“But you do,” she said, her voice a low, disgruntled purr.
“What? So you can threaten me, tell me that I’ll never be good enough? I know that!” Bridget said before throwing her hands up over her head and taking a step back from the other woman. “Don’t you think I know that? Everything I do is never good enough, but right now? I’m the one Ravi wants. I bet that must eat at you.”
Sabella’s usually pretty features tightened up, as if she’d sucked on a lemon or a lime. “Don’t flatter yourself.”
“I don’t have to,” Bridget replied. “I know that I’m getting to you. If I weren’t, you wouldn’t be stalking me at 3 a.m. and in your best ‘here kitty-kitty’ ware. I get it. You were some hotshot before I got here. You’re leggy and curvy and way hotter than me in a Playboy bunny way. Great for you. Still, no matter what you do, you’re not the one Ravi wants right now so just deal with it.”
Sabella laughed, low and menacing. “You think you have it all figured out, don’t you?”
“Maybe.”
Sabella shook her head and pushed a strand of errant hair out of Bridget’s face. “You’re not the first woman he’s brought home, and you won’t be the last. He’s dated actual princesses and the most gorgeous models, but in the end he always returns to me. And when he’s bored with you?” she chuckled again, as if it was the funniest joke in the world. “Which, let’s be honest, won’t be long, giraffe. Then he’ll come back to me. He always does.”
Bridget swallowed hard. “Right now, Sabella, he has no interest in you, and that’s your problem. Deal with the fact that you’re not the one.”
“For now, American.”
“I have a name. It’s ‘Bridget,’ and you could at least be bothered to call me by it.”
“Why?” Sabella asked.
“Because it’s polite. I know your name.”
“Oh, I know it,” Sabella replied, turning on her heels to leave the kitchen. “I just don’t care to learn it. You’ll be gone before it even matters.”
That left Bridget gaping, her mouth falling open and closed like a fish on land gasping for its last breaths. She stood up and put her glass back in the sink. It didn’t matter now or at least that’s what she tried to tell herself, but her heart stung as she tried to get back to sleep, even Ravi’s arms around her not comfort enough to block out Sabella’s words.
What if it was true?