Page 44 of Mayhem
“You’re such a good wife,” Cruz teased, picking up the remote.
Paetyn snorted. “I’ll let you pretend like that isn’t you.”
Cruz laughed as Paetyn continued up the stairs while he flipped through the channels.
Erin stepped back from the painting she and Lawrence had just hung. The one that was initially in that space had sold, and Alijah was preparing to ship it, and several others, which was why they were replacing them or rearranging them so similar-styled or themed paintings were together.
She went over to where Chayse and Alijah were seated on the cushioned bench, sitting sideways on the latter’s lap as Lawrence stood in front of them.
“Thank you all again for helping,”Alijah stated.
“I’m not going to pass up food and drinks,”Lawrence replied, referring to the lunch they’d had before getting started a few hours ago.
“And here we thought you wanted to spend time with us,”Chayse teasingly responded.
“That’s secondary,”Lawrence stated. “Anyway, are you excited about your cruise?”
“I am. We’ll be gone for an entire week. I had to schedule most of my shoots for these first two weeks and scheduled all of our men for the same day next week. So, I can do them all at once,” Chayse responded. “This cruise will be well worth it and deserved afterward.”
“Speaking of men,”Alijah started.“I was thinking that we could go on a couples retreat sometime in August or September since you’re dating Cruz and Paetyn now.”
Erin nodded. “That sounds like fun.”
“You can come to, Lawrence,”Alijah paused briefly. “You can bring Remy.”
Erin watched as Lawrence’s attention snapped to Alijah. “What?”
“What?”Alijah mimicked in a terrible attempt at a deeper voice. “Don’t sit over there like that man isn’t blowing your back out or like he hasn’t at least done so a couple of times.”
“Wait, how did you—”
“We all knew you disappeared that night,”Chayse told him with a shrug.
“And then Remy made up this story about a watch that was left, and him thinking it was yours. He could have done better,” Alijah informed. “But I wasn’t going to rain on his parade. I figured you either didn’t exchange numbers, and he wanted to contact you, or you left the watch at his house.”
“The two of you were also not that discrete when you left,”Erin said. “Though I didn’t know that’s who it was when I told you to talk to him.”
“So, the way I see it, you owe us some information,”Chayse stated, and Erin and Alijah nodded.
For the next twenty minutes, they listened to Lawrence tell them what transpired between him and Remy the night of the wedding, how Lawrence avoided Remy after that until he bumped into him when he’d been visiting Alijah, and where things stood with them now.
She’dfound herself laughing along with the other two women when Lawrence told them about going over to Remy’s that night after running into him at the office, and him teasing Lawrence in gray sweatpants but ultimately not giving him any.
Erin wasn’t surprised that Lawrence had ignored Remy. It was hard to give up control or find yourself so deeply on the receiving end when you were used to being the one in control, the one who dictated how things happened.
Honestly, she’d thought about doing just that after her stay-in date with Paetyn and Cruz because she’d known they woulddominate her, but they hadn’t even had sex, and they had her wanting to comply with everything they told her or asked of her. Hell, Erin found herself reacting in ways she hadn’t before.
She figured it was because she’d never dated two men at the sametime,and that what was happening may be normal in the situation. So, she’d told herself that it was fine to allow it. That didn’t mean she didn’t need to take the next couple of days to herself.
Lawrence had just finished filling them in when the gallery doors opened. Erin looked over her shoulder to find Nik and Emberly walking in. Greetings went around, and Emberly situated herself on Chayse’s lap.
“I see you were able to finish,”Nik stated, looking around. “I was prepared to help if needed.”
“Thank you, but we were able to get it all done,”Alijah responded.
“Are you excited about your birthday trip?”Erin asked Emberly, who smiled at her and nodded.
“Yes, I’m going to work on my photography, and we’re going to Fun City and doing Pikas in the Park.”
