Addicted After All (26 page)

“If we have a press conference, how would you handle personal questions?” the oldest woman asks me, redirecting my attention. She wears a conservative blue dress, has short blonde hair and an intimidating scowl. Irene, she said her name was.

“I’d answer them to the best of my ability,” I say, tucking a piece of my hair behind my ear.

“Don’t do that,” Rachel tells me, a five-foot brunette woman. “The press will think you’re uncomfortable.”

I am uncomfortable
.

“She is uncomfortable,” Irene points out.

Shit. “It’s just pregnancy stuff. I’m not one-hundred percent.” I almost want to touch my belly and thank Maximoff for the escape.

Irene doesn’t buy it. “So if I asked you how Loren is, what would you tell me?”

“He’s great,” I say, my cheeks heating.

“Do you always turn this red?” Rachel asks.

I nod, eating slowly. After a swallow, everyone still looks at me for an answer. “It’s uh, a thing.” Oh my God. I need someone to bail me out of this. I search the room, and I stop myself, realizing I’m looking for Lo.

“A thing?” another woman says. I can’t remember her name.

“Did you really graduate from Princeton?” Rachel questions.

I nod.

“Her GPA was appalling,” Irene mentions, “which is why no one should be that impressed.”

Jeez. Anger pumps out of my chest. I spent
years
busting by butt for that diploma. Sure, I had a lot of help, but I still worked for it. “I earned that degree,” I say. “I passed all of my classes and studied for every exam. I may not have been the smartest person in the room, but I at least tried and succeeded.”

Irene stares at me for a long moment, and I am about to shrink underneath her penetrating gray stare. And then her lips curve. In a smile. “We can work with that.”

I did kind of sound like Rose a little bit right there, sticking up for myself. I internally pat myself on the back.
Good job, Lily.

Rachel asks me another question, but I’m distracted by the men’s laughter. Daisy gesticulates with her hands like she’s telling a hilarious story, and they’re all eating it up. One even places his palm on her shoulder. It falls to her back.

And then lower, sliding down to the spot above her ass.

No.
No.

“Excuse me,” I mutter, on a new mission. Protect my little sister. I don’t hear anything that Irene, Rachel, or the other two women say. I march over to Daisy, my pulse racing. It doesn’t help that Maximoff decides
now
of all times to kick me in the ribs.

Great. Just great.

Daisy slyly tries to step out of the handsy guy’s space, but he shifts with her. She bobs her head at him and the others like she’s enthralled with the conversation. I notice that the handsy one has horn-rimmed glasses. After I binge-watched
Heroes
, I trust no one who wears those particular glasses. Paranoid. Yes.

But I’ve been an absent sister for most of my life. I plan on beating Rose and Poppy for the best older sister award, so I scoot closer to Daisy’s side and try to wedge my body between her and Horn-Rimmed.

His hand falls off her back. Success.

I inwardly give myself a second pat.

And then every single man stares down at me like I appeared out of thin air, and not only that, I see their minds churning. It’s like their eyeballs are imprinted with
she’s a sex addict
. I’m a unique specimen, I suppose, but it only heightens the awkward silence.

I have no idea how to alter it, no plan on what to say after I interrupted their conversation. I thought I could coyly sneak in, be all invisible, swat Horn-Rimmed’s hand away, and sneak out.

I fucked up.

But Daisy is so good at integrating introverts that she wraps an arm around my shoulders and says, “I was telling them about the time we tested out Hale Co. bicycles as kids.”

I vaguely remember this, but it’s lost in a pool of other foggy memories.

“I was six,” she quickly paints the picture for me, “and I decided to ride the bike without using the handlebars. I crashed into Jonathan’s Range Rover next door.”

Daniel, with his fluffy brown hair, speaks up. “So you’ve moved on to crashing motorcycles?”

All the guys laugh lightly, like flirty laughter, some even
nervous
. Like a gorgeous, confident girl automatically intimidates them. This is bizarre.

Daisy shrugs. “I like going fast.”

Horn-Rimmed zeroes in on me. “What about you, Lily? Are you more cautious in your approach?”

My approach to life? All the eyes pin to my body, and my neck grows hot. And then Maximoff kicks me again, this time in the
bladder
. So hard that I have no opportunity to stop myself. The water I downed at the other table suddenly leaks.

My world is in slow motion.

Everyone waits for me to finish my sentence while a wet spot sprouts on my khaki slacks. Oh my God.

I am mortified. This ranks up there…high,
high
up there.

They can’t see. They can’t see.
I pray that my face hasn’t turned tomato-red yet.

“She’s more analytical than me,” Daisy says. I catch her gaze and she looks at me like
are you okay?
No. Nope. Daisy smiles at all of them, trying to remove the attention from me.

“You’re the impulsive sister?” Horn-Rimmed asks Daisy, eyeing her long, long legs like Daniel did.

“Very,” Daisy says, “and I’m so impulsive that I have to whisk Lily away from all of you. Sorry. We just need a quick break.” She hooks her arm with mine, and we head towards the ladies’ room. I’m practically sprinting.

“What’s wrong?” she whispers.

I shake my head. I can’t say just yet. My body is petrified, and goose bumps run down my arms the longer I play the moment in my head, on rerun. My face flames by the minute.

When we disappear inside the bathroom, Daisy shutting the door, I inhale a deep breath. “I peed,” I let it out like that.

Daisy stares at my pants and wears a pained smile. “Uh-oh.”

I haven’t even grown the bravery to look, but I do now. The spot is very wet in the front. I check myself in the mirror. And the back.

They all saw me pee myself. “I just screwed my chances.”

“They all know you’re pregnant.” Daisy breezes down the bathroom, peeking in all the stalls to make sure they’re empty before she returns to me. “If I peed my pants, it would’ve been weird.”

Yeah. Okay. I can blame this on my baby. It’s his fault. Oh God, that sounds awful too.

Daisy takes out her phone and puts it on speaker. She’s the problem-solver in this instance. No matter that I’m older. Our roles usually reverse given the circumstance. I’ve bailed her out of situations and she’s bailed me out of plenty more.

I’ve always felt guilty that she’s had to act like the older sister towards me. But, I think, maybe I’ve been wrong all this time.

One of us doesn’t have to be more responsible than the other just because of age. We’re both vulnerable. We’re both strong. We’re both problem-solvers.

I think, maybe, that’s what being sisters is all about. Picking each other up when the other trips. Putting on our sisterly superhero capes when the other needs us. We’re both human in the end.

“Hey,” Daisy says into the receiver. “Are you around the Hale Co. offices by chance?”

I expect Rose’s icy voice to cut in, not this one: “I’m about to ride over to Ralph Stover, but I can pass through if you need me.” Ryke Meadows. She called the one person that I am on a hiatus with.

My eyes widen in horror at Daisy, and I wave my hands to shut this down, and I mouth,
No!
 Daisy gives me a look like
this is the only option.
But Lo…is working. Connor is working. Rose is working.

Everyone is working on Tuesday. Except Ryke.

“Dais? Is everything okay?” he asks. “I can pick you up if you want to leave early.”

“No,” she says quickly. “It’s not that. Can you just grab some of Lily’s clothes—”

“No, no, no,” I cut in, my voice high-pitched. “It’s fine. He has to go meet Ralph Stover. I wouldn’t want to take him away from his friend…” I trail off at Daisy’s smile.

Ryke answers me on the line. “Ralph Stover is a fucking state park.” Rock climbing, I realize. He was going rock climbing. “What do you need, Lily?” I hear a door creak open from his end, and I wonder if he’s already in my bedroom.

I think I’m a new shade of red called Fire Engine Embarrassment. I open my mouth to mumble out the articles of clothing, but I just eat air.

“A new pair of pants,” Daisy tells him easily. “And panties.”

I’d like to disintegrate now.

“What the fuck happened?” Concern infiltrates his rough voice.

“Ipeedmyself,” I say so quickly.

“You pissed your pants?” Ryke asks with questioning, the sound of a drawer sliding open.

I make a noise of distress and rest my forehead on the sink counter, all hunched over. Daisy rubs my back.

“Hey.” Ryke tries to soften his voice. “It’s okay. I’ll be there in a second, Lily.”

Daisy holds the phone near her mouth. “Can you speed?”

“Sure,” he says without hesitation. “I always break this fucking law for you, sweetheart.” It is so cute that I almost swoon instead of roast, but this humiliation is just too strong today.

My invisibility powers have let me down, once again.

{ 24 }

LILY CALLOWAY

In the span of five minutes, Irene has checked on us once, and we told her that someone is stopping by to bring me a change of clothes. She actually turned her scowl into a pity smile for me. That’s how bad this is.

“He’s coming up the elevator,” Daisy says, checking her texts.

I crack the bathroom door and peek at the fourteen board members, who all take the extra time to chat with each other.

“No one has bailed on us yet,” Daisy whispers to me. She peeks through the top portion of the crack while I crouch below her. She’s right. They’re still eating and drinking and smiling, which is good.

The elevator dings, and all of the board members quiet, rotating to face the sliding metal doors. Ryke emerges, wearing a leather bike jacket, zipped to the collar, and a black backpack with buckles across the chest. A green water bottle dangles off the lower strap with a carabineer.

No one approaches him. They’re the ones stunned in silence now, not expecting him to be here today.

He’s essentially crashing this lunch party, and he acts like he couldn’t give a flying shit. He looks around the place and spots the bathroom where we hide. Then he begins his trek this way, without introducing himself or even shaking a single hand.

Though he decides to snatch a couple mini-sandwiches on the way here, eating them in one bite.

“Is he self-sabotaging?” I whisper to Daisy. The board members murmur, gossiping about him, and Ryke ignores all of it.

“I don’t think so.” Daisy backs away from the door as he nears, and I do the same.

Ryke slips inside and shuts the door behind him.

I cover my face with my hands, refusing to meet his brooding gaze for multiple reasons. The first being: I just peed myself. And he can see the stains.

“So they said you’re having lunch and they bring in bite-sized fucking sandwiches?” he curses. I hear him unzip his backpack on the sink counter, grateful he’s not advertising my soiled pants yet.

“You’ll have to eat before you come here tomorrow,” Daisy tells him. I peer through my fingers and watch her hop up on the sink.

“It’s a multi-billion dollar company; they could’ve ordered subs.”

Daisy wears a devious smile. “Ladies don’t put foot-longs in their mouths.”

Oh my God. I am alone with Ryke and Daisy.
Flirty
Raisy. I need help. SOS. Someone save me. I drop my hands and reach for my phone in my pocket.

His eyebrows rise at her, his backpack right there.
Accio, my clothes!
They do not magically land in my hands. Harry Potter fail. I’m truly not a wizard.

“Calloway,” Ryke says, “you’ve never been a lady, and it has nothing to do with taking twelve-inches in your mouth.”

Oh shit.

“Say that again,” she smiles so big.

“No!” I interject with frantic eyes. They both look at me, and I use one hand to shield my gaze. “I don’t want to know how many inches his…thing is.” He cannot be twelve-inches. That’s just too big.

“I’m not twelve fucking inches,” he tells me. Thank God. “Lily, you can look at me?”

“I can’t,” I say. I am trying to keep my “perverted thoughts” under the surface. I cannot be aroused. Nope. I will not let my body feel embarrassment, guilt, shame and pleasure all at once. It’s the most toxic, gross mixture.

I sense Ryke nearing, and I scuttle backwards, my shoulders hitting a stall door.

“
Lily
. It’s just me.” There’s pain in his voice.

I swallow a lump and slowly drop my hand. He is holding my pants out to me, really nicely. Daisy watches from the sink and she gives me a thumbs-up. Something tells me that she’d planned for us to make up right now—and maybe that’s why she called him out of everyone.

How can I say this out loud without seeming strange and weird?

“Maybe if you talk about it, we can clear the fucking air,” Ryke says with hard brows. He’s not even sure what he did. I’ve just been dodging him. “Here, take this.” He pushes the pants to me, and I hold onto my clean clothes like a life vest.

And then I say, “I’m a pervert.”

His face falls. “You’re not a fucking pervert.”

“You always say—”

“I’m an asshole,” he suddenly tells me, licking his lips. “I say exactly what’s on my mind, and sometimes it doesn’t come across how I intend it to. Do you think perverted things? Yes. But so do I. It doesn’t make either of us perverts.” He takes a tense breath. “I don’t want you to believe that you’re one because of things I’ve said. It’d…honestly, it would break my heart.”

Maybe his comments have affected me over the years. “I shouldn’t have taken them so personally…”

He shakes his head a couple times. “No. I shouldn’t have fucking said them in the first place.” He lets out a deeper sigh, frustrated with himself.