Page 97 of Nothing to Do

Roman had done a lot of pacing and big, melodramatic arm gestures as he huffed and puffed his way around the living room. All the doors were open to the balcony beyond. The air should be a nice release, the sun was rising, the sky brightening up… yet his presence stifled the room. Already she was growing to resent him and she’d only known him a short time. How did the others put up with him for so long?

“I can’t listen to this anymore,” Sway said, raising her arm in a full wave only to then stalk into another room and slam the door.

“Where does she think she’s going?” Roman barked. “She can’t do that! You can’t do that! Get the fuck out here!”

Roxie hurried over, holding open both hands. “This is our cue.”

“Our cue?” She took Roxie’s hands and with Zane boosting her up, she found her feet. “Girl talk time.”

Okay, Sway she’d known all of three minutes. They’d been in the suite for at least an hour, and no one had even introduced them, now they were supposed to counsel her on this grief? Hmm, could she be qualified? Money and fame aside, a broken heart was a broken heart, and every woman had been there. Plus, secret weapon? Roxie. That damn woman didn’t know the meaning of out of her depth. No matter the occasion, Roxie could plant her feet on the bottom of any ocean and grow as tall as she needed to be. Mrs. Kyst-Lomond could handle anything.

That was the idea anyway.

The boot wasn’t so bad. Yeah, so being lopsided was weird, with no shoe for the other foot, she needed to lean on someone to keep her balance. She’d get the hang of it.

With Roxie’s help, they went after Sway, finding her seated on the edge of a bed, clinging to the mattress at either side of her thighs.

After entering, they closed the door, and the woman still didn’t look up.

“It went to his head,” she said, sounding absolutely exhausted. “He wasn’t always like this. Losing it, the addiction, rehab… There comes a point in a relationship like ours when you have to say let’s do it. When you have to say, ‘I’ll be there for you.’” Now she looked up. “He wasn’t always like this.”

In a few short steps, they got to a wingback chair by the nightstand. She sat there while Roxie went to sit by Sway on the bed.

“We’re not here to judge,” Roxie said, taking Sway’s hand into her own lap. “Yeah, our first question might be why the hell would you hook up with a guy like that in the first place, but we all have our own dating disasters. Only the virgins get to judge us.”

End with a joke. Roxie loosened Sway up enough to get a polite smile.

“I can’t win, can I?”

“If you want to be with Deacon, be with him. You agreed to marry him.”

“Deacon and I went out before…”

“Was there overlap?” Roxie asked and quickly followed up. “Again, no judgment, might be why Roman’s so nuts about it though.”

“If you’ve spent any time with Roman at all, you know he believes what he wants to believe. Whatever he thinks, I nevercheated with Deacon. Never. I’ve never cheated with anyone.” Sway sighed. “Unless you listen to the media.”

“God, the press announces Zairn’s cheating on me every week, it’s like, ‘pass the salt,’ you know? It means nothing. I know better than most that what the world sees, and the inside truth are two completely different things. We say what we are is not their business, and we’re not.”

They could play to the media’s penchant for scandal because their relationship was built on such strong and sure foundations. In breaking up with Roman, Sway had been out there on her own. Though she doubted that even during the relationship Roman did much listening and supporting.

“Agreed,” she offered, hoping there might be some comfort in numbers. “You have to make decisions based on your feelings, based on what you want. Don’t make them for the fans or to appease Roman’s ego.”

“Maybe I should just go. Be by myself. Disappear for a while.”

“Whatever you want, we’ll support.”

Switching the angle of her body, Sway’s discernment landed on Roxie almost like suspicion.

She laughed. “She really means that.” Both women glanced her way, but she stuck on Sway. “Roxie is that honest and that supportive.”

“We don’t even know each other.”

“Until a week ago, Rox and I had never met. She sees people, accepts them, recognizes the good, and who deserves her support.”

Drawing in a long breath, Sway slipped her hand free and stood up to wander to the window. “There’s no talking to Roman. None. He doesn’t listen. Even when he thinks he’s listening, he’s not listening.”

“You wanted out for a while,” Roxie said. “That’s what you meant by the ‘I’ll be there for you’ thing. When he’s getting help, in rehab, you have to stick around when they’re sick. You couldn’t walk out when he promised to get help because if you did, he could use that as an excuse to slip back into old habits.”

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