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A waiter comes to drop off some waters and a sizzling prawn appetizer. Rhea grins. “I took the liberty of ordering our fave.”
The smell of garlic and prawns hits my nostrils like a full-speed train. It’s… God, has anything ever smelled worse?
I clutch my stomach, turning away.
Rhea makes a soft noise. “Are you okay?”
“Fine,” I answer through clenched teeth. “Just the stench.”
“What stench?”
“The prawns. I think I might throw up.”
“Every time we’ve been here, you’ve raved about these prawns, Jazz. This is your favorite dish in the whole city. You told me that! You’ve always said they smell amazing.”
“I know. I don’t know. My stomach’s acting up.”
Rhea stabs a sizzling prawn, bringing it to her plate. “More for me, then.”
I groan, taking a sip of water as I try to breathe through my mouth, but then the smell hits the back of my throat, and… This is awful. I’m definitely going to throw up.
Watching Rhea eat those prawns is nauseating, but somehow, with clenched teeth and shallow breaths, I make it through. It’s not until the waiter comes back to clear our plates that I’m able to fill my lungs.
Rhea leans her elbows on the table and props her chin on her interlaced fingers. “Now, are you going to tell me what’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” I say, not meeting her eye.
“Right, you’ve just been avoiding me for a month, dodging my phone calls and only speaking to me at the nursing home, then you want to hang out again out of the blue, and now you’re here telling me you hate your favorite dish. But yeah, nothing’s wrong.” She rolls her eyes, brushing her beautifully ombré hair back over her shoulder. “I’ve known you long enough to know when you’re lying through your teeth, Jazz.”
I take a deep breath, shaking my head. “Fine. I’ve been talking to Silas.”
Rhea’s eyes snap to mine. “Prince Silas?”
I nod.
“When. How. Why.” Her words don’t even sound like questions, but I know she’ll throttle me if I don’t answer them right away.
“We slept together.”
“What?” I laugh as she struggles to pick her jaw up off the ground, glancing around the restaurant before she leans in. “Excuse me, Miss Crawley. Can you explain?”
“I don’t know how it happened, Rhea. We just kept running into each other on tour, and then he came to my hotel room, and we kind of kissed right before you called me about my mom, then he let me take the jet back here and he came to make sure I was okay and then…yeah.”
Rhea holds up both hands, closing her eyes as she takes a deep breath through her nose. “Okay, whoa. Hold on. When I called you, he was there?”
I nod.
“And you took the royal jet back to Nord?”
I nod again.
“And then he came to see you?”
“I think someone talked, because Annie confronted me at work about the rumors on Monday.” My fingers move to the chain around my neck, fingers drifting over my father’s ring.
Rhea doesn’t miss the movement. “That chain is from him, isn’t it? The same one he sent to your office when this all started?”
“Yeah.” My voice is small. I’m not embarrassed, exactly. I just feel like I’m in way over my head.
