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His eyes narrow on me more. “Not exactly how I thought I’d be waking up,” he simply replies. Marcela and BJ giggle to themselves, and King shoots them a ‘shut the fuck up’ look. They both quiet down for a moment, then pick the laughter back up.
My attention is taken away as Katia enters the room. I can feel my breathing catch, and my heart races. I’m not scared about seeing her, but I find myself worried that she regrets what happened last night. The last thing I want is to ruin our friendship. King looks behind him and sees Katia standing in the doorway. He turns back to me and gives me a wink.Dick.
Katia stands there for another moment before BJ speaks up, “Katia, come sit by me.” She pats the chair next to her. “I can start giving you all the good deets on the men in Nat’s life.” Katia smiles at her and makes her way next to BJ so that she is now sitting across the table between BJ and King.
BJ leans into Katia and whispers. Every few moments, Katia will laugh, and the sound is infectious. “Breakfast is served, but it turned into more of a scramble rather than omelets,” Stryker sets down a large tray filled with a mix of eggs, bacon, and veggies. Next to that is what looks like an entire loaf of toasted bread. Marcela hops up from the table and runs into the kitchen. She returns a moment later with plates and silverware.
We all start to dig in with our usual fun and casual conversations while filling our faces with as much food as we can. Soon enough, the platter in the center is empty, and the guys are practically fighting over who gets to lick it clean. I’m still pushing around some of the egg scramble on my plate, trying to decide if I’m going to finish it all, when Marcela’s voice catches my attention. “So, King, did you ever play football?” she asks him. I almost spit out the mouthful of eggs I just shoveled in. BJ laughs, but King looks confused.Rightfully so.
I look at Marcela and shake my head at her. “What are we missing here?” Stryker asks.
Marcela looks at me with a devious grin. “I’m just taking inventory on how many guys here played football is all,” she says.
Stryker and King look at her, still confused. “I did not play American football, the name of which is still confusing to me, but I played real football. You know the one where you play with your feet?” Alexie responds.
“Well, your football has to be the most boring thing to watch, at least something happens with ours,” King argues.Great, yet another thing for them to compete over.
“Something happens, Prince-y? I must have missed all the action. Ten seconds of running around and another minute of standing around talking, is that what you call action?” Alexie asks.
“If I wanted to watch a bunch of people run in circles for an hour, then…” King’s voice fades away as I tune them out because I already know how this will end. They’ll go sparring and take it out on each other later. These two can argue about the dumbest shit, but last night, they sure knew how to work together when it counted.
I turn my attention to Katia, trying to figure out how to get her alone. Katia notices my stare and gives me a small smile in response. I nod my head to the door and mouthI want to talk. She nods her head in understanding and agreement. She rises from her chair and walks out the door.
“Just be honest and tell her the truth,” Marcela says, looking up at me as I stand up.
“Honest about what?” I hear Conrad ask Marcela as I walk around the table.
As I walk out, I hear Marcela say that she’ll tell him later. She is going to tell him instead of me, which is fine with me. I’ll find time to talk to Conrad and Stryker myself, but for now, I need to talk to Katia about last night. I walk into the living room, where Katia is sitting on the couch.
I sit next to her, and Katia turns her body to face me. “I’m so sorry, Nat,” she blurts out, “I didn’t mean to pressure you into anything,” she rambles on nervously, wringing her hands in her lap.
“Whoa, relax, Katia. You didn’t pressure me into anything. I wanted to talk to you because I don’t need any more time to think about how I feel.”
Her face falls as though she’s expecting me to reject her. “I understand. I threw my feelings on you, and that wasn’t fair–”
I cut her off before she can go into apologizing some more. “You’re not understanding what I’m saying. I’m glad you told me. What I want to talk about is that I have feelings for you too, and not just the ‘you’re my best friend kind’.”
Katia’s eyes light up as she realizes what I’m saying. “Are you sure?” she asks me.
“You know better than anyone else that I don’t go into things lightly. I want to be with you too, but I also want to be with them,” I point toward the dining room area. “I’m not sure how comfortable you are with them yet.”
“We’re being honest, right?” she asks, and I nod my head. “I don’t see myself being with a man again, but I’m okay if you are. I see how happy they make you. I’ve seen for years how happy you are with Alexie, and now it’s just multiplied. You don’t see how excited you are when they enter the room. Even when they are frustrating you to no end, you still look at them as though you could devour them at any moment.”
“I would never ask you to be with one of them, and frankly, I might get a little jealous if that happened. And when I get jealous...”
“Oh, I know what happens,” she replies. “I remember you breaking Stacy Vine’s nose for asking Alexie to go to the movies in high school. Wait, wasn’t that when you and Alexie made it official?”
“You might be right, but Stacy Vine was a shit-talking bitch that needed a new nose, so she could keep it out of everyone’s business,” I say, and we both get a good laugh out of it. I try to bring the conversation back to a more serious note by saying, “With everything that happened with Ivan and what you went through, have you thought about talking to someone? I know Stryker has some great contacts that he could set you up with.” I want Katia to know that even though I’m here for her, I can only do so much, and if she needs more, then I’ll make sure she gets it.
“No,” she replies. “Right now, I don’t want to because I want to get this over with and get back to dancing again. I need to take control of my body, and maybe teaching dance will help with that. As strange as it sounds, dancing and teaching the other girls in Vegas was always an escape for me. I looked forward to it even with all the shit happening. Does that make me sound crazy?” she asks.
“Not at all. Dancing is a part of you, and I think that’s a great idea. I’ll be the first person to sign up for a class if you decide to teach,” I assure her,
She tightens her grip on my hands, and that’s when I realize that our hands found each other during our conversation without me noticing. “Thank you, Nat. I don’t think I can ever show you how truly grateful I am to have you in my life.”
I raise my eyebrows at her. “Well, I can think of one way we can show our appreciation for each other,” I say suggestively, and she gives a knowing smirk.
Just when I think I might ask her to come upstairs with me, King and Alexie come stomping through the room. “One race!” King shouts, “rainbow road, and we’re picking each other’s characters.”
