Page 42 of Velvet Sin
“Say something.”Looking around the table, all I saw was three almost identical looks of shock from my best friends.“Come on.I didn’t announce I’m turning to a life of crime and hope you can come visit me in prison.”
It was Izzy who found her voice first after gulping down what was left of her mimosa.“Sorry.It’s just… this is kind of a shock.Right?I can’t be the only one.”She looked around the table, searching for backup.
“You say you know this guy?”Megan asked, blinking slowly.It wasn’t the bottomless mimosas doing it to her.They were watered down anyway.
I had shocked her.
I had shocked all of them.
“Yeah, I’ve known Dante most of my life, since the fifth grade.We dated in high school and throughout college,” I explained.
“How come this is the first time we’re hearing about him?”Casey asked, skeptical.They all were.Any good friends would be.
“It’s a long story, and that’s not the point.I reconnected with him.He asked me to live with him here in Vegas, since he wants to make this the base of operations now with his business.”I stopped there, afraid to give away too much information.Some things they didn’t need to know about.I was already sweating a little under their disbelief.
“The ink is barely dry on the divorce papers,” Casey pointed out.“This just seems very unlike you, moving in with another man not even six months after the divorce was finalized.”
“What are you all so freaked out about?Sure, if he were some stranger, I could see you being a little concerned.But I am telling you, there is nothing to worry about.”I tried to laugh it off, but the sound was too shrill to come off as anything but desperate.“I don’t get it.Last time we were together, you were encouraging me to get laid, all giggly over thinking I had a new guy.”
A silent but tense conversation unfolded among the three of them.“Okay, I know we promised not to talk about this, but I have to say it.”Izzy folded her arms on the table while the others tried to cut her off.“We know all about the way your life has changed, and we’re all worried about you.That’s why we wanted to come out to brunch today to try to get through to you.”
“Get through to me?What are you talking about?”My stomach churned because I knew.Of course I knew.I didn’t want to believe it, was all.Cameron was always going to do this.
“We are just concerned,” Megan insisted in a hushed voice.“But Cam told the guys that one of his clients saw you in a sex club off the strip.You were fucking in the middle of all these people.”
“Time out.”I barked out a laugh and shook my head.There I was, thinking I finally saw the full truth of what my life used to be.It seemed there were still surprises to uncover.“You’re telling me that taking me to a sex club in LA and encouraging me to hook up with somebody is fine, but when I actually go through with it, that’s a problem?Why?”
“It’s just on top of everything else,” Casey murmured.“You know.The secret job you can’t tell anybody about.The way you sort of dropped off the map around the same time you started working.”
“And now, you’re moving in with some guy who runs sex clubs himself,” Izzy hissed.
My glass was empty, meaning nothing spilled out of it when I knocked it over when I lost control of my hands.They were trembling so hard I had to tuck them between my knees to hold them still.“Who told you that?”I whispered, eyes darting over them.
“Cam,” Izzy confirmed.“This guy, his name is Dante, right?Cam told us that’s who you were with and what he does for a living.Some nobody the two of you knew in college.Are you sure that’s the kind of guy you want to be with?”
“Do you really want to be the sex club owner’s girlfriend?”Casey asked, grimacing.
“It’s kind of sleazy, right?That’s not the kind of person you are,” Megan assured me, even reaching out to give my shoulder an awkward pat.One I quickly flinched away from, making her gasp and pull her hand back.
“Wait a second,” I whispered, holding up a finger.“You don’t get to sit here and judge me, then comfort me afterward.Refresh my memory.Have any of you asked even once if I’m happy?If this is what I want?Do any of you even care?”
“Sweetie, we all know how it feels to get swept up in a relationship.”I had to be imagining Izzy’s bottom lip sticking out like she was pouting.It couldn’t be real.
But it was, and it paired well with her sparkling eyes as tears welled in them.“This is what friends do.They deliver real talk when they have to.None of us wants to do this,” she insisted.
“Let me make it easy for you, then.You don’t have to.”Pushing away from the table, I ignored their dismayed reactions as I slung my purse over my shoulder.“Megan, I think today was your turn to pay?”
I left without waiting for an answer while anger and embarrassment fought for control.Nothing mattered except getting to the car and locking myself inside, where nobody could hurt or judge me.
Damn Cameron.I should’ve told them he knew I was at the club from firsthand experience, but that would’ve meant sinking to his level.They probably wouldn’t believe me anyway.
To think, I had gone into this brunch with high hopes.Finally, I would have good news to share with my friends.There I was, still naïve enough to believe they would be happy for me.This would be proof of my life going on happily without Cameron.I never considered them taking it the way they had, but then I figured Cameron had let the whole thing go.Otherwise, why hadn’t they reached out?
Because they had been waiting to bombard me.
Even though I hadn’t officially moved in yet, I was already starting to consider Dante’s place my new home a few days after his offer.The fact that I had never considered my apartment a home probably had a lot to do with that, but what was most important was the person inside.He had let me off early last night specifically because I had Sunday brunch scheduled with the girls at noon and wanted to get a little sleep.
Now, I blinked back tears while jogging up the front steps and onto the patio, using the key Dante had given me to let myself in through the rear patio door.
