“Yes. I just have to tell Gabe first.” There was a long silence. “Victor?”
“Yeah, I’m here. Okay. I’m at the light. I’ll pull up to the back door,” he said.
I thanked him, but realized he’d hung up the phone. I put it in my purse and looked at myself in the mirror. I looked normal, and it reminded me of how little we let people see of us. When I walked out of the bathroom, Gabe was standing in the hallway with our ice creams in his hands. He held mine out to me, and I took it.
“I’m leaving.”
He flinched slightly, frowning. “Okay. I’ll take you home.”
I shook my head. “No. I’m leaving. Without you.”
I could tell I caught him off guard when he lowered the hand he was holding his ice cream in and sagged his shoulders.
“Really, Nicole?” he asked, sighing. “It was a mistake. I was an idiot. It was one time—”
“I don’t care. I don’t care,” I added slowly, sternly. “I haven’t cared for a long time, Gabriel. I haven’t, but for you to bring me here? How fucking insensitive can you be? And I’m here to do you a favor. I can’t fucking believe—”
“You signed an addendum.”
“And because I signed an addendum I’m supposed to stick around while somebody disrespects me and you let them?”
“I didn’t realize you needed saving, Nicole. I didn’t realize you were a damsel in distress.”
He was such a bastard.
“I don’t need saving. The only damsel in distress in this situation is you. And I’m sick of being your knight in shining armor,” I said, pointing a finger at his chest before turning to walk toward the back door. I stopped when I reached it, hand on the handle as I tossed the ice cream cone into the waste basket next to me. “P.S. Fuck your addendum.”
Victor’s sleek black two-door Jaguar was parked right outside the door. I pulled the door open and got in. I hid my face in my hands momentarily before I even got a chance to look at him. Thankfully, he took that as a sign to start driving. As we reached the curb, the paparazzi started running toward the car with their cameras in tow. I hid my face, but I was sure they’d caught me in their photos.
“Where am I going?” he asked.
“Anywhere.”
His fingers peeled away one of my hands from my face. I still didn’t look at him, but I let him take my hand down with his and left it in his grasp when he threaded our fingers together.
“Having second thoughts on that stupid paper you signed yet?” he asked after a beat, squeezing my hand so I couldn’t move it away when I tried.
“Something like that.”
“What happened back there?” he asked, taking my hand with him as he shifted the gear.
I sighed. “Nothing out of the ordinary. We agreed to go for ice cream, and it was fine until the cashier, who I used to think was nice, basically told me she’d fucked him.”
From my peripheral I saw him nod and mutter he’s an asshole. He exhaled sharply and continued to drive down Pacific Coast Highway. Neither one of us said anything until we got to a house on the beach, where he parked his car right outside the garage. I swallowed, thinking about how quickly things could escalate as soon as I walked in the door. I’d wanted him for so long, but now that the moment was finally here . . .
“You brought me to your house?” I asked as he switched off the engine. He looked at me and smiled.
“Not my house. This is my sister’s. I told her I’d come by to help her put up a TV. She wants to surprise her husband before he gets home from work.”
I blinked. “Oh. Okay.”
He reached out for my hand again and placed it over his open palm, looking at it as if he were measuring it.
“I’ve never seen you wearing this,” he said, turning the bottom of my wedding ring in his fingers.
“Cameras,” I said as way of explanation. There was turmoil in his eyes that made my stomach flip. “Does it bother you?”
He stayed silent for so long, just staring at me, reaching deep within me for something unknown to me, that I thought he wouldn’t answer. I watched as his Adam’s apple bobbed when he swallowed, and finally he nodded slowly.
“It does. A lot,” he said, threading his fingers through mine and bringing his free hand up to my face. He used it to brush back some of the hair that had fallen out of my ponytail and caressed my jaw with his knuckles, those deep hazel eyes still on mine. I couldn’t close my eyes even if I wanted to, and my heart felt like it was at the point of no return, kicking into overdrive as his hand continued to move down to my neck, my collarbone.
“I want to take you to dinner,” he said, voice low. The only thing I could do was nod. I would have agreed to just about anything. “Somewhere public, where I don’t feel like ripping your clothes off, but you know how the media will get if we do that.”
I smiled at the thought. “And let’s be honest, regardless of where we are, you’d still want to rip my clothes off.”