AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Mickey doesn’t say anything, but I can tell that she’s cringing. When she speaks she tries not to make it too obvious: “Well that’s okay. You needed to regroup and?—”
“Don’t try to make it sound better,” I say, cutting her off. “It sucked. Kara is pissed, though Nick had a good excuse. Something about not wanting his face in her music video. It kinda worked, but obviously the news about Brent and me spread through that plane like the plague.”
“Hold on,” Mickey says. “Nick stayed in the closet with you?”
“Yeah,” I confirm. “He was actually really sweet about everything. He apologized for being an asshole earlier too, which sounds like the lowest bar imaginable for a guy to clear but it actually seems like growth.”
“Evie!” Mickey says, aghast. “Why the gloom? Fuck your ex. Nick Madison sat in a closet to comfort you for a full Atlantic flight! That’s crazy. I think you might be making the Grinch’s heart grow a size larger.”
I hesitate. Should I tell her? I barely know how to explain it; I definitely can’t put words to the tumultuous feelings inside me. But I desperately need someone to confide in and, before I can stop myself, the words come blurting out: “Nick and I kissed last night.”
“Holy. Fuck.”
After ten seconds of dead silence, I start, “I know it’s?—”
“Wait,” Mickey says, still in the same shell-shocked tone. “I need a second to process. If you say any more my poor brain might explode.”
I chuckle lightly and give her the requested second.
Finally she says, “So let me get this straight. First, you have to go to the hottest party in the world to woo a superstar. Second, your ex-fiancé shows up with your ex-best friend. Third, your hot-as-sin, rich-as-fuck boss makes out with you. Am I getting all this right?”
“Did I mention he kissed me next to the Seine under the Eiffel Tower?”
“Bitch, I don’t know why you called sounding so upset,” Mickey says. “If I had a genie lamp, this would be exactly what I’d wish for!”
“You’d waste a wish on Brent and Cheryl being here? I find that hard to believe.”
“No, idiot. That’s the best part! Or, no. Nick is the best part. Whatever. Listen — you got dumped by Brent and it sucked donkey balls, yeah? Well now he’s getting a front row seat to watch you and the actual guy of your dreams fall in love against a Parisian backdrop. I don’t care if Brent has a ten-inch cock, there’s no way he’s not going to be jealous of Nick.”
“Okay, first of all, ouch. He definitely didn’t.”
“You know what I mean.”
“But,” I say, powering through, “there’s a flaw in your plan. Nick and I aren’t falling in love.”
“You sure about that?”
A flash of falling asleep on his shoulder, cradled by that cinnamon scent that surrounds him. The look in his eye as he approached me on the Seine, so determined and handsome and strong. His gentleness at my despair. The fire in his eyes when he looked at Brent.
Still I shake my head, even though she can’t see me. “No,” I insist. “He’s my boss for god’s sake. And we’re in the middle of a major launch. It’s the worst possible time.”
“Those sound like pretty flimsy excuses to me.”
Mickey has no problem calling me out on my bullshit. And so I have to confess, finally voice the reason I’d turned Nick down last night.
“I just feel overwhelmed,” I admit. “It’s a lot. It feels stupid, but I just…” I trail off, trying to gather my thoughts. Mickey gives me the space I need. “I was kissing him and all I could see was the look on Brent’s face when he told me he was leaving me. He wasn’t apologetic. He was annoyed. Annoyed I was so upset. He said that I should have seen this coming. Why would he be with me over Cheryl?” My voice cracks on the memory, the most painful of my life.
“Oh Evie…” Mickey says. “They’re just terrible people.”
I wipe at my eye hurriedly. “I know that. But I still couldn’t stay there with Nick. I couldn’t get them out of my head. And I’m upset because I should be over them. They shouldn’t still have the power to hurt me.”
“Hurt doesn’t work like that, babe,” Mickey says. “It has a way of sticking around.”
“So what should I do about it?”
Mickey laughs. “If I had the answer to that, I’d be a millionaire with a talk show.”
I laugh shakily. “Give it a shot. I just want an idea.”
