She gave a sad snort as she accepted the next shot of the whiskey, “the weekend was pure perfection from the minute he showed up here Friday night to help me antagonize the McGraths right until he kissed me until I was barely upright at the door when he dropped me off last night at eight. Now it’s been thirteen hours of radio silence.”
“Did you call him? Text him?”
“No.” she shook her head. “Why do I need to make the first move when I’m not the one who fucked up?”
“Maybe he’s thinking he fucked up and you won’t want to be around him,” Elsie offered the same explanation Janka had when she’d questioned her over two hours ago. “You should message him.”
“No.” She shook her head. “Every time Merlin messed up, it was me reaching out. It was me somehow apologizing for his actions. It was me who was smoothing things over. I will never again be in a relationship where I take ownership of another man’s screwups. He owes me an apology and I’m not chasing after it. He can reach out and if he can’t then he’s not the man I thought he was, and I’ll move on. I’ve known him ten days not ten years. I won’t die if I never talk to him again.”
Her two best friends held up their glasses in a toast to her strong speech and she clinked her glasses with theirs before tossing the burning liquid down her gullet. “Where the hell did you get this? It’s like paint thinner.” She coughed a bit as she wiped her mouth again.
“It could actually be paint thinner, considering I found it under the counter with your paint supplies. For all I know you used a whisky bottle to store paint thinner in.”
The alcohol was now buzzing through their systems, and they all giggled.
More pounding on the front door of the closed gallery had them all groaning. Janka poured them each another shot and then rose from the table to go answer the door.
The sound of her arguing with someone filtered back and then her footsteps approaching made Liesl drunkenly call out over her shoulder.
“If it’s the reporters again, tell them I refuse to give an exclusive to anyone except Oprah.” She slurped back the whiskey, “and no comment on dick size.”
Janka cleared her throat causing the other two women to turn around. Liesl reached for the whisky bottle and took a long drink of it before setting it back on the table. She gave the man a long hard stare before speaking.
“Isaias, what a surprise.”
Isaias looked sadly at Liesl who was clearly on her way to being drunk with her two friends. “Hey, Liesl, can we talk?” Her eyes appeared bruised from lack of sleep and her glare told him he’d waited to long to check in. He was in shit. He hoped he could fix it.
“If you’re here to dump me, don’t worry. I figured it out already. You can go.” She waved him away as she poured a healthy measure of what appeared to be whisky into a mason jar.
He sighed, “Janka, Elsie, do you mind giving us a couple of minutes?”
“Why? I’m going to repeat what you say anyway. Let’s just cut out the middleman.”
“It’s your prerogative to do so but I’d rather talk to you alone first. Please?”
“Isaias, you dropped me off last night and couldn’t be arsed to warn me of the shit storm which hit while we were in the air. I’m fairly sure your intentions for me are pretty clear. You don’t give a fuck about me,” she tilted her glass in his direction. “Do you know I had to call my Granny because of you? My entire family who protected me and jumped to my defense when Sandy fucked my husband all were eventually tagged in a video which called me a homewrecker by my very loving sister,” she drawled sarcastically, “where she pointed out my alleged hypocrisy.”
“I apologize.” He looked to the two women who hadn’t budged. “Liesl, please. Give me five minutes.”
“I don’t want to. It’s been fourteen hours since you dropped me off and I haven’t heard a single peep from you. It’s apparent. I was a weekend fling.”
“No, you weren’t.” He ruffled his hair frustratedly as she did another shot of the booze. “Do you usually drink this much on a Monday morning?” She was well on her way to being wasted if she wasn’t already. He frowned at her furrowed brow.
“Only when I’ve lost two commission sales, a day of wages and my employer has had to lock her doors because reporters kept barging in and disrupting business. Not to mention, my sister has accused me of trying to upstage her pregnancy, my ex-husband is calling me on repeat and my Granny wants me to paint her naked as payment for her clearing the air with my aunties.”
He studied her face and noted the way her bottom lip trembled as if she were struggling not to cry, and he finally decided he didn’t care if the other women were there or not. He walked closer to her, took the glass and bottle from her hand, and set them on the table and pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly. She immediately started crying and guilt slammed him for making her sad.
“Shh, I’m sorry baby. Don’t cry. It’s all my fault and I’ll fix it. I promise.” He whispered into her hair. He rocked her in his arms, closing his eyes as he rested his cheek against the side of her head. “I’m so sorry.”
“Why didn’t you call?” she wailed in his arms.
He was aware of the two women quietly sneaking off. “I didn’t realize how bad it was until I got back into the car after I dropped you off. When we were in the air, I got the notification and I told legal to deal with it. I didn’t give Craven another thought.”
“You were on your phone on the plane.” She sniffled into his collar.
“Yup. I was. I was messaging with multiple realtors to help find you a suitable condo, apartment, or loft for you to rent. I never checked any of my messages from family or friends until I got back in the car. I then got reamed by my mother for what appears to be me almost fingering you in a night club. I’ve spent the last twelve hours with legal, my PR team and my sister trying to figure out a way to get this under control with as minimal damage to your reputation as possible.” He pressed his lips to her temple, “did you really think I was ending us?”
“Yes!” she almost yelled at him. “What was I supposed to think?”
“You should trust me,” he said simply.
“I don’t know you,” she retorted angrily. “I’ve known you all of ten days. All of this started out of revenge and bribery. I don’t want to put the cart before the horse and expect you to have feelings for me too.”
“Sweetheart,” he chuckled as her words slurred together. She was definitely drunk. “You already know you can trust me but if you’re not sure, it’s okay. We’ll work on it. I am sorry I didn’t call you or warn you the video had been put up. I didn’t see the video when we were in the air. I only had the message from my PR team Craven had posted a video suggesting I was cheating on her. I told them to handle it with legal.”
“My aunties all thought I took a page out of Sandy’s book.”
“As if,” he led her to a chair and he sat down and pulled her to his lap. He stroked her hair off her forehead. Her beautiful brown eyes were glassy and red rimmed as if she’d been crying and he felt terrible.”If your aunties think you capable of such things then they need their head’s examined. You would never.”
“No shit,” she mumbled playing with his tie.
He fought his smile at her anger. How the hell had this vivacious, brilliant woman been married to a man dull as Merlin McGrath? Even despondent with alcohol running through her veins and anger boiling in her blood, she was still the most beautiful, passionate woman he’d ever met. Regret he’d mishandled this situation consumed him. The minute his legal team had told him Elsie had told them to fuck off because he hadn’t maintained communication, he’d realized his error and had beelined to her.
He studied her face quietly as she pouted, staring at the patterns on his tie as if mesmerized and he gently tilted her chin to force her eyes to meet his. “Liesl, I know it’s only been ten days, but I care for you, quite deeply. I have a very terrible habit of losing myself in a project, no matter what it is, and, in this instance, it was destroying everything Craven France ever held dear. It didn’t even dawn on me to check in on you because I was so consumed with making her pay. I am so sorry. Can you ever forgive me?” He almost laughed as her lips pursed almost in the shape of a duck. “Please?”
“You care for me?”
“Very much. Whatever this is starting between us, I do not want it to end, anytime soon.”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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