Page 15 of Devoted
“Huh…”
Looking over, I see Benny staring at me intently, his arms crossed, as if I’ve done something wrong.
His confusion causes me to raise an eyebrow in similar suspicion. “What do you mean by ‘huh?’” I mimic his tone.
“Used to seeing you with a new pretty girl on your arm at these things.” Benny cocks his head as he waits for my reply.
The man before me is a good friend, but there isn’t a way in hell I’m going to tell him how I’ve only had onepretty girlon my mind for two agonizing months.
A deep sigh leaves my lips as I make my way over to the towering man. Raising a hand, I firmly pat his shoulder and lean my face closer to his ear to speak. Old reliable deflection is my way out of this conversation.
“If you’re interrogating me intending to ask you to be my date, I’m afraid you aren’t my type, Benjamin,” I whisper, adding a tsk at the end.
I’m startled slightly when he leans even further into our shared space with a devious smirk lining his glossed lips.
“I’m too big for you to carry in your arms anyway. I’ll make sure not to trip down the stairs, only to have you pull somethingtrying to pick me up.” Hewinksat me, and I stand there, frozen, as he says his goodbye and makes his way to the stairwell.
Lesson learned. Anything that happens here is up for gossip. I’m only hoping the story of my incident with Vivian didn’t make its way to Alek. I’m not sure how he’d react to me playing the shining knight in armor for his younger sister.
Twenty minutes later, I find myself still irritated by the conversation with Benny. If he knows there’s… something going on between Vivian and me, who else from the club knows?
My frustrated groan echoes in the room holding costume after costume. It should be concerning how often I find myself in Vivian’s office when she’s gone, but I try not to think about it. There’s no rationalizing it.
Just as there’s no rationalizing why I am scrolling through her profile with an unused account of my own. The account is an old one I used to post art to, but I lost motivation years ago. That is, until recently.
Vivian has been my muse as much as she’s been my queen, the passion behind my art as well as the beauty that commands it.
And it looks like my queen is stuffing her face full of fries at The Burger Shop, a gastropub only down the street from here.
Looking at the time stamp, it seems she posted the story not too long ago, and I’m tempted to sneak out before this event starts to catch sight of her. A week has passed since I last saw her, since I last felt her in my arms and caught myself becoming addicted to the feeling of her. It’s why I lashed out and practically ran out of the back room. I can’t grow attached to someone I shouldn’t have.
The phone still in hand, I lean back in Vivian’s chair, intending to keep scrolling through her feed as I’ve done countless times before, when a loud crack startles me. I only have a moment to steady myself before I fall backward onto the concrete ground.
“What the hell?” I ask out loud to the empty room. Looking down, I see the tiny office chair broken into even tinier pieces. I hope she had no attachment to the damn thing. I only tolerated sitting in it for so long because I didn’t want any signs of me in her office, but now—she’s getting a new one.
Pocketing my phone, I squat down to pick up the pieces of cheap plastic and rush out the door. Buying her a replacement chair has already moved to the top of my to-do list.
CHAPTER TEN
VIVIAN
Fries before guys.
“Do you think they will be okay?” I ask Emma between sips of my strawberry milkshake. We’re at The Burger Shop, way too close to work than I’d like to be right now. But Alek and Ezekiel needed some space to talk things out.
“Yeah, I do.” Emma nods. “You should have heard the worry in Ezekiel’s voice when he called, but you were too busy breaking our damn coffee table.” She points at me as if she’s scolding a child—though a child wouldn’t be as tipsy as I am right now.
I feel myself turning pink. My blush is even more evident after the margaritas I shared with my brother earlier tonight over karaoke andDance Dance Revolution. Since I was little, singing and dancing have always been an escape for me. I picked up my first moves from watching teenage Alek animatedly cook dinner for Thomas and me when Mom couldn’t bother to be home with us.
“Me too. I love them together,” I sigh, my voice sounding a little more wistful than intended.
I made a comment to Ezekiel earlier about how I was tired of the Adlers doing what they wanted, and thankfully, he seemed too concerned with Alek to ask me for clarification. I have no clue what I would tell him anyway—I’m just frustrated with Knight.
One minute, he looks at me like I’m his whole world, and a second later, he glares at me like I stomped on his freshly polished shoe.
Okay, well, Imighthave stepped on his shoe during our last encounter, but almost falling down the stairs and him coming to my rescue happened so quickly that I can’t exactly remember anything other than how good I felt being in his arms.
Before I can spiral into overthinking, a large sheet tray full of chili cheese fries magically appears at our booth.
