Page 29 of Apparently, I’m A B!tch

Chapter17

Tristan

Monday afternoon

“I can’t believeyou went on a date with her. She told you, to your face, that she only wanted to help so she could get into your–” Lilly pretended to wretch and finished with “–pants? And you’re okay with that?”

The shop was bustling, and more of my customers were ordering iced coffees than ever before. Today, there was a late summer heatwave, and New Yorkers were trying to escape the blaring concrete inferno by crowding into air-conditioned shops during their spare moments.

Lilly was still mixing oat milk into a decaf iced latte when she yelled over the music and chatter to tell me off about my date with Rochelle.

“It wasn’t as if I knew what she wanted when I went in there, Lil,” I yelled back, handing a container of yogurt and granola to another customer.

“Are you kidding me?” She shot me a glare. “Shawn and I both tried to tell you! You’re just too dense to listen.”

I ventured a laugh and nodded to Shawn as he yelled out another customer order. “At least she was honest though. You have to give her that.”

I took my place at the coffee machine, glad to be keeping my hands and mind busy after the small amount of sleep I had last night.

The date with Rochelle was fine, even if I didn’t realize it was a date until she made her proposition. She invited me to a slew of gallery showings that were scheduled for August and September, and I didn’t know what to do or say.

We talked, ate, then I put her in a sleek car after she waited, in vain, for what I realized afterward was a kiss. I made my own way back to the shop, undressed and slid into my bed, running my mind over what to do about Rochelle.

It wasn’t as if I had women lining up outside my shop to complement my art and offer to date me in exchange for a career bump… and it wasn’t as if Nikki and I were on any kind of firm footing. So why wasn’t I excited by a beautiful woman blatantly wanting me? At the very least I think I should’ve been flattered. Instead, I lugged around a heavy nauseating churn in my stomach, as if I swallowed a particularly disgusting spoonful of medicine.

Rochelle’s offer made me question everything I began to feel was solid. My talent, my perspective, and my drive were what I had to offer the art world, but Rochelle didn’t seem to see that. Instead, what she saw, what she wanted, was a man who could look decent in a suit while talking about established artists and their work without being an embarrassment in a gallery setting. She would introduce me to some people in return, and I’d hopefully be able to use those connections to get my art into showings.

None of it sat right with me, even if it was the way it happened for so many other artists. But to admit that to Lilly after she started a righteous tirade about how she knew Rochelle wasn’t really interested in my art was just something I wasn’t ready to do. If anything, it stung that she was right. I wanted my art to garner attention based on its own merit, not because of how attractive a curator found me.

“I don’t have to give her anything, and dating her is clearly a bad decision Tristy,” she shot back as I clucked my tongue, and Shawn chortled while handing a wrap over the counter.

“What’s a bad decision?” a familiar, teasing voice asked, and my gaze shot up to find Nikki leaning over the counter, giving Lilly a warm smile.

It was crazy the way my stomach flipped at seeing her, the nauseous weight melting as if it weren’t there, and I wrenched my eyes away.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Lilly lean across the counter, but she yelled her answer anyway, which could’ve only been for my benefit. “That curator, Rochelle. I was right. She only wanted one thing from Tristy and it didn’t have much to do with his brushstrokes.”

I looked at Lilly until she met my stern stare, then shook my head, my lips and jaw clamped tight. She stuck her tongue out at me and turned back to our customers. One of these days, I was going to figure out a way to get her to treat me like her boss.

“Oh, so… it was a date then?” Nikki asked. There was a shift in her voice that made me stop and look at her. But she didn’t meet my gaze, looking only at Lilly as if the conversation were about her and not me.

Lilly pulled out the plate I set aside for her, and I handed over her double-shot latte. She glanced at both and tried to offer a smile, but I knew Nikki’s smiles. I knew this one wasn’t real.

She looked down and lifted the hanger she held in her hands. “Sorry, Lil, my hands are full, could you…?”

“Let me,” I yelled over the crowd abruptly, stepping away from the coffee machine and ignoring the knowing stares and guffaws of my baristas.

I scooped up Nikki’s order and nudged my head toward a table near the counter. She followed, and once I set down her order, she pushed a plastic-covered dress shirt in my face.

“I got this for you. I went to the dry cleaner this morning, but they said they couldn’t get the stain out, so I checked your size and went to the brand that sold the same kind of shirt, but they were all out of that style, so I got you one of their latest shirts instead. I hope it’s okay. I’m so sorry I ruined the other one, I can’t believe I…”

Her rambling trailed off after I smiled and held up the hanger. “Thank you, you didn’t have to do that.” She lifted a shoulder as I took in the pastel-blue, high-quality shirt. “Let me pay you for it. This is way nicer than my old one. You probably spent more on this than I did on the original.”

She shook her head. “No way. I felt so bad after what happened on Sunday. I wanted to fix it, but... is it okay? You can exchange it if you want, they have different styles and colors and–”

I laughed. “Nikki, I love it. Thank you. I’ll have to find a reason to wear it now. It’s too nice to wear while serving coffee.”

She stepped back and scooped up her takeout cup, analyzing the lid while she fidgeted with the edge of it. “Maybe you could wear it on your next date with Rochelle.”