to Medusa, In This Moment, Distorted Union, and Motionless in White. I’m going to pass out if Maria Brink acknowledges my existence.”

“No one told me we have backstage passes.” Bebe turns white at the thought.

She tugs the cobalt crop top she’s wearing lower until it meets the waistband of her tight jeans. Noticing how her fussing has made her bra visible, I pull her shoulder pleats back into place. Bebe wraps her arms around her exposed midsection and frowns at me.

“You look gorgeous.”

“I don’t normally wear things like this,” she stammers.

“Well, duh,” Nadia tells Bebe with a grin. She drops her gaze to the YSL heels on Bebe’s feet and shivers with obvious lust. “This is the first time I’ve seen you in anything other than scrubs or a ten-thousand-dollar outfit. It’s nice to see you dressed like a normal person.”

“I feel like a biker slut.” Slash’s almost, kind of, sorta, girlfriend claps her hand over her mouth and whines, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”

Waving away her apology, I confess softly, “I kinda feel the same. This isn’t me anymore. I should change.”

My hand habitually trails up to my neck to touch the necklace I always wear. My best friend glares at it, unhappy that she couldn’t get me to take it off for the night.

“Don’t you dare.” Nadia blocks the entrance to my walk-in wardrobe.

The closet is small. Bursting at the seams with all my clothes. My shoe collection lines one wall, two rows deep on the little shelves Slash brought me to keep them off the floor. My handbags are haphazardly arranged in the tall boy he dragged out of his room when he noticed I had left them in their boxes.

When Zeke had Wyatt and Nate drop my things off at Slash’s, I had promised him that it was only temporary until I could find my own place. Sander, Cub, and Fret live together in a three-bedroom townhouse that’s three doors down from where I once lived with Zeke. Nadia has moved back in with her parents after Bear broke the lease on their rental and left her with a mountain of debt. My younger brothers live with my father and Charlie, and since I’m not talking to my dad, that option is off the cards.

I’m looking for a small apartment to buy with the money my mum left me. Unfortunately, prices are crazy, and buildings with the kind of security Slash approves of are in short supply.

Hence my current predicament.

I live with my ex-fiancé’s best friend.

Sure, Slash has six bedrooms in his mini-mansion, and it’s nice to not be alone. He brings popcorn to my bed and holds my hand while we re-watch The Originals. We share the same taste in music and books, and he allows me to boss him around on Sundays so I can continue my mum’s tradition of entering the new week with a clean home and an organised schedule.

Still, I can’t help but feel like I’m cramping his lifestyle.

Especially when Bebe doesn’t seem keen to come over when I’m home.

Hence my decision to invite her to the concert tonight.

With a stacked list of talent on offer, tickets to Apologies to Medusa’s first co-headliner tour sold out within minutes, and even with the Shamrocks connection to the band, getting our hands on a ticket for Bebe would’ve been impossible. It felt like fate when I learnt through Slash that she’s never seen live music before, and Nadia talked Isaiah into coughing up an extra backstage pass to see his older brother Apollo’s band.

I need to suss Bebe out.

Work out why she’s suddenly standoffish with me.

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