Page 124 of Sweet as Sin (Bad Habit 1)
I said, “What I want, more than anything else in the world, is for Nico to be happy. That’s all. So in a way, I am being selfish by letting him go.”
Grace stared at me as if I were insane. “Kat, if you think that man is going to be happy without you, you’ve never been more deluded in your life. He’s going to self-destruct. What do you think all these women he’s suddenly with are about?”
“They’re about to score him a nasty case of genital warts, that’s what,” I grumbled.
She snapped, “Do
n’t be flippant! When you’re talking about flushing true love down the toilet, you don’t get to be flippant. Not in front of me.”
I was astonished. “And here I assumed you thought true love existed in the same place as unicorns and the tooth fairy.”
She swallowed, looking away. “Well, you’re wrong. It’s rare, but it happens. It’s what every single person I see in my practice really wants. Underneath all the bullshit, it’s what everybody longs for.” She looked back at me. For the first time since I’d known her, Grace’s eyes shone with tears. “And if you throw it away like a piece of trash, I will never forgive you.”
She stood abruptly. Crossing to the dining room, she snatched her handbag from where it hung on the arm of a chair, then proceeded to walk out of the apartment and slam the door shut behind her, all without looking at me once.
In the bedroom, my cell phone rang.
I flew down the hallway, my heart in my throat. But when I fished the phone from my purse, it was a number I didn’t recognize. It wasn’t him.
“Hello?”
“Hello, Kat. It’s Barney.”
My heart leapt, then plummeted. I clutched the phone as if my life depended on it. “Oh God, Barney, has something happened to Nico? Is he all right?”
Barney paused. In a strange voice, he said, “He’s been through worse. It’s not the end of the world, it’s just an adjustment.”
Goddamn, drive a stake through my heart, why don’t you? I had to put my hand on my chest to press against the piercing pain his words evoked.
“I’m calling because I have some of your things here that Nico packed up, and he’s anxious to get rid of them. I went by your house to give them back to you, but you weren’t home. Where would you like me to bring them?”
Now he sounded businesslike and impersonal. I supposed I was lucky he wasn’t calling me the c-word. I gave him Grace’s address.
I thought we were going to hang up, but then he said offhandedly, “You know the band leaves tomorrow night for the tour.”
“Of course I know.”
“Well, I thought you should also know that Nico’s bringing a few . . . guests with him. A few special guests, that is. Of the female persuasion.”
Was he fucking kidding me? My face went hot. “Gee, thanks, Barney. I really needed to know that. I appreciate your honesty. I’m sure it will help me sleep much better tonight.”
There was a distinct shrug in his reply. “I’m only telling you because I don’t want you to feel badly about how you ended it. You did him a favor, really. He realizes now your relationship was just sort of a temporary insanity. He’s been laughing about it. He’s going to chalk it up to hard experience. Boot camp, so to speak. As you can see, he’s already moved on.”
I stood there with my mouth open, blinking rapidly, unable to come up with a single reply that didn’t involve threatening to disembowel a man I had previously respected and liked.
“I mean you must have known, Kat. I love Nico, he’s like a brother to me, but he’s a musician. Honestly, they’re unreliable. There’s always something more important to them than you.”
He hung up without waiting for my reply. I stood motionless in the living room with the dead phone to my ear, replaying the conversation over and over in my head, wondering if I was going insane.
Boot camp.
It’s not the end of the world.
He’s a musician. Honestly, they’re unreliable.
I’d heard all that before.
When the front desk called the house phone twenty minutes later to announce a guest in the lobby, I was prepared.
