The Rivals - Vi Keeland Page 0,21
her boyfriend was. He didn’t even chase after her. We’d both taken a limo to prom and gotten dropped off. I called my driver and had him come pick us up.”
“Okay…”
I wasn’t about to share that while Sophia was in the middle of bawling me out, I’d pressed my lips to hers, and the two of us wound up taking out our frustrations in a much more productive manner that night. “We…hung out for a while. I fell asleep at her house around the time the sun came up, and I woke up a half hour after I was supposed to be at the hospital. I got a cab and showed up in my wrinkled tux from the night before.” I shook my head. “My mother made them do a blood alcohol test on me because she thought I’d put having fun over Caroline. She didn’t believe me when I told her I didn’t have a drop to drink.”
Dr. Halpern picked up her pad and wrote for a full minute that time.
“Perhaps seeing Sophia reminded you of that time in your life—a time when you were helping your sister.”
I guess that made sense. Though my sister had been the furthest thing from my mind last night, that was for damn sure. I shrugged. “Maybe.”
We moved on from our trip down memory lane. When Dr. Halpern asked me how things were going at The Countess, I almost told her how I’d royally fucked up by sleeping with the enemy. But then I figured she might try to keep me here all afternoon to dissect the real reasons I’d done what I did.
Because no shrink accepts that sometimes you just can’t handle how the cream buttons on a royal blue silk blouse make you insane. Or how the color of those buttons exactly matches the skin on her neck, and since you can’t bite that neck like you really want to, you have to settle for listening to the little cream pearls ping against the tile floor.
Yeah, Dr. Halpern would definitely not understand that. Let’s face it, if she did, she’d be out of business. Because in order for her to maintain this fancy midtown real estate, she needs to psychoanalyze the shit out of everything we do.
But the truth of the matter is, sometimes we just act on instinct like an animal. And Sophia damn Sterling has the uncanny ability to bring out the savage in me.
Chapter 6
* * *
Sophia
“You can have six rooms, if you want. Should I book it under your name? Will they be flying in with you or checking in on their own?”
Scarlett had sent me an email asking to book a second room for her upcoming trip. So I’d picked up the phone to respond since I was wide awake anyway.
“I’m not sure yet. But if you could book the room under Thomason, that would be brilliant.”
“No problem.”
“Isn’t it the middle of the night there? It’s just seven in the morning here, so it’s, what…two in New York?”
I sighed. “Yeah. I couldn’t fall asleep, so I figured I’d catch up on my emails.”
“Jet lag?”
“Not really.”
“Don’t tell me you’re losing sleep over that sloth, Liam.”
“No, that’s not it.”
“So what’s keeping you from getting the proper amount of beauty rest, then?”
I hadn’t called my friend to unload my troubles. Well, maybe that wasn’t so true, and unconsciously I’d hoped we’d get to chat. It had been four hours since I scurried out of Weston’s room, yet my head was still spinning from what had happened.
“I…have a little problem.”
“You cannot wear black pants with brown shoes, even if I’m no longer there to save you from yourself.”
I laughed. “I wish it were that easy.”
“Hang on a second.” Scarlett covered the phone, but I heard her muzzled conversation.
“What is this?” she said curtly.
A man’s voice answered. He sounded nervous. “Umm… It’s…your coffee. From the new Cinnabon place you asked me to fetch it from.”
“But what’s inside? It weighs half a stone.”
“Your cinnamon bun is inside.”
“What?”
“You ordered a coffee with a cinnamon bun on top.”
“I ordered a coffee with cinnamon on top. Who in their right mind thinks someone would want a cinnamon bun inside of a coffee?”
“Uh… Sorry. I’ll go back.”
“Yes, do that.”
Scarlett came back on the phone. “Did you say you have a problem? Whatever it is, it can’t be worse than the new assistant the temp agency sent over.”
“I overheard. Sometimes I think you’re too hard on people. But I promise you, that’s not the case today.”
She sighed.