“Oh, babe. You know karma will make his cock turn green and fall off, right?”
She huffs out a small laugh, her lips twitching at the corners but it doesn’t last long. “I hope so.”
I hear talking outside of the bedroom and then Denham appears in the doorway, his broad shoulders and wide chest filling the space. The anxiety I was feeling at Lottie’s predicament seems to diminish somewhat just by knowing he’s there, and I’m not really sure why, or how.
“Everything alright?” he asks me directly with a deep frown.
Lottie snaps her head up at the sound of his voice and immediately pulls herself together the best she can.I know what she’s doing. She’s trying to put on a front. It was hard enough for her to let me see her feeling so down.
“Hi, D man. Yes. Everything is fine. Just fine,” she says unconvincingly. She stands abruptly, runs a hand through her crazy hair and makes her way to the doorway. It’s only about five strides and when she reaches Denham, he doesn’t let her pass. It’s a questionable move. One that could go either way, especially the way Lottie’s emotions are at the moment.
“Excuse me, please,” she chirps, very unconvincingly, plastering a huge fake smile on her face. “Nope,” he answers casually.
I watch as her shoulders drop. “Please, D. I’m not in the mood, okay?”
“No, that’s not okay. For your face to be smeared with makeup and your eyes to be so puffy with tears, I’d say there’s something wrong. Now…” He crosses his arms before continuing and it makes his already wide shoulders even wider so he really fills the doorway. “If someone’s upset you, I want to know about it. If someone has hurt you, I definitely want to know about it, and I’m not moving until you tell me. So if you’re going to be all stubborn you had better get comfortable, because it’s going to be a long night.”
“Lottie, just tell him,” I sigh.
“Arianna, whose side are you on? I can’t tell him, because he will tell Spike. Then there will be a whole heap of mess that I was trying to avoid, thankyouvery much.” She looks at me with a scowl and I know she’s trying her hardest to protect her fierce reputation.
“Lottie,” Denham says quietly, resting a hand on her shoulder. “You don’t have to tell me, but you’re like a little sister to me, and if you really were my sister, I’d be sorting it out, wouldn’t I?”
Lottie just shrugs like a child. “So please tell me what or who has upset you.”
“I got fired from my job today.”
“And …”
“And, what? That’s it…I liked my job,” she says, her feet fidgeting while she’s telling such an unconvincing lie.
“No, you didn’t. You fucking hated your job. What else happened to get you in this state, and make you so afraid of Spike knowing?”
“My boss hit on me,” she says in a small voice.
“Lottie, you and I both know that’s bullshit. You do not get upset just because someone hits on you. You get hit on ten times a day, and normally you’d brush it off as easy as breathing. What did he do? Did he hurt you?” Denham asks, starting toget impatient because he knows there’s something more to this story.
Lottie can’t answer him with words. She gives a small nod, and lets out a sob, which starts her crying again. Her boss must have really done something awful for her to be like this. Lottie is one of the strongest people I know, and this is a side of her I’ve never seen before.
“Come here.”
Denham pulls her into his chest and strokes her head, letting her cry and get it all out. Her mascara tears are staining his light blue dress shirt, but he doesn’t even notice, and if he does notice, he doesn’t care. When her sobs subside, he releases his arms from around her and holds her face gently in his hands. He has to crouch to get eye level with her, as there is at least a foot difference in height between them.
“I know it must be bad for you to be like this, and I’m sorry to ask but I need you yo tell me exactly what happened.”
Lottie doesn’t find her voice, but she lifts the corner of her short-sleeved shirt to reveal red marks that are already starting to turn into a purple bruise. They are finger marks. I gasp and Denham’s expression turns thunderous. Damn that motherfucker. He really did hurt her. Not only physically, but he made her feel scared, and he stole some of that bright light that Lottie always has. Denham takes a deep breath, gathering his composure, kisses her forehead, and strides over to me, holding out his upturned palm. I place my hand in his. He pulls me close and entwines his fingers together in the small of my back. I snuggle into his neck, amazed at just how well we fit. Like missing puzzle pieces.
He nuzzles into my hair and takes a deep breath. “So, I want you girls to stay here. Call down for more to drink. Food if you like. Caviar, champagne, whatever the fuck you want. And I’ll be back in an hour. Okay?” I can tell he’s trying to keep his patiencein check, but his words are clipped, and I know it’s really hard for him to contain the temper that’s dangerously bubbling beneath the surface.
“Where are you going?”
He leans in to whisper in my ear. “I’m going to sort out this mess, I know she doesn’t want me to, but what he’s done to her, he’s not getting away with.”
He gives me a chaste kiss on my lips, before loosening his arms from around me and taking my hand. He kisses each of my fingertips before letting go and marching purposefully out of the room. He kisses his mom, who has come in from the balcony, on the cheek as he walks past her, and she looks at him a little perplexed.
“Girls, can one of you fill me in?” Dana questions.
Lottie looks to me, and I raise my brows to give her the opportunity to tell Dana what’s going on. She gives a small shake of her head, and the pleading look in her eyes tell me she can’t voice it all again. I really feel for her in that moment. I know how she feels. I’ve been there a thousand times and every time felt as bad as the first. The difference was, I was never brave enough to tell anyone, until now.
