Make Me Sin

55

I stir my soup, take a bite. It’s salty and delicious, and makes me think of A.J.’s taste. My lips turn up. “I told you, we’re not having s*x. Well, at least he’s not. I’m having the most incredible orgasms of my life. He’s doing a lot of sleeping. So basically, we’re both getting exactly what we need.”

Grace groans.

“Well, that’s one mystery solved anyway.”

Kat’s sigh sounds resigned to the whole affair. I knew I could count on her. “What do you mean?”

“Nico said A.J.’s been acting strange lately.”

I pause with another spoonful of soup halfway to my mouth. “Strange?”

She pins me with a look. “Yeah. Happy.”

My heart swells. It gets a little harder to breathe.

“Not only that, he stopped smoking. Just quit cold turkey one day weeks ago. After that, he started writing all these songs, which according to Nico, are incredible. And . . .” She pauses, gazing at me meaningfully. “His hoochie mamas haven’t been seen hanging around. In months.”

I whisper, “Months?”

She shakes her head. “Apparently not since the day we came into your shop to talk about the wedding flowers.”

“The day he left with the dishy brunette from the candle aisle, as I recall you saying,” Grace points out.

“Which he made sure you saw, didn’t he Lo? Almost as if he was making a point.”

I think about Kat’s question. In retrospect, it does seem possible. “So what do you think it all means?” My heart is in my throat as I wait for her to answer.

“I think,” she says softly, “that you’re not the only one in over your head.”

Grace waves the waiter over. When he arrives, she rests a hand on his arm and looks at him in desperation. “Vodka. Straight. Make it a double. Get it here in less than two minutes and I’ll tip you twenty bucks.”

He sprints away, on the job. While she waits for his return, Grace props her elbows on the table and drops her head to her hands, moaning.

Inside my handbag, my cell phone rings. It’s an unknown number.

“Hello?”

“You ran out on me the other day. And you’re not answering my calls. We need to talk.”

It’s Eric. He sounds tense and unhappy. I close my eyes, already feeling defeated. I’m not looking forward to the conversation we need to have. “Yes, we do.”

“I’m off in an hour. I’ll come to your place.”

He hangs up before I can say no, or suggest somewhere else. Feeling panicked, I look at the clock on my phone. Eight thirty. If Eric gets to my place by ten, I’ll still have a few hours before A.J. shows up.

Unless he decides to come earlier.

Or Eric won’t leave.

Kat asks, “Who was that?”

I slip the phone back in my purse. “Eric. He wants to talk. He’s coming over to my apartment in an hour.”

“Tonight? You’re exhausted!”

“He didn’t give me a chance to say no.”

“Have you talked to him since the fitting?”

I shake my head.

“Well, I don’t think you should be talking to him at your place, alone. Nico said he got a really weird vibe from Eric the other day when they talked outside before you left.”

Remembering the look in Eric’s eyes, how angry he was, a chill runs down my spine. “What kind of weird vibe?”

“Like a stabby vibe. Like he was ready to kill someone.”

Into her hands, Grace mutters, “I told you.”

I wave it off. “He’s just upset. I’d feel the same way if the situation were reversed. We went from being happy one day to me calling him the wrong name and broken up the next without ever really talking about what happened.”

The waiter arrives with Grace’s drink. She sends him a smile that leaves him starry-eyed, and guzzles it. When she sets it back down on the table she looks straight at me and says, “You were never happy with him, Chloe. You were content. It’s not the same thing.”

I drop my gaze to the soup. Softly, I say, “I know. And it’s only in the past few days I’ve really understood the difference.”

Grace groans. “You are seriously killing me.”

“Grace,” says Kat sternly, “you warned me away from Nico at the beginning of our relationship, remember? And we turned out fine.”

“Yes, but Nico doesn’t have a mafia don’s rap sheet and a harem of paid escorts that, if lined up, would circle the globe five times over.”

Kat gives her a look. “Close enough.”

“And he was crazy about you from day one. A.J. and Chloe hated each other on sight.”

“I never hated him. I was just hurt by how much of a jerk he always was to me. And now I’m pretty sure he was doing that to keep me at arms’ length.” I finally raise my gaze and look at them. “To protect me.”

Grace blinks. “Wait. You think all his assholeyness was because he was trying to protect you?”

I nod.

“From what?”

“From him.”

There’s a long silence as my friends process that. Finally, Grace says, “There’s a hell of a lot you’re not telling us.”