CHAPTER 18
NADINE
I spent the Founders’bye week splitting time between Erik and Molly’s house and my sister’s apartment in New York City. It’s basically a closet that she shares with another woman on the Lower East Side, but Emmaline’s good at picking up men for free drinks and food, so it sort of evens out the price. She’s tall and tanned like our father, but blond and blue-eyed like our mother. The finance bros love her, but little do they know she plans on working for the SEC.
It was all going well—Emmaline and I were gossiping and sipping dirty martinis—until Tanner sidled up next to me. I swear he saw Leonardo DiCaprio inTheWolf of Wall Streetand said, yep, I want to do that. I wasn’t interested in him, but he wouldn’t leave me alone.
He refused to stop yapping at me about this app he had invested in, moving closer and closer to me, so I told him it “sounds like Yelp.”
And when he said I wasn’t funny, I told him, “You know what’s funny? That thing you think is a beard.”
Then he called me a stuck-up bitch, and Emmaline barely held me back from throwing my drink in his face.
What’s worse was that the first person I thought about wasCamden. I wanted to call him and relay the events, just to prove that I can and do stand up for myself. I don’t need him to be my guard dog or to go around bullying every person—or, really, man—in my life.
But when Emmaline caught me staring at my cell phone, at the last text Camden sent me, a message apologizing again for Valerie and hoping I have a nice week off, she read between the lines.
“You like him,” she accused with a laugh.
“I do not.”
“You do. Of course you do!” She slapped at my shoulder. “I thought it was odd that you always hated him but agreed to help out.” She smiled like the Cheshire cat. “I should have known.”
“There is nothing to know.”
“Except that you’ve always been in love with him.”
“No. That’s not—no.”
Her amusement melted into true terror. “Does Erik know?”
“There’s nothing to know. Camden and I are…”
“In love.”
“Friends.”
“Who are in love.”
I didn’t bother to answer since she was going to concoct her own ideas, no matter what I said. But it did make me a little nauseous when she warned, “Erik is going to flip when he finds out.”
“Why would he flip out?”
“Because you’re his favorite sibling and it’s his best friend, and while I love this as a rom-com setup, I don’t think he’d appreciate it.”
Although it was a moot point. I’m not planning on acting on any of these growing yet confusing emotions for Camden. As far as I know, he’s still with Valerie, and I’m still not sure I can trust him. She clearly dislikes me, and it doesn’t make me feel any better about him that he’s flirting with me, almost kissing me, while still with her.
It doesn’t make sense. He’s grown so much since this past spring, and I’ve learned a lot about the person he is, the person my brother promised he is—a good man beneath all the cocky veneer. I’m just not sure I’dwantto trust him with my heart. Even if it was an option.
Which it’s not.
Yet tell that to my reckless, irresponsible heart that loves Y2K rom-coms as much as Paisley when his stupidly handsome face appears on the television screen.
I’m back in his penthouse, staying over while he plays in Los Angeles. The team flew out yesterday morning, and they won’t be back until tomorrow, a whole weekend living here. But, really, I’ve been here more than I’ve been at Erik and Molly’s house, and I’ve come to think of this place as “home,” as opposed to my brother’s.
And all those alarm bells are going ringy-dingy-dingy as my sister’s words replay in my head.
“There is nothing to know. Camden and I are…”
