It was literally the last thing I wanted. Because now people wanted to talk about Stefan. They wanted to talk about Konstantin. They wanted to talk about KZM and all the exciting, exotic, expensive adventures a connection like that must afford me.
And I didn’t want to talk about it. Not now. Not ever.
“You’re not a downer to me,” Gavin said. “But I won’t push you.”
“I appreciate it,” I said truthfully.
Even if Gavin was cool, I knew that if I went out with a group, everyone else would get drunk and loquacious and start asking questions. They wouldn’t be polite about it, either. They’d dig and dig and I’d have to evade and pretend and smile and act like I loved my life when right now, nothing could be further from the truth. All I could think about were the scores of women I wasn’t helping, and how every day I didn’t go to the authorities was another day they suffered.
“Tori,” Gavin said, seeming to search for his words, “You don’t have to pretend for me. If you want to deal with stuff on your own, I get it, but I don’t need you to lie. Just be you. It’s obvious you’re going through a lot right now, and…Like I said, I’m here. Whatever you need.”
I nodded. Gavin was so sweet I could barely stand it.
“If you do change your mind, though,” he added, “we’d be happy to have you.”
He started packing up his bag, and I followed suit. I had just zipped up my backpack when my cell buzzed in my pocket. Pulling it out, I saw I had a text from Stefan.
My traitorous heart gave a little leap in my chest. Apparently, I’d learned no lessons.
Family dinner tonight. Be at the penthouse @7pm. Clothes laid out in your room.
Don’t be late.
I clenched my jaw. Howdarehe. How fucking dare he.
I wasn’t in the mood to take orders from someone who’d abandoned me for his latest mistress in the middle of an event that I hadn’t even wanted to attend. An event he’d dressed me up for just to parade me around like a show pony, all to make himself—and KZM—look good.
He had humiliated me and now he wanted me to come to dinner with his family? To pretend that everything was fine? To eat dinner across the table from his father, one of the most vile human beings I’d ever met?
If I’d dreaded the idea of pretending to be happy for my classmates, I downright refused to do so for my father-in-law. I’d much rather go out drinking and dancing with normal, decent humans than be forced to sit across the table from Konstantin and Stefan, acting like everything was grand.
Stefan could take his text message orders and shove them right up his ass.
He could have dinner alone with his family for all I cared. He could stare at his father’s cruel, leering face and think about the life he had chosen.
I was going out.
Smiling up at Gavin, I saw the surprise in his eyes at my complete change in demeanor.
“Actually I’d love to join you guys tonight,” I said, barely recognizing the sultry, friendly voice I was speaking in. “But I’ll need your help with one tiny little thing first.”
“Anything,” he said, sounding a little dazzled.
“I need a new fake ID,” I told him, holding my breath for a moment. “I know I don’t need to drink to have a good time, but with the semester I’ve been having, it’d sure help.”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I mean, I want to, but—”
“Pretty please,” I said, signing the word in ASL for emphasis. “I’d get one eventually anyway. But if I have one tonight, I could really let loose. And I think I need that.”
“Well…”
He was weakening. I could tell. I batted my eyelashes and leaned closer. “Plus, you can babysit me if I get too tipsy. I’ll even stop if you tell me I’m cut off. Okay?”
This time he didn’t hesitate. In fact, his smile grew. “Okay,” he said, making the sign for ‘okay’ back at me. “Let me just make a few calls.”
As he stepped away from the table to do so, I looked down at my phone, frowning at Stefan’s text messages. I wasn’t going to respond. He could be left to wonder. See how it felt.
Not only that, but I wasn’t going to let him ruin this night.
