Chapter 18
"The Brighton Beck is coming to town." The exuberance in Sadie's voice is unmistakable. It's the same giddiness that was there when she first talked about Noah. I can't say I'm shocked given the fact that she's been a Brighton Beck fan girl forever. The only difference now is that she has absolutely no idea that the world renowned watercolor artist is actually the same man I was sleeping with when I lived in Paris.
I can't react genuinely. If I do that she's going to stare down her nose at me for hooking up with him. "You're excited." That's a great comeback, Alexa. Now if you can just quiet the pounding of your heart to a dull roar, you might get through this conversation without confessing everything to your best friend. When I agreed to pop by to have a coffee with Sadie at the restaurant, I had no idea that Beck would be the sole focus of our visit.
"You remember him, don't you?" She asks as she pulls the plate of cookies across the table. "He was the friend that Hunter put you in touch with in Paris. Did you ever end up calling him?"
I'd called him days after I got his number when I was lost. He'd walked me through the maze of unfamiliar streets to a park bench where he and his incredibly handsome face had been waiting for me. I wasn't initially impressed with his talent, but his kindness, the tenderness he showed me as a lover and his profession of love for me had swept me off my feet. The fact that we were two Americans caught up in the romance of the city of lights didn't hurt either. We had an instant bond that cemented us together for weeks.
"Hunter's best friend Jax and his wife just had a baby. Brighton's coming to see them." Sadie's so sweet and unaware of the darkness that pervades Brighton's soul. To her, he's simply the brother of her husband's best friend. To the world he's a hero who whisked his girlfriend away to the best long term care facility in Europe after a horrific accident that left her unable to move. To me, he's the one man who managed to not only own my heart but break it into five million unfixable pieces.
"They live in New York, right?" I want clarification of where he's going to be. I can't imagine that Beck would try and contact me while he's on US soil after everything that happened between us, but he's unpredictable and if I'm going to have to face him, I want at least some semblance of a warning bell so I could throw my defense into action.
She nods as she takes another bite of cookie. "I think he's coming to Boston too." She shrugs her shoulders. "Hunter didn't say why, but I hope he stops by here."
I hope he gets hit by a train. "I know you love his work," I offer. I need to find a way to change the subject. Even though I was under the spell of Brighton's lies when I slept with him, the cruel and unmistakable fact is that he was involved with someone else when we had our affair. I thought he was over her, but he was just as invested in his girlfriend Liz then, as he is now.
"I'll call you to come in and meet him if he books a table."
"That's okay." I reach over to pat her hand before standing to leave. "I'm not a fan."