Page 49 of Sweet Chaos
I lifted the covers to remind myself what I was wearing. Black and green plaid pajama bottoms and fuzzy Halloween socks withhishoodie. Ugh. Someone just shoot me. I looked like a bag lady.
Nic nodded, looking all proud of herself. “Yep. I called him yesterday and he rose to the challenge.”
“Why would you call him?” Because, really, he was the very last person she should have considered calling. Nothing says romance like a cough and a fever. Ugh, we weren’t romantically involved. Yes, were. No, we weren’t. My internal debate sapped what little strength I had left in my body.
I was exhausted. Wrung out like a used dishrag.
“I had to work, and I didn’t want you to be alone. If you had a different mother, I would have called her, but your mother would have been useless.”
Sadly, it was true. When I was a kid, I was prone to fevers, and my mother had always let the nanny deal with my childhood illnesses. But still.Dylan?
“He stayed the night and left this morning.”
I set the mug on my bedside table, buying time before I asked the question, dreading to hear the answer. “Um, where did he sleep?”
“In your bed.”
“Oh my God. That’s just…” I didn’t know what it was. Mortifying? Crazy?
“He was really great,” Nic said. “I thought he’d just drop off the soup or maybe, at a stretch, stay until I got home from work, but he went the extra mile.”
“I don’t think he does anything halfway.” Which made me think of his words:Not until you’re ready to fuck me or wrap your lips around my cock. Should I be thinking of that now? No, absolutely not. “But Nic, that whole thing at Mavericks…” It felt like a lifetime ago, but it still hurt like a fresh wound. “I lost Ollie.”
“I know. That sucks.”
I’d told her the whole story the following day, so she did know but I still felt the need to hash it out. “If Dylan hadn’t been there, none of that would have happened.”
“I’ve been thinking about this. If what Ollie said is true, that you broke his heart, he would have had the same problem seeing you with any guy. It just happened to be Dylan.”
Someonewas Team Dylan. She’d never once defended Ollie like she did Dylan. “Why are you trying to push us together?”
Before she could answer, her phone pinged, and she checked it, hiding the screen before I could read the text. It was probably from Cruz. They’d been texting non-stop since the night they met. Their relationship was so easy. Boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, girl wants to jump his bones. And it was perfectly acceptable for them to do that. There were no obstacles in their way. No sister. No Ollie. No conniving father.
“If you hurry up and finish that broth, you might have time for a shower.”
No sooner were the words out of her mouth when someone pounded on the front door. It sounded aggressive. My mind immediately went to the most likely candidate. “Oh no. Tell me it’s not—”
“What did I tell you about locking the front door?” Dylan growled.
My eyes widened when I heard the door close which meant that Dylan was inside our apartment. On the prowl.
“Nic,” I hissed. “Tell him I’m not here.”
“Hey Dylan. We’re in Scarlett’s bedroom,” she yelled.
Traitor. I pulled the covers over my head.
* * *
Chase proposed to Sienna on Valentine’s Day. He’d taken her to a trendy restaurant in West Hollywood and when the molten chocolate lava cake arrived, he’d gotten down on one knee in front of everyone and their mother and asked Sienna to marry him. There had been tears and champagne and she’d said yes.
I found this out from my mother who left it on a voicemail this morning while I was in the shower. There was another voicemail from Sienna telling me a similar story.
On my fifteen-minute walk to work, I called her back because it would be rude not to. Normally, I didn’t mind the walk, but dark storm clouds had gathered, and I didn’t have an umbrella. I was finally feeling human again and had kicked that cold to the curb so the last thing I needed was to get caught in a downpour.
“Congratulations,” I told Sienna, forcing enthusiasm into my voice, and hoping it would override the guilt I was feeling. “I’m really happy for you.”
“Thanks. Mom’s already planning the wedding.” I could practically hear the eye-roll on her end. It matched mine.
