Down to Business (Business Series) (34 page)

“Awkward.” I finished.

“Yeah,” he gave me a simple nod and placed the shirt back on the rack.

I drew a deep breath and crossed my arms, wondering if helping him shop was a bad idea.

“I wished you were there last night.”

“What?” I stared at him, knowing what he meant.

“I wanted you to come to my party last night.”

“Why?” I turned away and ran my fingers over the sleeve of a random shirt.

“Because I miss you. I was hoping you’d be there with Lindy.”

I pressed my lips together and kept my gaze on the rack of clothes. I finally lifted my shoulders in a shrug. “I wasn’t invited.”

“You didn’t need an invitation.”

I could feel his stare burning into me, begging me to look at him.

“Yeah, tell the host that.” I turned to another rack and swiped a few shirts aside.

His hand caught my hip and my heart jolted as he turned me to face him. The hangers in the rack behind me pressed into my back as he leaned in closer. “You know what I really wanted for my birthday?”

I swallowed, feeling a flush of heat over my face. “What?”

“You.”

I closed my eyes as his lips nudged mine in a gentle kiss. I moved my hands to his shoulders and instead of pushing him away like I should have, I breathed in his amazing scent and returned his kiss. A rush of euphoria washed over me as he pulled me against him and our lips mingled for another amazing moment. There was no way to deny it, everything felt good when he was near, and I knew that was where I wanted to be.

He brushed his lips over my temple and whispered, “I missed you so much.”

I squeezed him, still riding the overwhelming surge of emotion flowing through me. “I missed you too.”

He swallowed and leaned his lips close to my ear. “When I got your text about wanting to be just friends, I didn’t know how to handle it…I wasn’t sure what to say.”

“I’m sorry Vinny,” I answered, leaning back to look up at his face. “I wanted to do what was best for you…or what I thought was best for us.”

“Autumn,” he said, his grip firm on my hips. “The best thing for me, is being near you. Nothing compares to how I feel when I’m with you.”

Tears burned my eyes and he pulled me in for another kiss. Afterwards we just stood there and held each other as if we were making up for lost time. Finally, he pulled back and whispered. “You want to get out of here and get some lunch? The sales associates are staring at us.”

I glanced over to see two girls behind the counter watching us with smirks.

I smiled up at him. “I wasn’t aware that there’s a law against people cuddling in the clothing department. Maybe we should take it to the dressing room next time.”

“Don’t give me any ideas,” he teased, taking my hand and pulling me toward the exit.

He kept ahold of my hand as we walked through the mall and discussed what we were in the mood to eat. I said I would eat anything, and he started teasing me about eating escargot and cow tongue. In the end, we settled on chinese. He said he knew a place that was decent and close to the mall.

As we were heading for the parking lot, I happened to glance over just in time to see Tyler walking by with his arm around someone. My first thought was it was Lindy, then my steps faltered and my jaw dropped as I recognized the girls long orange ponytail. It was definitely not Lindy. It was the server from The Soup Bowl, Becky.

“What the fuck?” I blurted, turning around to face Tyler, but he was far enough to not hear me.

I resisted the urge to chase him down and tackle him. My blood simmered when his hand slid down over Becky’s ass to cop a feel, completely oblivious of me watching behind him.

“What’s wrong?” Vinny asked.

“Did you see that? That’s Tyler!” I snapped, glaring at Vinny then at the back of Tyler’s head. “That fucking asshole is cheating on Lindy. I’m going to kick his ass!”

I moved forward to confront him but Vinny caught me by the arm and turned me to face him. “Hey, calm down, okay? It’s not your business.”

“What?!”  I pulled out of his grasp. “It is my business. Lindy is my best friend! I can’t believe that asshole would do this to her!”

I spun around again to watch Tyler and Becky escape up the escalator.  Tears burned my eyes and I shook my head. “I always knew he was a piece of shit.”

Vinny took my shoulders in his hands and turned me around again. “Listen to me. I know you want to protect Lindy, but the best thing to do is let her find out on her own. I’ve been in this situation before, being in the middle of something like this is the worst place to be.”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “I don’t care. I have to tell her, Vinny. I won’t be able to look at her, knowing this. God, he’s such a piece of shit.”

“What if it’s not what you think? What if they are just close friends…”

I glared at him. “Are you fucking kidding me? He was touching her ass!”

Vinny pinched the bridge of his nose. “Autumn, you need to listen to me, you don’t want to get in the middle of this.”

I heard the trepidation in his voice and realization came over me. He knew more than he was letting on. “You knew about this didn’t you?”

He released his grip on my shoulder, his eyes wide. “What?”

“You knew he was fucking around on Lindy.”

He sighed. “Like I said, it’s none of our business what he does.”

“You dick!” I shouted, slapping his arm hard and gathering stares from passer-byers. “I can’t believe you would condone this!”

I could have punched him in the face. Instead, I turned and walked off toward the parking lot doors. “Autumn!”

He caught up with me before I could escape by stepping in front of me and blocking the door. “Would you hear me out?”

I swiped the dampness from my eyes. “No. I don’t want to hear you out. I’m going home.”

“What about lunch?”

“I’m not hungry anymore.”

I stepped to the left to go out of another door but he caught me by my sleeve. “Would you just fucking listen for a minute?”

I glared at him and crossed my arms, giving him my undivided attention.

“First of all, I don’t condone his behavior. Cheating is the most disgusting thing a guy could do to a girl. He’s a dick and an idiot to cheat on a sweet girl like Lindy. It’s his fucking loss. I don’t put my nose where it doesn’t belong because that is how you lose friends and make enemies.”

“Lindy deserves to know.”

“I know she does. And she will, trust me. He’s an idiot. He will get caught. Be patient.”

I sighed and looked away. I hoped he was right. The sooner the better because I didn’t have the patience to wait.

“Look, we just got back on the right track here. I don’t want any drama, especially someone elses drama to get between us.” He placed his gentle hand on my hip and drew me against him. “Will you please go to lunch with me?”

I sighed and pressed my cheek against his shoulder. “I’m not really hungry anymore.”

“Well you can have a drink then. Let’s head there and see what happens…”

“Fine…”

He took my hand and led me out of the mall.

He drove me to at the chinese restaurant he liked called Golden Sun. It was not busy and we were seated immediately. We ordered family style and we shared sweet and sour chicken, beef with broccoli, egg rolls, and fried rice. While we ate, he told me about his weekend. He said that after the fight with his father on Friday night, he left with Vivian and his cousins to go chill at some Manhattan bar and he could not remember how he got home. He said that his mother handled the altercation situation with his father, but it was far from over, which I knew.

After he was done telling me about his weekend, I told him about how my father was going to buy me a car over the Thanksgiving break, how my grandmother was doing well, and how happy I was that Tyler was moved out. By the time we were finished with lunch, I was so stuffed I couldn’t move. We packed up the leftovers to go and he drove me back to the apartment.

Once we were parked in front of the building, he looked over at me. The thought of going upstairs and facing Lindy left me nauseated and I wished I could just stay with him.

“Did you want me to walk you up?”

“No, I’ll be okay. Thanks for lunch.”

“Thanks for going with me,” he reached over and took my hand, kissing my knuckles. “See you tomorrow in class?”

I glanced over at him and smiled. “Yeah.”

I looked up at the apartment door again and my stomach cinched. I groaned and covered my face. “I don’t know if I can do this. What if I fold? I’m a terrible liar.”

“You can do it. Just remember it’s not your business.”

I frowned.

“Just trust me on this.”

“I do.”

“Good,” he leaned over and pressed a soft kiss to my lips. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

I half-smiled, my nerves slightly settled by his pep talk. “See you.” I said before letting myself out.

I walked the two flights of stairs, armed with a bag of chinese food and not a lot of confidence. I unlocked to door to find Lindy sitting on the sofa, painting her toe nails a shocking pink hue and watching some daytime talk show.

“Hey,” she called out, concentrating on painting her big toe.

“Hi,” I said avoiding eye contact and escaping to the kitchen.

My heart pounded as I opened the fridge.

“How was the mall?” she called from the living room.

“Fine,” I said, arranging the drinks around so the bag of food would fit. “I ran into Vinny and we went to lunch.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.”

I gasped as she suddenly appeared on the other side of the fridge door when I closed it.

“Jesus Lindy. You scared the shit out of me.”

She laughed. “What kind of left overs?”

“Chinese.”

“Yum. Can I have some?”

“Help yourself.” I said passing the bag over and stepping aside.

She grabbed a plate from the cupboard and started piling the leftovers on it. “I’m starving. I was waiting for Tyler to come over for breakfast but he never showed up…so by the time I decided to eat without him, the pancakes were gross.”

Just hearing his name made my blood pressure rise.

She shoved her plate in the microwave and punched in the cook time. “So what did Vinny have to say for himself?”

“Not much,” I said moving to throw away the empty food containers she left on the counter. “He said he missed me.”

“Did you tell him that you are a miserable moping mess without him?”

I smiled. “No.”

The microwave beeped and she turned, removing the plate and grabbing a fork.

I busied myself with washing my hands at the sink. “So why didn’t Tyler come to breakfast?”

“He said he was helping one of his frat brothers move in. We are meeting up for dinner though.”

I bit my lip and did my best not to say anything, but the words escaped before I could stop them. “Do you think this whole living apart thing is going to work for you guys?”

“Why wouldn’t it?”

I turned to find her staring at me with a skeptical expression. My face stung and I walked past her, heading for the living room. “I don’t know. Sometimes living apart can change things.”

She followed me. “We haven’t have really changed much. I guess we are going through a boring phase, maybe. It’s happened before, like a few months after we started dating, but we came back around.”

I immediately assumed he was cheating on her then too. I hated him so much! The truth was on the tip of my tongue and then Vinny’s voice popped in my head:

It’s not your business, Autumn.

“I’m gonna go take a nap, I’m stuffed.” I said already heading for my room.

“Okay.” She called, oblivious as she sat down on the sofa to eat her food in front of the TV.

I flopped down on my bed and tried to ignore the guilt and chinese food brawling in my stomach. The next thing I knew, I fell asleep and my phone vibrating in my pocket woke me up. I removed it and saw it was a text from Vinny asking if I wanted to go out to a movie and dinner.

I replied I’d be ready at five and he sent back a wink face. I decided I should probably shower so I could re-do my hair, but when I walked out to the living room to let Lindy know my plans, I found her curled up on the sofa, crying.

My stomach clenched and I hoped it was because she watched another sappy romance movie.

“Lindy?”

She sat up and looked at me, her eyes red and angry. “What?”

“Are you okay?” I asked and held my breath.

“What does it look like? No I’m not okay!” she held a wad of tissues up to her nose and trumpeted out a blow.

“What happened?” I crossed my arms and waited for the crisis story to unfold.

“My friend was at the Alpha Tau house this afternoon and she said she saw Tyler practically fucking Becky on the couch!”

I was speechless. Vinny was right.

“Oh my God…” I managed to blurt, feigning surprise.

“I know! I called him and he won’t answer his phone.” She stood up suddenly, sending the box of tissues on her lap flying across the floor. “I will kill that little bitch! I knew she was a slut!”

I backed out of her warpath as she paced the living room. “I want to kick her ass so bad right now!”

Why was she focusing on killing Becky? Wasn’t Tyler the one she should have the vendetta against?

“Tyler isn’t exactly innocent either Lindy,” I interfered. “It takes two to—”

“She put her slut moves on him, I know it! Ugh! If I had a car I’d drive over there right now and confront that bitch to her face!” She kicked the tissue box into the wall.

I chewed the inside of my cheek, holding back on saying anything more.

“You know what?” She pointed at me. “I
am
going over there. I will teach that bitch a lesson.”

I blinked in surprise as she marched off to her bedroom. “Lindy wait! Don’t you think you should calm down first?”

“No!” Her door slammed shut.

I covered my face and groaned, knowing that there was no reasoning with her when she was this pissed. I just hoped she wasn’t serious about walking over to the Alpha Tau house.

Unfortunately, she was serious when she emerged from her room two minutes later and grabbed her coat. “Let’s go.”