Chapter 36

THIRTY-SIX

Nathan

Someone's in Mina's apartment. My eyes blink open and I push up on my elbow, listening to the squeak and bump of the front door quietly being closed. Mina sleeps beside me, one arm thrown over her head, blissfully unaware as a stranger creeps down the hallway, ever closer to where we lay naked and vulnerable. Judging by the whisper of light slipping through the blinds, it's barely morning, though the jolt of adrenaline sizzling in my veins has me wide awake.

I yank back the covers and slip out of bed, swipe my underwear off the floor and nearly fall over yanking them up, struggling to get them over my thighs, but wrenching them in place anyway. I'm not confronting an intruder with my dick out.

The bedroom door creaks open.

"Mina?"

It's a soft voice. Not the roughened rasp of a burglar, but the gentle probe of a friend.

"Meens?"

A woman steps through the door. Judging by her silhouette, she's small. And judging by her use of Mina's name, she's been here before.

She flips on the light, sees me crouching in my underwear and unleashes a scream of pure terror.

"Oh my fucking God and everything holy!" shrieks the intruder. "What the fuckity fuck is happening right now?"

Mina bolts upright and looses a scream of her own, hands up and shaking with the force of it leaving her body. There's a moment of silence as everyone processes. Then relief on Mina's face followed by, "Jesus! Fallon! What the hell are you doing in my bedroom?"

I'm sorry…Fallon?

Did she say Fallon?

As in Fallon fucking Mae ?

That's not possible. This has to be a different Fallon.

But it's an unusual name. How many of them can there be?

"You wouldn't answer my calls or texts," the intruder says with a glance my way, "so I used the key you gave me for emergencies. I thought I'd catch you before you left for work?—"

"Just hold on one fucking second." I hold up both hands and pray to God that Mina has an explanation other than the most obvious one. "Fallon?"

There's so much hanging on that question, the air grows thick. This moment out of time. Before the hammer has dropped and the truth has slapped me in the face. There's still a chance for the worst not to happen, though the look on Mina's face doesn't make me hopeful.

"Fallon Mae. Pleased to finally meet the dreaded Prince of Darkness." The intruder extends a hand, smirking as her gaze rakes over my body so harshly I want to cover myself. "Huge fan of the undies, by the way."

I glance down and discover why my underwear put up such a fight. They're not mine. They're Mina's. And they don't leave much to the imagination. I swoop my pants off the floor and step into them, still not quite processing what the fuck is going on. I look at Mina who's clutching her blanket to her breasts, her eyes filled with absolute dread.

And so, the hammer drops.

"That's Fallon Mae," I bark at Mina, my lips pressed together, like there's a chance I can hold in what wants out. "You're friends with Fallon fucking Mae? Like ‘let me give you a key to my house' friends?"

Mina's face is slack. Her hair mussed from sleep, her eyes wild. She opens her mouth to respond, closes it, then tries again, only nothing comes out. Her silence is the truth slapping me in the face.

"I'm so sorry, Nathan," she finally says, her voice cracking. "So unbelievably sorry."

Fallon backs toward the door. "I can see this isn't a good time."

"Damn straight it's not a good time." I bite off the words with barely a glance toward the woman who's made it her mission to ruin my life. My energy is focused on Mina and hers on me.

"I was going to tell you." Her voice is low. Her eyes filled with shame. If her words hadn't confirmed she's been lying to me, her face finishes the job.

"It's probably best if I leave." Fallon reaches for the door, then pauses as if she expects some sort of award for recognizing she doesn't fucking belong here.

I level a finger at Mina. "You're friends with Fallon fucking Mae and you didn't think that was something I should have known from the very beginning?" My voice is low and level, while anger and betrayal riot in my veins like twin wildfires. My jaw clenches against the spite I want to hurl at the woman I let myself love.

The woman I let myself trust.

The woman I thought was different from the rest.

"I know; I'm sorry. It was such a mistake not to say anything. I didn't know she was a problem for you at first." Mina's face falls, like she can hear how shitty she sounds.

And in case she doesn't, I reiterate the most important point of her sentence. " At first ."

"I'll just show myself out then," Fallon says, and I turn to glare, all the shit I'm not spewing at Mina aimed at my nemesis. She recoils, whispers a quick, "Sorry!" then slips out the door.

"I kept promising myself I'd tell you, but there was never a good time." Mina holds out a hand, then balls it into a fist, squeezing her eyes shut, grimacing like she's so fucking annoyed with herself she doesn't know what to do.

Which makes two of us.

"I'm damn sure there were better times than this!"

The front door squeaks open then bangs shut, and it feels like the perfect metaphor for my time with Mina. What was open is now closed. Maybe permanently.

"Nathan, please…"

"Don't ‘please' me."

And suddenly I can't ignore the truth that's been flashing like a neon sign since last night.

My jaw drops and I step back. "You're the one who's been telling her everything. Oh, fuck me. It's been you this whole time!"

Mina presses up onto her knees, the blanket still clutched to her chest. "Last night's article she did on her own. Against my will."

I scrub a hand over my mouth as that one sinks in. "But the ones before that you were fine with."

"No! I asked her to stop so many times. Fallon thought she was doing you a favor and I told her it wasn't working the way she thought it would. She said if you were angry, her plan must be working."

"A favor." The words drop like an anchor, thudding to the floor at my feet. "How delusional do you have to be to think those articles were a positive experience for me on any level?"

"She thought by showing you how much you've changed, it would help you remember who you used to be. And until recently, I didn't have a lot of reason not to believe what Fallon said about you. But after I got to know you, I could see how terribly wrong she was. I told her who you really are, I swear. I'm sorry I didn't tell you about her…" Mina's voice trembles. Tears wobble in her eyes. Her little deception is crumbling around her and she's clinging to hope that something is salvageable. Why? Because she cares about me?

I highly doubt that.

"And you didn't think that by misrepresenting my every move, she made things worse for me? Not better! You know this! For fuck's sake, Mina! I told you everything!"

Jesus Christ. Dom was right. Mina didn't see me. She saw an opportunity to help her friend. What a sick joke.

"And I didn't tell her all of it!" Mina stands, dragging the sheet off the bed with her. "Nathan, please…"

I back away from her outstretched hand. "Has any of this been real? Any of it?"

"All of it!" she cries, letting her arm drop to her side.

"And how am I supposed to take your word on that? Just when I let my guard down and started to think maybe the world wasn't a shitty place filled with shitty people, I find out you've been lying to me this whole time. I stopped faking, Mina. I fell in love with you!"

"And I love you back!"

My heart clenches, begging me to stop retreating, to pull her into my arms because that's where she belongs. But my heart is kind and easy to manipulate. It shouldn't have a say in this situation. It's time to start listening to my mind.

"Love doesn't keep secrets." My head bows from the weight of the truth. "Not like this."

"Nathan…"

"I am so tired of being used so other people can get ahead. All I want is for someone to see me. Me! Not my money. Not my fame. Not what I can do for them."

"I do see you, Nathan." Mina frowns, her voice quiet, the desperation leaving her eyes as my voice rises.

"If you did, then you would have told me you were friends with Fallon fucking Mae. Even if it was hard. Even if the timing wasn't perfect. You would have told me."

"You're right. I should have told you. And I really am sorry this is how you found out." Her jaw tightens. Her eyes flash. "But come on. At this point, you know me well enough to trust I haven't been using you. I mean, what am I getting out of this relationship?"

"Designer dresses? Invitations to galas you wouldn't normally step foot into? Multiple fucking orgasms? Twenty percent over your design fee? Shit, Mina. When were you going to start working me so the foundation would take care of your mom's medical bills?"

"Nice, Nathan." Mina sneers. "You offered to buy the dress. You required I go to the gala. You initiated the orgasms. And you haven't fucking paid me yet."

"You asked for an advance." I stab the air with my finger. "You cashed the check."

We stare at each other for several terrible seconds before Mina finally breaks the silence.

"Do you know why I wouldn't answer Fallon's calls or texts?"

I swipe my underwear off the floor, step out of my pants so I can remove Mina's panties and pull mine into place. It's time to get the fuck out of here. "Not sure I care, but I'm positive you'll enlighten me anyway," I say, hunting down my pants, only to find them clutched in my fist.

"Fallon published that article yesterday because she knows I'm falling in love with you and had the balls to think telling the world how we started would help me see why that was a stupid idea. And after this—" she waves her hand in my direction "—I'm starting to see her point."

"That makes three of us." I sneer as I step back into my pants, tug the zipper up, and shove the button through the hole. "Everything about this was a mistake."

"You won't hear me fight you on that one."

I snag my shirt off the floor and yank it over my head. Turn to Mina then realize there's nothing I can say that will make this better. I trusted her with all of me, and she didn't trust me enough to tell me the truth.

She's been Blossoming me this whole time. Everything between us has been about Fallon fucking Mae and her blog.

The fact that I don't quite believe it even though Fallon was here as proof enrages me.

"Tell me how much of this was contrived," I demand, anger pulling me deeper into the room. "Was that text really an accident? The one that started everything? Or were you and your bitch friend plotting against me the entire time? Did you two dream this whole thing up to feed that cunt information for her stupid clickbait gossip bullshit?"

"Get out." Mina stabs a finger at the door.

I step closer, tutting in disapproval. "Did you whore yourself out for clicks, HM?"

"Get out!" Her voice shakes. Her eyes flash. Her finger trembles as her jaws clench.

I take one last lingering look, savoring the taste of her rage while my chest clenches and my throat tightens.

"You better believe I'm out," I say, shaking my head and reaching for the door.

"I don't want to see you or your Prince of Darkness smirk again."

I turn over my shoulder, smirking for her benefit, then about face and leave the Hot Mess Express in my rearview like I should have from the start.