Текст книги "Gold"

Автор книги: K. A. Linde

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Текущая страница: 7 (всего у книги 26 страниц)

“I’M NOT READY TO LEAVE,” Stacia whined. She plopped her empty coffee cup down on its saucer and sighed dramatically. “I can’t believe first semester is already over.”

“Me either,” Bryna agreed.

“It went by so fast,” Trihn said.

“At least I’ll see you in Miami for New Year’s Eve,” Stacia said.

LV State had won the conference championship in San Francisco last weekend, and that meant they would be going to the play-offs. Bryna had spent the past week in her final exams, and now, they were all waiting on grades before starting Christmas break.

Trihn bounced up and down. “I am so excited that I got a ticket to the game! I can’t wait to celebrate our win and bring in the New Year with you girls.”

“We’ll sneak you onto the field,” Stacia promised. She gave Bryna her best pouty face. “Are you sure you don’t want to come and stay at my parents’ house for break? I know my dad is the USC coach and still pretty pissy about their loss, but we could own the city!”

The last place Bryna wanted to be was L.A. for Christmas. She officially hated Christmas and didn’t even want to see her family. After the disaster that was Thanksgiving, she couldn’t brave her once favorite holiday for a stepfamily sham.

“Thanks, but no. I’ll be fine here.”

“What about Brooklyn?” Trihn offered. “Snow. Ice-skating. Shopping.”

“Pass. I had enough snow while skiing with Hugh.”

“Who isn’t such a stranger anymore, huh?” Stacia nudged Bryna’s arm.

Bryna winked. “Definitely not a stranger.”

“So, why aren’t you spending break with him?” Trihn asked.

She just shrugged. The thing was complicated with Hugh. She assumed he was spending the holidays with his wife—even though he hadn’t said that, of course.

“He’s swamped with work. Resort season around the holidays is packed until after New Year’s, so we’re not planning to get together until then.”

“Oh, well, at least you’ll have the football guys to keep you company,” Stacia said. She giggled at the end, and that made it perfectly clear what kind of company she thought Bryna was going to be keeping.

“What about the football players?”

“Didn’t you hear? Coach Galloway said they all had to stay here during break to practice. I think a lot of parents are flying into town to celebrate the holidays with the guys since they can’t leave,” Stacia explained.

“That’s bullshit!” Trihn cried.

“For real,” Bryna said. “Can they do that?”

“I don’t know, but they are,” Stacia said

“Huh. If I get bored, maybe I’ll call Andrew up and see if he’s forgiven me yet.” Bryna laughed lightly at the absurdity of it all.

She knew Andrew was sleeping with other people, but then again, so was she. Maybe if he realized they had just been fucking, then they could make this work again.

“You have a death wish.” Trihn shook her head.

“Yes,” Bryna agreed with that. “Anyway, I won’t be bored. Vegas is never boring.”

She was wrong.

She was so bored over break. With her friends gone for only a week, she found herself bored out of her mind. Between everyone at school leaving, Hugh being swamped with work, and her refusal to see her family—especially since Pace was planning to move in right after New Year’s—she didn’t have much to do. She had thought Vegas could never be boring, but it was all tourist shit, and the flood of tourists drove her mad. She could only see so many proposals, bachelor and bachelorette parties, and weddings before feeling sick.

The Saturday before Christmas, she decided she couldn’t stay in any longer. She needed some outside civilization. Donning a pair of ripped tight jeans, a deep-red sheer top, and her leather jacket, she went to Posse, hoping Maya would be working.

When Bryna entered the building, her mouth nearly dropped open. It was dead. The club where they spent all their time during the school year was basically empty. It made sense that if there weren’t students on campus, then it wouldn’t be as packed.

She walked over to the bar. She felt like a loser, coming to the club alone at this time of year. She could be anywhere, and she had decided to stay in town. She had thought it would help her escape, but instead, she was left with too much time to think about what had happened this time last year.

Maya wasn’t working either. Some guy—she hadn’t caught his name—made her a dirty martini with three olives. She handed him cash. She doubted she would be here longer than one drink. If this was what it was going to be like for another week, then she was considering packing up and heading out of town. It wouldn’t matter where she went as long as it was away from here.

She took her drink and wandered out onto the patio. A small group of people was playing a round of beer pong at a nearby table. That was how sad the place looked. She leaned back against the metal railing and watched the game. The group was really into it, screaming, and chanting for their team, and Bryna felt very separate from everything.

She pulled out her phone to try to distract herself. Maybe tonight hadn’t been a good idea.

“Hey.”

Bryna looked up and right into the face of Eric Wilkins.

She sighed. Great.

“Hey,” she said.

“This place is a graveyard.”

“Yep,” she said, popping the P at the end.

“What are you doing here?” He leaned back, next to her, uninvited.

“Drinking.” She held up her mostly empty glass.

“Yeah, but in Vegas. It’s Christmas break. Shouldn’t you be at home?”

“No,” she said automatically. “I hate Christmas.”

“Who hates Christmas?” he asked in shock.

“Me obviously. That’s what I just said.”

“I mean, I’m dying to be home in Dallas. My mom is probably making Christmas cookies, making the house smell like home. I’m sure the tree is all decorated, and presents are piled high for my younger brother and me. My dad can never decide between ham and turkey, so most of the time, my mom makes both.”

There was laughter in his voice and joy in his memories. It made Bryna cringe away from him. She had never known a childhood like that.

“Sounds like a Hallmark movie,” she responded dryly.

“Yeah, or Lifetime, but that’s home.” He shrugged as if it were completely normal. “What’s your Christmas usually like?”

“Used to be all right before my parents got divorced. Last year, I went to Saint Barts with a guy. I lied and told my family I would be with my mother and then going to New York with Gates,” she admitted.

“Why?” he asked.

“Because it was better than watching my stepmother try too hard. My father wasn’t home anyway. Plus, my mom didn’t even call. This guy cared about me, so I went.”

“I see.”

She glanced away from Eric and closed her eyes. She had no idea why she had even told him that. She hadn’t told anyone about this shit before. Maybe it was because she knew he was completely nonthreatening, and he wasn’t the type to spread rumors. He might be an ass to her, but she didn’t forget he had been worried about her enough to intervene after homecoming when no one else had.

“Hey…do you want to get out of here and get some food?” he asked a minute later.

She couldn’t resist being catty to him. “Oh, are you asking me out?” she joked. She knew he wasn’t. She wasn’t his type after all.

Eric shook his head. “Forget it. I was trying to be nice.”

Bryna sighed dramatically as he walked away. “E, I was just kidding.” She left her drink on a nearby table. “Let’s go.”

“Okay,” he said. “Where to? What are you hungry for?”

“Don’t laugh,” she said. “But…ice cream.”

He looked like he was trying to hold it in, but he ended up laughing. “Ice cream?”

“I said not to laugh.” She swatted at his arm.

“I didn’t realize girls like you ate ice cream.”

“What? Now, I can’t like good food?”

He shrugged. “I mean…you’re pretty small.”

“I have a fast metabolism, and cheer is a hefty workout. I love ice cream.”

“All right then. Ice cream it is. I know a good place.”

Bryna piled into Eric’s Jeep as he drove toward the Strip. She couldn’t believe she was actually sitting in Eric’s car. How did we go from arguing constantly to me telling him my life story to going to get ice cream together? It made little sense to her. The only thing she could think was that she was comfortable with him because she was alone, and she knew he had no intention of hitting on her. It wasn’t often or ever that she came across a guy like that.

He parked at one of the hotels, and they walked through the smoke-filled casino out to the Strip. The lights were bright, and people were everywhere. There were so many tourists. She couldn’t even handle it.

“Where are we going?”

“Sugar Factory,” he said, pointing out a building next door.

They walked through the doors and were promptly seated in the dining room.

“Just dessert menus, please,” Eric said to the hostess.

“Sure thing.” She dropped them on the table and then disappeared.

Bryna opened her menu. There were dozens of options—everything from ice cream to cake and cookies to fondue, waffles, or milkshakes. There was even a hundred-dollar sundae with twenty-four scoops of ice cream and a thousand-dollar fondue with real gold and a bottle of Dom Pérignon included. It was dessert heaven.

“Hi. Welcome to Sugar Factory. Can I get you something to drink?”

“Water is fine,” Bryna said. “But I’m ready to order. You?”

Eric nodded.

“I’ll have the banana split,” she said.

“All right. Do you want two spoons?”

“Um…no. I plan to eat it all by myself.”

The girl looked at Bryna as if she couldn’t decide if it was sarcasm or not.

“Yes. An extra spoon would be great,” Eric interjected. “I’ll have a strawberry milkshake.”

“Sounds great.” The lady walked away with the menus.

Bryna eyed Eric suspiciously. “You’re not getting any of my banana split.”

“It says on the menu it’s made for two to eat. There is no way you can pack away an entire banana split like that.”

“Want to bet?” she asked. “It’s my favorite. And caramelized bananas. I mean, come on. That’s screaming my name.”

He snort-laughed. “I’ll take that bet. You pick up the tab if you don’t finish every last bite.”

“Oh, please. At least make it fun.”

“Fine. When I win, you have to hang out with me again…and be this girl, not the one from school.”

She rolled her eyes. “I don’t know what that means, but I’m going to eat it all anyway, so deal.”

They chatted aimlessly until their food came out. Bryna’s eyes were as big as saucers when she saw how enormous her banana split was.

“Having second thoughts?” he asked.

“Definitely not. I don’t back down from a challenge.”

She dug into her split. She was glad she hadn’t had dinner and was basically living off of her dirty martini at the moment. Otherwise, she wasn’t sure this was actually going to happen. As she worked on the dessert, they talked about football and their undefeated season.

“I wished I were playing,” he admitted. “I’m still on the team, but it’s different, being on the sidelines.”

“But you said you could play.”

“I could,” he agreed. “But I wouldn’t do that to my parents. They were freaked out when I hurt my knee. At first, the doctors didn’t know if I would walk. It was not a good time in my life. I recovered remarkably well, but I don’t want to go back into something I’m good at if it could kill me. I’m still young and smart. I can do something else.”

“Coach? Is that the dream job?”

“Of course. That’s the goal even though so few people make it to the top. Coach thinks I have the right eye for it. That’s why he agreed to train me after I busted my knee,” he told her. “What about you? What’s the dream job?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I always assumed I’d marry into money.”

“You’re not serious,” he said in disbelief. “You’re smart and in college. You have to have some dreams, right?”

She stuffed another bite of the banana split into her mouth to keep from answering right away. Her dreams had always been so muddled by everyone else’s expectations of her. She didn’t know how much of what she wanted was from herself or her parents.

“Sometimes, I think film,” she said. She had never said that out loud. “When I was younger, I used to watch clips and piece them together for my dad…when he was around.”

“Cool. So, are you a film major?”

“Um…no. I’m undecided. I don’t think my father would take me seriously if I told him I was in film even though he was in film here.”

“Why not?” Eric asked.

“I’ve never really shown interest in it. Plus, I don’t want to seem like I’m riding his coattails.”

“If you like it, you like it. You have to decide to do it and not give a fuck about what anyone else thinks. I thought you were already pretty good at that.”

Bryna crinkled her nose and shoved another bite of the banana split into her mouth. She was almost finished, but the more she sat around and talked with Eric, the more she thought it might be nice to hang out with him over break. She had been bored out of her mind, and he was actually pretty good company—when he wasn’t acting like a douchey hostile football player.

She got down to her last bite and just stared at it. “Maybe I will change my major then and see how film suits me.”

“Killer. That sounds like a great idea. At least, once you’ve tried it, you’ll know if it’s for you.” Eric then looked at her bowl. “I can’t believe you only have one bite left. I never would have guessed you could finish that whole thing.”

She smiled and then pushed the bowl over to him with the one remaining bite in it. “I didn’t finish.”

“It’s only one bite.”

“I lost. This was fun. Let’s hang out again.”

Be there in five.

Bryna checked the text from Eric and fiddled with her Harry Winston B in anticipation. They had gone to get lunch earlier this week, and it had been pretty chill. Since everyone was getting back into town on Saturday so that they could fly out to Miami the next morning, Eric had made plans for Friday night. She didn’t know where they were going exactly.

All she knew was she enjoyed Eric’s company far too much—so much that, if he weren’t gay, she would have already hooked up with him. Then again, if he weren’t gay, she wasn’t sure she would be as comfortable with him. It was a conundrum.

With any other guy, going out on a Friday night would certainly mean it was a date. And since this was their third time hanging out this week, it’d usually mean a whole hell of a lot more than that. She wasn’t used to this. She had never had guy friends who didn’t want to fuck her.

It was such a strange relief—and also just strange.

At least it gave her something to think about, other than her botched Christmas holiday. She had spent the entirety of Christmas Day drunk off her ass. Her mother hadn’t called once. Celia had called, but Bryna had ignored it. When her father had finally phoned her, all he’d wanted to know was why she hadn’t returned Celia’s call and claimed they had something important to discuss with her. It’d made her even happier she wasn’t home for the holidays to hear this stupid discussion.

Eric knocked hard on the door, twice.

She popped it open and smiled. “Hey.”

“You ready to go?” he asked.

“You didn’t say where we were going.” She followed him out the door.

“I know. Just get in, Hollywood.”

Bryna walked to his car, plopped down into the passenger seat, and arched an eyebrow. “Hollywood?”

“You call me Cowboy.”

“Well, you drawl your words,” she pointed out.

“No, I don’t.” He actually looked offended.

“Yes, you do. It happens all the time, especially when you’re angry.”

“So, it must just be around you then.”

Bryna shrugged. “As long as you admit it.”

“Whatever,” he said, drawling dramatically.

A smile crept up onto her face.

Eric drove the short distance toward the Strip, and she drummed her fingernails on the door.

“You know, I think I’ve been on the Strip more this week with you than all last semester,” she said.

“I know. I never come out here either. It’s always so busy, and it’s so much easier to go somewhere more local.”

She nodded her head. “Like Posse. It would be great to go to Carnival Court all the time, but the tourists kill it.”

“Yeah. I thought about this other place for tonight, and I heard this location is pretty fun. Plus, I have a friend who works there, so she hooked me up.”

“Okay. You have me curious. Where are we going?” she asked.

“You’ll see.”

Eric parked outside The Cosmopolitan, and they took the escalators up to the fourth floor. They walked out to the pool on the balcony. In its place, she found a full-on ice-skating rink. The seating had been converted into private fire pits for groups. People were roasting s’mores and drinking hot chocolate. All the while, fake snow filtered down around them—in the middle of a casino pool in the desert. Her mind was blown.

“Ice-skating?” she asked in disbelief.

“I thought it would be fun.”

“I had no idea something like this was here.”

“Well,” he said, “I hope you know how to skate.”

He handed his two tickets to the lady at the front, and she gave them a card to rent skates and assigned them a fire pit.

“Of course I know how to skate. I have my own pair of skates at home.”

“These will have to do for today.”

Eric held up a pair of blue plastic skates with straps that hooked on like ski boots. They were hideous.

“I am not going to put my feet in those,” Bryna said.

“Oh, yes, you are.” He grabbed a second pair off the table. “What’s your size?”

“Six and a half.”

“Here you go.” He pushed them into her hands.

She held them away from her like she was going to get infected. “I draw the line.”

“Where’s the girl who downed nearly an entire banana split?”

“That’s different. This is bad footwear. I prefer Christian Louboutin.” She pointed down at her boots.

“Get over it,” he said dismissively.

Then, he walked away toward their fire pit, which they were sharing with two other couples, who were clearly on dates. She had no other option but to follow him with the repulsive boots in her arms.

Eric nodded at the other people next to them, and they smiled in that dreamy state of adoration for their significant other. She wanted to gag.

She watched him start to put on his skates. “I’ll have you know, I’m doing this under protest.”

The skates looked even worse on her feet.

“Are you happy?” she asked.

“Let’s see your moves, Hollywood.”

In these skates, she didn’t have any moves. She was better at skiing than ice-skating. She thought it should have come naturally since she had a dance, gym, and cheer background, but she couldn’t keep her balance well enough on a thin blade.

Eric didn’t seem to be having any of the same difficulties. He skated backward, so he could face her and taunt her bad skating skills. “I thought you said you were good at this.”

“I said I had skates at home. There’s a difference. Now, stop distracting me,” she grumbled.

She got the hang of it after half an hour, and they spent a good deal of time on the ice. The skating worked up both of their appetites, so they ordered food from the rink eatery—grilled cheese, tomato soup, hot chocolate, and s’mores. The hot chocolate might have been some of the best she had ever had.

When they went back out to skate again, some kids were racing each other around the rink. One rammed right into Bryna’s back, and she stumbled into Eric. He tried to grab her, but she slipped out of his grasp and landed hard on her ass and hip.

“Ugh,” she groaned, lying flat on the ice. Her leg was already throbbing. “That’s going to bruise.”

Eric tried to hold in his laughter but wasn’t able to do so. “You look hilarious, sitting down there.”

“Thanks, jerk. Why not help me up?”

“Sorry. Sorry,” he said.

Once she was on her feet again, she could feel her leg and hip swelling. This sucks so bad.

“You know…your pants are soaked.”

“Are you checking out my ass?” she asked.

“I can’t help it when you have a giant wet spot on it.” He only laughed harder when she glared at him. “Come on. Let’s dry you out at the fire pit.”

Twenty minutes later, her pants were dry again, but she was stiff and sore. She was certain she was going to have a disgusting bruise on her leg for the game next week. She hadn’t even gotten it in a fun drunken accident.

They agreed to pack it up and go home after that. She needed to ice her leg if she wanted to stunt next week. Plus, it was already getting late.

They had made it halfway through the casino before a passing waitress stopped them.

“Eric?”

Bryna was surprised to see a very pretty girl in front of her. She had dark brown, almost black, hair piled up into a high ponytail, and with a round tray tucked under her arm, she was decked out in skimpy clothing that matched the other casino servers.

Her dark eyes were wide in confusion. “What are you doing here?” the girl asked.

“Oh…hey,” Eric said. He sounded uncomfortable. “We just left the ice rink.”

“We?”

“Yeah. Sorry. Audrey, this is Bryna.”

With disdain, the girl set her eyes on Bryna. Audrey seemed to size Bryna up in a split second before clearly deciding she was a threat.

Why does the name Audrey sound familiar? Bryna knew she had heard that name before.

Then, it hit her. This was Eric’s psycho ex-girlfriend whom Stacia had told her about at the beginning of the semester. No wonder she looked pissed. Bryna knew she was a threat to almost everyone’s boyfriend—or husband, for that matter. At least in this one singular case, she wasn’t actually doing anything wrong.

“Hey,” Bryna said, politely extending her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

Audrey stared down at her hand as if it were a viper ready to strike. She didn’t even take it.

Bryna left it out until it was awkward and then dropped it. So, that’s how it’s going to be?

“Did you take her to the ice rink?” Audrey demanded.

“Yeah, we just left.”

Duh. He had said that.

“I hooked you up with the fire-pit tickets! Those are hard to come by,” Audrey cried. Her eyes were as round as saucers, and she looked hurt.

Maybe Audrey had assumed he was going to take her or something, which didn’t make sense. Why would he have asked her to get him tickets for the fire pit if he were going to take her? They could have just gone together. Also, as far as Bryna knew, they had been broken up all semester. Why would he have taken her at all? Either way, it was pretty awkward.

“I know. Um…thanks,” Eric said.

He was not handling this well. He seemed completely out of his element when talking to Audrey. Bryna had never seen him like this before.

“I didn’t realize you were going to take another girl on a date with those tickets. Un-fucking-believable, Eric. I wouldn’t have gotten them for you if I’d known. This is absurd.”

Eric shuffled his feet. “Audrey, I appreciate you getting me the tickets, but Bri and I aren’t—”

“Official,” Bryna finished for him.

“What?” he asked. He looked at her in confusion.

Bryna wasn’t having any more of this shit. She had heard this girl was crazy, and the bitch was proving it. Eric was a nice guy, and he was clearly in over his head. He needed help from a real bitch.

“We’re not official yet,” Bryna said. She slipped her hand into Eric’s and leaned against his arm. She made sure not to look up at him to see his reaction. “But thanks for the ticket, Aubrey. It was an amazing date.”

“It’s Audrey,” she spat. She glared at Eric. “Can I talk to you—alone?”

“Sorry,” Bryna said before Eric could speak. “We’re really on a tight schedule. We still have a long night ahead of us.” She even giggled for good measure. “So nice to meet you though.”

Bryna dragged Eric away from Audrey before he could do any more damage. He must really not want people to know he was gay if he had gone as far as dating that crazy chick. She wondered what had happened between them.

When they made it outside, she dropped his hand, and they walked the rest of the way in silence.

It wasn’t until they were seated in his Jeep, driving back across town, when Eric spoke again, “What was all of that about?”

Bryna smiled. “It seemed wrong to let your psycho ex talk to you like that. You were too nice.”

“How did you know she was my ex?”

“I’ve heard the rumors.”

“Great,” he grumbled. “I don’t even want to know what those say.”

“I thought it was easier to pretend this was a date than to have her be so fucking annoying—not to mention, desperate and needy. I can’t believe you let her talk to you like that. I would have knocked her down a few more pegs if I wasn’t so ready to get out of there,” Bryna rambled on through Eric’s silence.

“You know,” he said after a minute, “you’re not the person I thought you were.”

“Thank you?” she said questioningly.

“Seriously, you’re cool as shit. You should let other people see this side of you.”

“I have to keep up my reputation.”

Eric laughed as he glanced over at her. “Maybe people wouldn’t be so scared of you if they saw you fall on your ass while skating.”

“First of all, I didn’t fall. That shithead kid rammed into me. And second, who said I didn’t want people to be afraid of me? It keeps them in line.”

“It just seems to push them away.”

“Sometimes, that’s better,” she admitted. It was how she always lived her life, and it seemed to be working.

Eric parked the car outside of her condo. He angled his body, so he was facing her. She looked up at him, wondering what he was thinking because he sure as hell looked like he was thinking about something. Normally, she would be anticipating the kiss to come…or more. But not with Eric.

“What happened to you?” he asked finally.

“What do you mean?”

“I know this fun-loving girl is in there, but she’s not who you show to the world. You seem like you’re holding something in, so you don’t let yourself fully relax. I don’t know why that is.”

“Life.”

“Maybe.” He didn’t sound convinced. “Is it your parents?”

“No.” Her parents had fucked her up, but this newfound guard she had put up around her heart to prevent anyone from getting to know her was new, fresh.

“Was it that guy you mentioned? The one you went away with last Christmas?”

“I don’t want to talk about him.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”

Bryna cracked open the door and hopped out of the Jeep. She winced when her leg hit the ground. “I had a good time tonight,” she told him.

“Me, too. You know, you’re not going to be able to hide this girl from me now.”

She raised her eyebrows. “We’ll see.” She walked toward the door.

“Bryna!”

“Yeah?” she asked.

“Thanks.”

“For what?”

“For what you said to Audrey.”

“Yeah, well,” she said with a faint smile, “thanks for getting me through Christmas.”