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Dan must see the disturbed look on my face because he puts his phone down and leans in. “Hey, are you okay?”
I swallow hard, switching my phone off without replying and throwing it back into my bag. “Yeah. Fine.”
“Don’t lie to me, El.”
“It’s just Dad…” I sigh heavily, tilting my head back and taking a deep breath. “He’s still pressuring me to spill all the news to Andries about Roxanne’s scandal. It’s not even direct, anymore. He just keeps peppering me with articles and Twitter screenshots about how it’s all going down back home, and it makes me feel like I can’t escape it.”
“I know he wants them to split up, but doesn’t this seem like an odd tactic to you? Some of this heat is going to come back on Andries, and be associated with the Van den Bosch name, so I would think he’d want to sweep it under the rug more or less.”
I bite my lip, thinking. “Actually, I think he has a hand in this. Or, to be more accurate, I thinkKarlis the mastermind behind it all. Maybe because I snubbed him when he wanted me to screw Roxanne over, and now he’s seeking out some kind of revenge against me and Roxie at the same time.”
“That prick sure can’t take any kind of rejection from women, can he?” Dan shakes his head. “What an insecure asshole.”
“Agreed. But my fear is that if Karl is responsible for all this, then I feel like Dad has to know at least somewhat. I hate to think it, but it’s possible that my dad is involved, and now he’s counting on me to complete the circuit and run and tell everything to Andries.”
Dan drains his espresso and folds his hands behind his head, looking thoughtful. “Roxanne really screwed herself over on every front when it comes to that cabaret. Obviously, she should’ve been honest with him from the beginning about owning it,” he scoffs. “I mean, what was she thinking? How could owning a cabaret be worse than being an escort? She’s––”
“I think we both know the answer to that, Dan. She was giving my brother the truth little by little because she was afraid of losing him. It’s what made her lie about her job in the first place. It almost seems like she lies as a defense mechanism.”
“Be that as it may,” Dan continues, “her second opportunity to come clean came when she found out about this scandal in the beginning. I think Andries would have been pissed, but I think he would have gotten over it, and imagine how mad your dad would be if all the work he and Karl did to sabotage the two of them was for nothing? It would have been great. But now she’s dug herself deeper. Shehasto be the one to tell him if there’s any hope of her recovering from these lies.”
“I’m really afraid it might be too late…” I tap my fingers on the stone table, looking out at the blue sky behind Dan, lost in thought. Dan seems to be thinking, too, but eventually, he speaks up once more.
“Do you really think he’ll end their engagement over a freaking cabaret? If you throw a stone in Amsterdam you’ll hit one. It isn’t even a big deal.”
“I don’t know… this is Andries we are talking about, so it’s a complete tossup how he’ll react.”
“They are both such idiots sometimes….”
“I know. Obviously, it’s the lie that’s the biggest problem, not the cabaret, but Andries has standards that are higher than the moon––” my phone goes off once more mid-sentence, and when I lean over to grab it again, I see it’s my brother calling me, as if he somehow knew we were talking about him. “Speaking of which…” I swipe the arrow on the screen to pick up the call, but I can’t even get the first breath of a greeting out before my brother is fuming at me.
“He–”
“What the hell did you do to Johan? He is once again in his room packing to leave and won’t take no for an answer. The man looks absolutelymiserableand I just know that you’re involved!”
I bristle. There’s no way that I’d ever admit to my brother what Dan and I had actually been doing, but frankly, it’s none of his business. “I didn’t do anything. Maybe he’s just tired of being here with Andries the broody, drunk poet.”
He scoffs. “It’s got nothing to do with me, El, and you know it!”
“Whatever. You’re being annoying as fuck. I’m hanging up.”
“Don’t you dare––”
I follow through with the threat, ending the call and throwing the phone back into my bag with more force than is necessary. Dan is looking at me cautiously.
“What’s gotten into him?” he asks.
“It’s because his precious friend Johan is packing up to leave tomorrow. He can’t handle the rejection.”
“Does he know why Johan is leaving?” Dan sounds innocent, but there is a gleam in his eye that lets me know he’s taking a certain joy in having driven Johan off in such a scandalous way.
I shake my head. “Nope. And Johan is enough of a gentleman to keep it to himself.” I blush when Dan smiles at me across the table wolfishly, reaching forward and grabbing my hand, his thumb sliding over the pulse point in my wrist. It’s such a small caress, but knowing the secrets we share makes it feel like so much more. “I can’t believe I did that. I swear…”
Now Dan’s grip on my hand tightens, and his gaze grows more serious. Heated, even, and it makes my heart race. “I know you love me,” he declares, and I know he means it one hundred percent. “Even if you find it hard to admit to yourself, what you did on the beach… knowing your ex would see us… that was proof enough for me.”
Even though part of me wants to tell him so badly that yes, I love him, there’s an even bigger part of me that is still so afraid. “I enjoy this little thing we have going on and I don’t want it to end, I already told you that,” I say cooly, but Dan huffs and I know he isn’t buying into my aloof act.
“Come here, Elise,” he commands.
