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“We’re still not over that?” I ask, smirking.
“Since when do you break your own rule, Art? Sleeping with her could cause all kinds of problems. Not only that, but you went in bareback?”
Meli makes her way over to her desk, and Albert gives her a curious glance. I shake my head, warning him not to say anything to her. She’s fragile right now, and if I hadn’t fought with my brother earlier, I’d have asked him to leave us so we could continue the conversation. She was opening up to me. One thing’s for certain—she smashed her hand into that mirror on purpose, and that worries me. “I couldn’t tell you what happened last night, Bert. I was blind drunk, which is why I stayed here and didn’t make it home. But glad you noticed I was gone. Imagine if our enemies had gotten to me,” I say sarcastically.
“I sent Tommy to check on you, smart arse. He told me you were propping up the bar, and you told him to go home and stop treating you like a fucking kid.”
“And yet here you are,” I say dryly. “Angel,” I turn to Meli, and she looks up from her work. “Could you go check on last night’s numbers, please?” She nods and disappears downstairs to find the bar manager.
“Angel?” Albert repeats, grinning like the cat that got the cream. “She’s your angel?”
“If you have nothing to do, I can send you on some collections.” I know how much he hates that work and thinks it’s beneath him.
“That must make Rosey your devil,” he says, gasping in mock horror. “Best friends? You dog.”
“Enough. You’re reading way too much into it. Go do some work.”
“I guess she’s got form,” he adds. When I don’t respond, he heads for the door. “Didn’t Meli fuck her sister’s man too?” He stops, and I know by the expression on his face, she’s coming up the stairs and she’s heard him. He waits for her to step back into the office before making his own escape. I inwardly groan. She didn’t need to hear that right now.
Meli hands me the signing-in book. “Sorry about him,” I mutter. “He went to the ‘how to be an insensitive prick’ school.”
She raises half a smile. “I’ve heard worse said about me.”
“Meli, you really—”
“I overshared before,” she cuts in, halting me mid-sentence. “It won’t happen again. You’re my boss, and I appreciate you checking up on me, but I’m fine. It was a moment of madness. I’m sorry for off-loading, and I’d appreciate you keeping it to yourself.” She gathers a pile of paperwork and heads up to the archives.
CHAPTER EIGHT
MELI
I bang on Rosey’s bedroom door. “Get ready,” I tell her through the wood. “We’re going out.”
She pulls the door open and frowns. “What?”
“Get ready. I want to go out, and you’re my best friend, so you have to oblige.”
She takes the wine bottle from my hand. “Fine by me, come on in.”
I drop down on her bed and watch as she begins to pull clothes from her wardrobe. I opted for jeans and a cute low-cut top. Not that I have much cleavage to display, but I’m on a mission to forget Arthur Taylor. She passes me the wine back, and I unscrew the cap and drink right from the bottle. “Bad day?” she asks, settling on a skirt.
“Something like that.” I sigh heavily. “Listen, I have to tell you something, and I feel really bad, but I can’t keep it a secret from you. How serious are you about Arthur?”
She pauses, giving me a suspicious stare, and I know it’s because she suspects I’ve made a move on him. Even my best friend doesn’t trust me around her man. “Why?”
“Because I don’t think he’s worth your time. You deserve better.”
“You’re talking in riddles, Meli, what’s wrong?”
“I saw him with another woman,” I tell her, wincing.
She breathes a sigh of relief. “Right, so?”
“I thought you kissed?”
“We’re not in school, Meli. He can do what he wants unless we’re official, which we’re not.Yet.”
With that last word lingering in my mind, I drink more wine.
