Gold - Linde K. A. - Страница 56

“Whoa!” Bryna held her hand up. “Don’t get carried away. I just don’t want to always be reminded of what I did to get that house. I hurt a good man, and it didn’t feel good for either of us.”

“I know. I was joking. Mostly. I don’t like you like this, and if the house makes it worse, then you shouldn’t stay there.”

“So, are you going to move back into the condo?” Stacia asked.

“And live with Pace? Over my dead body!”

“Oh,” Stacia said.

Trihn laughed. “Good luck with that, Stacia.”

“Baby Zoe might make me understand Celia a bit better, but it doesn’t excuse Pace’s behavior. And I can’t live with him again.” Bryna shuddered at the thought.

She had reluctantly spent time with Pace at home over the summer break, and it’d felt like a repeat of senior year. He’d had no respect for personal boundaries, and they’d continually butted heads. He was better when he was around Stacia, but only because he’d tiptoe around her, and she’d keep him in line. At least that was a blessing.

“Why don’t you stay here?” Trihn offered. “We would have included you if you didn’t already have a place.”

“Wait, really?” Bryna asked. She had never expected them to offer her a place to stay. She had figured she would need to call her dad to see if he would get her a new place or dip into her trust to rent something while she worked it out.

“Yes!” Stacia cried. “Definitely!”

“Are you guys sure? I mean, I know you probably wanted the extra space.”

“We’re sure! We don’t need the extra space. We’d rather have you,” Trihn said.

“That’s right!” Stacia agreed. “You won’t change our minds now.”

Bryna smiled. How could I say no? She didn’t even want to say no. She felt like she had missed a lot while growing up without having real girlfriends or siblings. Trihn and Stacia were making up for it by a long shot.

“All right. I’ll do it!”

Stacia jumped up and down and threw herself at Bryna, tackling her with a hug. “This is going to be so much fun!”

“We need to go out for drinks to celebrate,” Trihn said. “Take it easy, S. You’re suffocating her.”

Stacia laughed and flopped down next to Bryna with a giant smile on her face.

“Drinks sound great,” Bryna agreed.

“Do either of you care if I invite Neal? We haven’t spent much time together since I’ve been back. He’s been a little weird actually.”

“Sure, I don’t mind,” Bryna said. “Weird, how?”

“I don’t know. Just busy I think.”

Bryna narrowed her eyes. What kind of guy would ignore his girlfriend after being apart for nearly the whole summer? But by the look in Trihn’s eyes, she didn’t want to talk about it anymore. She was upset, and she tended to internalize that.

Trihn stood to make her phone call.

Stacia turned to Bryna. “Don’t worry. No Pace tonight,” she volunteered.

“Good.”

“He’s still at practice,” she said dreamily. Her love for quarterbacks knew no bounds.

Bryna colored at the thought of football practice. She couldn’t help but think about Eric. She knew he must have dipped out of practice early, so he could wait for her after cheerleading got out. There was no way that run-in had been an accident.

And she…couldn’t believe she had slept with him. She had wanted to. So bad.

No. She needed to stop that train of thought right now. She had made up her mind. She wasn’t going to sit around and give him the opportunity to break her heart. She liked it the way it was.

“Do you hear them?” Stacia whispered.

“What?” Bryna asked. She hadn’t been paying attention.

Stacia nodded her head toward the other room. Bryna strained to hear Trihn’s conversation.

“Yes! I want you to come. I haven’t seen you. I miss you,” Trihn said.

She sounded frustrated, and Bryna watched her pace the kitchen in irritation.

“I know you don’t like partying, but Bri needs me, and we’re celebrating. So, I’m not going to stay in tonight.”

Pause.

“This is a part of my life! God, why don’t you get that? I’m allowed to like going out and drinking as much as the artsy side of me.”

Bryna cringed for her. This was an ongoing argument. She didn’t like that they were still fighting over the fact that Trihn liked to go out and have a drink. It wasn’t as if she was going out to fuck a bunch of different guys.

“Yes, I’m aware it’s a Monday,” she said. The anger in her voice was seeping through. She clenched her hands into fists. “Fine. Stay in then. Only alcoholics go to the bar on Mondays, right?”

Pause.

“Yeah, I’ll see you later in the week. Bye.”

Trihn hung up the phone and stormed back into the room. Stacia and Bryna tried to pretend like they hadn’t heard.

Trihn waved them off. “I know you were listening. Neal isn’t coming. I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s go get a drink.”

They nodded, seeing that she didn’t want another argument, and then followed Trihn out of the apartment.

They drove over to Posse with Chloe Avana’s new single being the only thing to break the silence. The DJ announced her upcoming national tour, and Bryna rolled her eyes. Things were better with Gates now, but she couldn’t stop her aversion to Chloe even though the girl had really done nothing wrong, except for being in the wrong place at the wrong time on her rise to fame.

Posse wasn’t completely dead for a Monday night. It was usually pretty chill, but there was still a cloud of businessmen and college students on the premises. They wandered up toward the VIP lounge in search of Maya.

Maya was standing behind the bar with a group of men in suits in front of her. She was sashaying her hips, making small talk, and pouring drinks like a pro while seemingly flirting with them and keeping a perfect distance. She knew exactly what she was doing.

Her eyes lit up when she saw the three of them walking toward her. She gave them a look like she could use a welcome reprieve from the guys who were surely going to tip her generously. She passed them their drinks and then walked over to the girls.

“Bri!” She leaned over the counter and kissed her cheek. “Trihni! Stacia! It’s good to see my girls. I missed you this summer.”

She was already throwing together drinks for them—a dirty martini for Bri, amaretto sour for Trihn, and something fruity for Stacia.

“I missed you, too,” Bryna said before taking a big gulp of her drink.

“We all did,” Trihn agreed.

“You just missed the drinks,” Maya said.

“Those help,” Trihn said with a wink.

“One of these days, you’re going to have to take a night off and come out dancing with us, Maya!” Stacia said.

“One day,” she agreed. “But not today. Anyway, I think there’s one for you here tonight, Bri.”

“One what?” she asked. Her mind was still elsewhere, and she didn’t catch up with what Maya was insinuating until she tilted her head toward the businessmen.

“I know how you like them.” Maya smirked. “The one on the far side of the bar is totally your type.”

All three girls looked over at the same time. Maya was right. He was completely her type. He was tall with dark hair and an awesome charcoal-gray suit. He had money and power and liked both in large quantities. She could tell that even from this distance, even without seeing his face or knowing anything else about him, other than the cut of his suit and his posture in it. Her body immediately responded to it, and all she could gather was that it was confused as hell. She liked guys like this, but it also made her stomach turn. After Hugh, she couldn’t look at a guy like that the same.

“I don’t know if I’m up for that,” Bryna said.

“What? He’s got your name written all over him,” Maya said.

“She had kind of a…bad summer,” Trihn explained. “Maybe another night.”

Maya shrugged. “Okay, but I think you’re missing out. He’s a higher up for Google.”