Page 57 of Illicit Illustration

“What do you want to know?”

“What do you think I want to know, Haz? We don’t keep secrets from each other.”

Raising an eyebrow, I pinned her with a look, because while she had texted me she was running off with my brother on Halloween with his psycho ex on the loose in the bar creating havoc, she also hadn’t told me that her crush on him was more than just surface level.

There was no way she’d just fallen for him over the course of a single weekend and agreed to move in with him a couple of months later. That wasn’t how Charley worked. She rarely had a second date, so the fact that she was so enamored with my brother after a few days meant her feelings for him had been building for a while.

“You don’t want to know the secrets I keep about your brother, so don’t even pretend whatever is going on with you is the same. There’s a big difference between me not sharing details about my sex life and you keeping actual secrets about something that is clearly upsetting you enough you came in from wherever you were this morning crying.”

“I wasn’t crying.”

“And I’m the virgin on this couch,” she replied sarcastically.

“Okay. Maybe I was crying a little, but it wasn’t a big deal. I cry all the time. You know this. Sometimes I cry when I’m angry.”

“Then what are you angry about? Because as your best friend, you know I’m obligated to be equally angry if not angrier than you are about whatever it is you’re hiding from me on your behalf.”

And I knew if I told her to, Charley would march across that parking lot and beat my brother’s best friend for playing with my emotions, but when I looked back on the situation, I wasn’t sure he was the one who had done the hurting.

“I’m not angry. Just…conflicted. This week has been a lot and I’m all up in my feelings.”

“Clearly. But you’re still evading the question.”

Glancing down at the phone in my hand, I swiped up to unlock the screen, my spirits deflating as I saw that while he’d once been typing, Seven hadn’t replied.

“I’m not sure this experiment is going to work out.”

She crossed her arms, her expression morphing into genuine concern. Charley may have pushed me into it, but I knew if I genuinely wanted to back out of it before the reveal, she’d let me. “How so?”

“Things with Seven were going great, and I was really looking forward to meeting him, but something changed in the last 24 hours and now I’m not sure I can go through with it.”

Charley growled under her breath, muttering something I couldn’t hear. “What did he do?”

“He didn’t do anything, not really, but it’s just this nagging feeling that he’s losing interest or something. He isn’t initiating conversations like he did previously, and then he’s left me on read several times. He’s probably just busy and I’m being paranoid. I’ve been so distracted working on my commissions with—” I trailed off, but judging by how her eyes widened, she’d heard my slip.

“Is that what you and Reid were really doing last Sunday? Working on one of your commissions?”

Closing my eyes, I tried to figure out what to tell her without revealing how embarrassed I was to have been taken in by his charm. She knew his reputation, and while I don’t think she would ever discourage me from rekindling my friendship with him, she would also warn me against letting anything else happen between us. Especially knowing that there was someone else because of the blind dating event.

“Maybe.”

“Hazel, what the fuck is going on with you?” Char didn’t sound angry, just a bit startled that I’d been keeping something from her. But she’d been so busy, and part of me knew I shouldn’t be doing what I’d been doing with Reid. I just hadn’t told her because I didn’t want her to tell me to stop.

“You’ve been busy, and he offered to help—”

“Oh, I’m sure he fucking did…” she muttered, looking pissed on my behalf. “Did he do something to make you this upset? I don’t care if he’s Hudson’s best friend, I’ll fucking rip off his balls if he hurt you.”

“He didn’t…” I whispered, recalling the look on his face right before I’d walked out of the break room. “But I may have hurt him.”

“Why don’t you just tell me what happened, and I’ll decide whose balls I need to injure.”

To her credit, Charley just waited while I word vomited everything that’d been happening over the last week with both men. The flirtatious behavior, the text messages, how things had escalated with Reid until what had happened the other night. How ashamed I felt the last 24 hours as I tried to reconcile my feelings.

“First of all, you should not feel ashamed about anything that happened. You aren’t dating anyone exclusively, and until that kind of commitment has been talked about, you don’t have to explain your behavior to anyone.”

“I know, but…”

“I wasn’t fucking finished,” she snapped, but then took a deep breath. “Sorry, got a little carried away there. Second, there are no rules for how this dating experiment is supposed to turn out. If you want to have naughty show and tell with Seven, then get it, girl. On the flip side, if you want to sort of blow your brother’s best friend because it felt good, then do that too. Seven knew going in that there was the possibility of you talking to other guys before the reveal. So, he can’t be upset if you followed through on that.”

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