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“Wait. It was the neighbour?” Topper says, shocked. “The neighbour.”
“Oh, yes.”
“Chester, the neighbour, almost made you cum at a birthday party?”
“Now you’re making it sound as if I was close to moaning out his name. That’s not true,” I say in my defence. Sure, he had me breathless and maybe a tiny bit wet, but only a tiny bit.
“I can’t believe this,” Topper proclaims, throwing his arms in the air. With a shaking head, he walks towards Moreen and sits down next to her. This day is turning from bad to worse. I want to hide under my sheets and never show my face again.
“Do you like him?” Topper asks, and that question makes my heart skip a beat. My stomach is already twisted in knots when I think of Chester. But to answer him is difficult, and I’m not sure I’m ready to face the truth just yet.
“I don’t know,” I mumble, scraping my racket over the dusty court.
“Fuck, you do.” My cheeks start to heat up, and I bite the inside of my cheek. Do I really like him? I couldn’t stand him a few weeks ago, but I did imagine him touching me all over.
Chester makes me laugh. He listens and saves me from situations where I couldn’t find my own strength anymore. But it’s mostly my heart that signals something, and up until this point, I’ve tried to ignore it.
“It doesn’t matter if I like him or not.”
“Why doesn’t it matter? I’m quite certain Chester’s non-functioning heart started to beat when he saw you for the first time. Something is going on here and I’m excited to see it blossom,” Moreen says, and she almost surprises me. I thought her to be a hater of anything romantic, but instead, she’s enthusiastic about this thing going on between Chester and me.
“She’s engaged,” Topper answers Moreen’s question. A shocked expression takes over her stare before her eyes look my way.
“What?” She throws out surprised, but I only nod my head to say it’s true. “To whom?”
“Thomas Meyer. He’s some big shot businessman.” Moreen thinks for a second before she shakes her head.
“I’ve never heard of him. So he’s not that big, and I know all the big, influential men on top because I married one of the sharks.” I shrug my shoulders. It doesn’t really matter what else Moreen has to add to the conversation.
“Do you love him then?” Moreen asks.
“Bloody hell, no. I’ve only seen him once.”
She slowly takes her sunglasses from her nose, and this time, I see a pair of mixed-coloured eyes that show determination, but also a sliver of pain. She scoffs before once again shaking her head no.
“Let me tell you something, Evangeline,” Moreen says, standing up slowly and making her way towards me. “I married Sebastian because my life was crumbling to pieces, and I couldn’t drag myself off the floor. I had no strength left, so I grasped at the strongest thing nearby, and that ended up being a wolf in sheep’s clothing because, a few months later, he took everything from me.” Her voice is filled with hostility and pain. But most of it is anger. So much rage resurfaces when Moreen finally shares a part of her life.
“I don’t want anyone to end up in a lifetime commitment they didn’t agree to. If I was in my right mind back then, I would have never married him. So, don’t do anything you’ll regret for the rest of your life.”
But she did marry Sebastian Callahan because circumstances forced her to do so. And my circumstances are forcing me to marry a certain Thomas Meyer. I can’t escape now and Moreen couldn’t all those years ago.
Life fucking sucks.
I nod my head, pretending I’ll take it into consideration. Her words are beautiful. They are strong, but her advice won’t change a thing.
Moreen breathes in loudly before turning around to face Topper. While I grab the ball and start to bounce it on my racket, I swallow Moreen’s words.
“Topper, I have something to offer you, and I think you’ll find it very interesting.”
“I’m all ears, Van Doren.”
Chapter Twenty
Chester
If lunch on Saturday wasn’t a regular thing, then I’d go weeks without seeing my friends. Now, we’re forced to clear our schedules every single week for a few hours. They’re casual meals, just some childhood friends chatting away about family, work and life in general. Plans for parties, dinners and other things are made over lobster and overpriced salads.
I’ve known Sebastian since I was a little kid. The Callahans lived close by and Sebastian was one of the pirates on our imaginary pirate ship in our pond. His father, Bruce, has been great friends with mine, and it was only normal we became friends by the number of social events we were both forced to attend. Sebastian shaped my life as much as I did his.
