Platinum (All That Glitters #3) (25 page)

AS MUCH FUN AS IT WAS
to have all her model friends around Vegas for the days that Damon was gone, it was also exhausting with all the work Trihn had to do. She had stayed up late into the night and gotten up early every morning just to try to finish her papers while working on this project.

It hadn’t hurt that Damon called every morning and every night before she went to bed to fill her in on what was happening. It’d sounded like a long, tedious process, but he’d said, other than one hiccup, everything had been running smoothly, as planned.

He was supposed to come home in the morning, and she was all jittery ready to see him. She knew he finished in the studio around ten at night on a late day, so she was sitting around the house working on one of her papers and waiting for his call.

Bryna and Stacia were wandering around the house in short cut dresses and dancing to a playlist Stacia had put together on Spotify.

“Trihn,” Stacia cried, “come on! Dance party!”

Trihn looked up at them over the top of her MacBook. “As much as I’d love to, I have work to do.”

“All work and no play makes you as bitchy as Bryna,” Stacia said.

“Hey, I’m queen bitch. Trihn is just a moody, angsty, serious bitch. There’s a big difference. I was born this fabulous,” Bryna said.

“I’m not bitchy. I’m just the only person in this house who cares about my education.”

Stacia laughed. “We all care…sort of.”

Bryna cracked up. “Come on. It’s Friday. Let’s go to Posse and have a drink. Maya is working, and you could probably stand to get out of the house.”

“I’d love to, but I’m going to pass.”

“You can’t just sit around and wait for Damon to call,” Bryna said. She crossed her arms over her chest and fixed her quintessential stare on Trihn. “And don’t try to deny that’s what you’re doing.”

“Fine. That’s what I’m doing. I’m
that
girl. But he’ll be coming home tomorrow, and then I won’t be freaking out anymore.”

“Or you could just trust him,” Bryna said.

Trihn closed her eyes and counted to ten. “I do trust him. I just miss him.”

“We both know you well enough to know that you’re worried,” Stacia said, taking the seat next to Trihn.

“And we think it’s in your best interests to get out of the house. Damon isn’t Neal,” Bryna said. “There’s really no reason for you to be so stressed.”

“I don’t think he’s like Neal,” she said. “In fact, maybe he’s the opposite of Neal. I just want Damon to be home.”

“Well, he won’t be home until the morning. So, a party it is,” Stacia said. “Plus, everyone is going out tonight—the whole football team and all the cheerleaders. We only have a week until nationals, and the guys are playing their spring game the weekend we get back.”

“So, you want me to go and hang out with your boyfriends—”

“Whoa! I don’t have a boyfriend,” Stacia said automatically.

“And, well, Eric is worried about you moping around here,” Bryna added.

“No,” Trihn said. “Maybe I’ll go out after Damon’s call, but I have to pick him up early in the morning, so I wouldn’t want to be out late anyway.”

Bryna sighed. “Fine. He’d better call soon then.”

They walked back to their rooms to finish getting ready.

Trihn whispered under her breath, “Yeah, he’d better.”

It was one o’clock in the morning when Trihn’s phone rang.

She had given up on even the semblance of getting work done. Her computer was sitting half-open with Facebook winking up at her. Her design notebook was flipped to a blank page. Her imagination had run away with her but not toward her creative endeavors.

All she had thought about was the time she had waited up all day and night for Preston to call her back and how she had so easily swallowed his bullshit the next day. He’d been at work. He’d been so busy. He’d fallen asleep at his desk.

Yeah, right.

She should have seen it then. He’d been with someone else. The devastating part, of course, was that the someone else had been Lydia, but it would have been just as hard if it were anyone else.

As she reached for her phone, she had a horrible sinking feeling of déjà vu.

“Hello?” Trihn said.

“Trihn!” Damon called into the phone.

She yanked the phone back from her ear. It was insanely loud on the other end of the phone. Music slammed into her ear, and Damon was practically yelling to be heard over the noise.

“Where are you?” she asked.

“Fuck, I’m so sorry, love. I’m out at a nightclub with Chloe and some of the production crew. They wanted to celebrate finishing up the album. I was going to call you when I got back to the hotel, but then time just ran away from me.”

“It’s almost one in the morning,” she said.

“I know. I looked down at my phone, saw the time, and freaked out. I hope you weren’t worried.”

Trihn took a deep breath. Of course she had been worried. “Well, I was. Kind of. I mean, you normally call right when you get out of production.”

“Damon, come on!” Trihn heard someone yell in the phone. “I want you to meet someone.”

“Chloe, just give me a minute,” Damon said. The phone was muffled, like he’d put his hand over it, as he talked to Chloe. “Sorry about that. Chloe has been introducing me to a lot of people. She’s been really supportive.”

I bet she has
.

Trihn tried to clear the ugly thoughts from her head. Chloe had been nothing but awesome for Damon. And she had been incredibly nice to Trihn. She had spoken to Chloe a couple of times since Damon had been gone. Their relationship seemed entirely professional, and there was no reason to think it was otherwise. That wasn’t the kind of person either of them were.

“That’s good, Damon. I just didn’t think that you’d be out so late when you’re coming back on an early flight tomorrow.”

“About that,” he said so quietly that she barely heard him.

Her stomach sank.

“Chloe set up a few interviews and meetings with people around the city for the upcoming album release. She thought that it’d be good for me to be there to meet people in the business. It’s such a good opportunity that I don’t think I can turn it down.”

“Wow. You’re promoting the album already?”

“Yeah. It’ll come out at the beginning of the summer. Preorders are up everywhere, and the full track listing will go up once they release the title track.”

“That’s fast-moving,” she said. She took a deep breath. “How long are you going to be gone?”

“I think just a day or two. I had to sign a lot of paperwork to record this song, and I need to get my own talent agent and manager while I’m out here. Don’t want to get screwed over or anything.”

“Oh, okay.”

“Hey, I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t have to. I’m still missing you like crazy. Can’t wait to get back to you.”

“I know. I can’t wait either.”

“Damon!” Chloe called again.

He sighed heavily. “Hey, I’ve got to go, but I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“All right. I’ll talk to you then. I miss you.”

“Bye, Trihn.”

The line died in her hand, and she stared at her phone.

This was a good thing for Damon. This was what he had been working toward. He needed to be there for his career. But it didn’t stop the first edge of panic from taking over her body.

She repeated to herself all the things Damon had said to her before he left. They were all that mattered. He cared for her. They could make it. They were a team. It pushed the panic back a little, but knowing she had been sitting around all night waiting just irritated her.

All night, she had been freaking out about him instead of just trusting him and having fun with her friends. That was what she should have been doing—not sitting around her apartment, all alone, and getting worked up.

Trihn changed into one of her signature outfits—black leather miniskirt and black rhinestone bra top with her leather jacket and knee-high leather boots. She blew out her dark hair until it was stick straight and then added dark makeup with cherry-red lips.

She called a cab, and ten minutes later, she was breezing through Posse’s crowded entranceway with nothing more than a flutter of her fingers to the bouncer as she bypassed the fifty people waiting in line. The nightclub was jam-packed. It was usually busy, but since Chloe’s appearance, Posse had been unstoppable with lines out the door, a full dance floor, and flowing drinks. Even the VIP section was crowded.

Luckily, Trihn knew everyone who worked there. She found Maya under a mountain of drink orders.

“Trihni!” Maya cried when she saw her. “You don’t happen to want to pour drinks tonight? I’m swamped.”

“I’d be useless. You should ask E.”

“If I wanted margaritas, I would.” Maya passed over a round of shots, two beers, and a few mixed drinks to the people in front of the bar. They were quickly replaced by another group desperate for drinks. Maya handed Trihn a drink. “Gin and tonic, right?”

“Thanks. I’ll take a Peppermint Posse martini, too, when you get a chance.”

Maya stopped what she was doing and looked at Trihn. “You want to get fucked up tonight?”

Trihn shrugged. “Basically.”

Maya shook her head but started making her the drink. She handed the potent mix over to Trihn. “I don’t even want to know what lover boy did, do I?”

“I’ll give you one guess.”

“Chloe Avana?” Maya asked.

“Bingo.” Trihn downed the gin and tonic and handed the glass back to Maya.

“You made it!” Stacia cried, barreling into her from the dance floor.

Bryna was hot on her heels with Eric and Marshall following close behind. “A Peppermint Posse martini?” she asked. “I didn’t know we were getting belligerent tonight. Make that two, Maya.”

“Oh! Three!” Stacia said.

Maya shook her head but started working on the drinks.

“What happened?” Bryna asked intuitively.

“Nothing. Damon is staying in LA for a few more days to help Chloe with promotion and to get an agent and manager.”

“Those are important things,” Bryna rationalized.

“Yep. I’m just going to sit here and drink until it really feels like that’s the reason he’s there.”

“That boy is crazy about you,” Maya said.

“And you’re crazy about him,” Stacia added.

“I don’t get why you’re stressing. I mean, Chloe is a bitch, but Damon digs you. I’m not entirely sure where this is all coming from.” Bryna searched Trihn’s eyes. “You act as if he’s already cheated on you when he’s only going to be there for a few more days. Neal was an asshole, but you didn’t even really love him. I don’t get the extent of your fears. What am I missing?”

Trihn grabbed her martini from the bar and started drinking. Of course they didn’t get it. They didn’t know her whole history. She had always compartmentalized her life. Maybe it was time for her to open up.

“You know Preston, my sister’s fiancé?”

“Yeah,” Bryna said, clearly wondering about the abrupt shift in the conversation. “You said he was a douche.”

“Yeah, that’s because he was my first real boyfriend. I fell in love with him, and then it turned out that he’d been with my sister the entire time. They didn’t even break up when the truth came out the summer after graduation. I’d been planning to go to NYU, but two weeks before classes were going to start, I dropped everything to come here. It was all because of him, all because he ruined my life.”

All of her friends were staring at her with their mouths hanging open. Even Maya had stopped pouring drinks to look at Trihn in shock.

“So there…trust issues on full display. And, yes, Damon knows all about this. And he’s still in LA and he still didn’t call right away and he still is with another girl at a club. And in case anyone has a shoddy memory, a club is where we met. So, don’t mind me if I decide to drink heavily tonight.”

Eric put his hands on Bryna and Stacia. “Maybe we should give her some space, y’all.”

“All right, Cowboy,” Bryna said, taking a step back. “We were just trying to help.”

He kissed the top of her head. “You did what you could, Hollywood.”

Trihn closed her eyes against the image of how freaking cute they were.

Stacia reached out and rubbed her shoulder. When Trihn opened her eyes, she was staring directly into Stacia’s baby blues.

“I know I’m not normally the serious one of the bunch, but just for the record, I don’t think Damon is cheating on you. I think he’s very much in love with you, and you have nothing to worry about.” Her voice dipped lower. “If I had something like that, I wouldn’t let it go, no matter what, Trihn. You’re really lucky.”

“I don’t feel particularly lucky tonight,” Trihn admitted. It was really strange to see Stacia be visibly vulnerable.

“Just have fun with us tonight, okay? It’ll be better in the morning with fresh eyes.”

Stacia held her hand out, and with a deep breath, Trihn put her hand in Stacia’s.

Maybe Stacia was right. Maybe things would be better in the morning.