“Is something wrong, Maxwell?” he snapped out, his face looking more pissed by the second as he heard the answer.
“Then we can talk about it tomorrow, good night.” He ended the call without another word and quickly ran up the steps to meet me at the front door. I could tell he wasn’t sure if I was going to go in or not, but I glanced up at him and then nodded. He let go of a long breath that was pure relief as he went to open the door.
As soon as we stepped inside, he grabbed me by the waist and bent his head so his mouth was against my neck. My body immediately softened to his touch, like the traitorous bitch it was when it came to Tom Hughes.
“I’m sorry, mi vida.” He lifted his mouth to kiss me, and I let him because he was my kryptonite. How the fuck was I supposed to stay mad when he was calling mehis life? Also, after feeling pissed and scared things would blow up between us, I was feeling needy as fuck.
I pulled back after a moment, already pliable as putty in his hands. “I’m still pissed at you, and I’m dead tired of Maxwell interrupting shit for no good reason.”
I could tell he was trying not to laugh as he nodded and nuzzled my neck.
“I’ll talk to him. He needs to know things are different now. I have someone in my life. I’m not available all the time like I used to be.” He shook his head then, and I could see how spooked he was about our fight. “I don’t want to do anything to mess with this, Camilo. I’m crazy about you. Even though I was off base by a mile tonight, what I wanted was for you and your mom to be able to enjoy yourselves without worrying about anything.” He grimaced at that, his eyes full of regret. “I hate that instead I made you feel uncomfortable.” He looked so fucked up, like thefact that he’d done anything to upset me was physically paining him, and with that the last little bit of annoyance I was holding on to went completely out the window.
“You don’t ever need to use your money to show me you care, Tom.” I put my hand on his face, trying to smooth out the worry lines there. “I don’t need that. What I want is you and your company, your presence and support. I can take care of myself. And even if I can’t afford orchestra seats or the chef’s table at a fancy restaurant, I’m still capable of going to a show and having a nice dinner.” He hung his head then.
“I’m so sorry, mi vida.”
“I know.” I shook my head again, trying to gently press my point one last time. “I’m just not impressed by stuff like that.” I hugged him tight and pushed up for a kiss. “This, you and me, is what I’m here for. Nothing else.”
He nodded and gave me that rueful smile I knew only happened for me.
“Me, too. This is all I want.”
I tightened my arms around his neck and put my mouth close to his ear. “Let’s get to bed then, but first I need water and some ibuprofen. Because I did have too much wine and don’t want to wake up with a headache.”
He laughed but at least had enough of a self-preservation instinct to refrain from saying “I told you so” as he followed me up the stairs.
“Water and Advil first, then maybe we could make up properly?”
I looked over my shoulder, trying and failing to give him a serious expression.
“Don’t push your luck, Tom Hughes, you’re still on thin ice.”
The look he gave me let me know he was one hundred percent sure how solid the ground he stood on with me was.
Damn if I had it in me to argue.
chapter twenty
tom
“How bad did you piss him off?”
I looked down at Priya, who was sitting like the Madonna with her new baby in her arms, before turning to roll my eyes at Sanjay.
“How did you already tell her about last night? I told you three minutes ago.”
I’d come over to Sanjay and Priya’s for lunch after Camilo went over to his mom’s house. Henock was there too and wanted to know how things had gone with Camilo’s mom. I’d only been here for ten minutes, and in that time Sanjay had somehow ratted me out to Priya.
He held his hands up in defeat. “She asked how the show went, when I brought her the tea.”
“So you told her how I fucked up with Camilo instead? You were up here for like thirty seconds!”
Priya just looked on quietly, seemingly having a hell of a time watching us argue. When she finally spoke, I could tell she was barely containing a laugh.
“He didn’t need to say anything. He told me with his eyes.” Henock and Sanjay bit back grins while I rolled my eyes at this bald-faced lie, then spilled my guts anyway because she had the same effect on all three of us.
“For your information, we resolved the issue last night. He was upset because I bought tickets for him and his mom, so they could sit with me. And I get they already had tickets and it was a bit presumptuous of me to just get other ones.” I felt like I wanted to hang my head for the next part but resisted. I hadn’t built a billion-dollar company from nothing by cowering under pressure. “Then at dinner I pre-ordered the chef’s table and he didn’t like that either. Which now that I think about it, may have been a little heavy-handed, but I really didn’t expect him to be that pissed.”
