A Deal with the Bossy Devil by Kyra Parsi

35

Robert may have slightly downplayedAdrien’s… state, as he’d called it. Though, to be fair, I wasn’t sure I’d have believed him had he been able to find the words to accurately describe what I was currently looking at.

Adrien’s T-shirt was inside out… and backward.

That was the first thing that caught my attention. My brain glossed over the angrily askew hair, the red-rimmed eyes, the bruised cheek and stitched-up brow, and snagged on the inside label sticking out of the front of his shirt.

“Dude, what the hell?”

He didn’t even notice I was in the room until I spoke. And Ididn’t notice he was on the phone until his shoulder went rigid and his head snapped in my direction, dark eyes pinning my soul in place.

Adrien stood still and unblinking for a few thundering heartbeats, almost like he thought any sudden movements or loud noises would make me disappear into thin air. The pause gave me enough time to really absorb and process what I was seeing.

The guy looked like he’d walked straight through the eye of a whole tornado to get here. That was the only way I could describe it. Oh, and there was a bit of blood smeared over his silver watch.

“Hey… Sunny? I’m going to call you back in a bit.”

He slowly hung up, refusing to release his hold on my gaze. His feet were still frozen midstep.

“You’re here,” he said quietly. The question was clear in his tone. He really hadn’t been expecting—

“Tea?”

We both jolted.

Robert—whose entire existence I’d momentarily forgotten about—had pulled up a third chair to the table we’d been sitting at. He patted the velvet cushion, smiling at Adrien. “You look like you could use some tea.”

Adrien straightened an inch, his questioning gaze sliding carefully between me and his grandfather.

“Come sit,” Robert insisted. “You’re just in time. Ria was just validating my basic bitch status, and I need a witness in the very likely case that Lice decides she doesn’t believe me when I rub it in her face.”

Adrien’s mouth quirked, the hard lines etched into his forehead softening just a touch. But he didn’t move for the chair.

“I didn’t realize you were traveling back together.” He sounded genuinely surprised by it, but not in a displeased way. “I can wait until the jet comes back. Or see if I can fly commercial in time for—”

“Nonsense. You’re the one that’s always going on and on about us not using the jet unless we absolutely have to.” Robert’s attention turned back to me. “The boy loves his trees. You should see his apartment. It’s practically a greenhouse, complete with a full-time gardener and everything.”

Color crept up Adrien’s neck. He tried to ruffle a hand through his hair, only to remember at the last second that his finger and knuckles were bandaged up.

Robert sat down, looking like he was tired of waiting for us to do so first. “Plus,” he said, “the jet seats twelve. Even with your ego on board we should still have enough room. Until it recovers, at least.”

I bit my cheeks and ducked my head, wanting to hide my growing amusement. This wasn’t the time to be smiling. I was very, very, very pissed off at Adrien.

“Thanks, Gamps,” Adrien grumbled, though I could hear the humor tilt his voice. “I’ll leave it up to Ria. If she’s okay with me joining you, I will.”

“Oh, I’m not… I was brought here under false pretenses,” I said, shooting Robert a pointed look. He smiled back and motioned for the bartender to bring fresh tea to the table. “I’ll just wait until a seat’s available on a commercial plane.”

Adrien’s facial muscles tightened in the way I’d come to learn meant he was getting ready to argue, but Robert cut in before he could open his mouth. “Addy, why don’t you come sit down and tell us what you’ve been up to over the last twenty-four hours. Lice says the doctors couldn’t even pry your phone away from you long enough to treat your hand properly. I’d like to know what was so important.”

Adrien glared at his grandfather like a kid who’d just had their biggest, most important secret revealed by an embarrassing guardian, the knuckles of his non-injured hand going white over the handle of his leather duffle bag.

“Sorry. Too obvious?” Robert asked sarcastically. To me, he said, “I think he’s trying to keep more secrets. The boy’s always been too stubborn to learn his lessons the first time around. Though I will say, his work ethic is positively unrivaled. His shirt is wrinkled, and he’s looking slightly unhinged at the moment, but you should see how much he’s managed to accomplish in one day. I really don’t know where he gets it from. The rest of us are all quite lazy in comparison.”

Adrien’s lips were now pressed into a tight line, his ears beet red. “And Gamps has spent the last eighty-two years refusing to mind his own business. It’s where Alice gets it from.”

“Come sit.”

It occurred to me then that I should have nabbed my suitcase and bolted out of the room the moment Adrien walked in, but I’d been so distracted—and frankly shocked—by his chaotically disheveled appearance that I’d remained rooted on the spot, trying to process it.

“I think I’m going to head out,” I said, moving for my luggage. Nothing good was going to come from me lingering back here.

But then Robert said, “Don’t be an idiot.”

He wasn’t talking to me, I realized. His knowing gaze was locked on his grandson, his thick eyebrows pushing past the rim of his glasses.

Adrien sighed. “Okay, Ria, I know you said for me to leave you alone, but just hear me out for a few minutes.”

“No.”

“Fine. Thirty seconds. I’ve been talking to—”

“Adrien, no.” I didn’t want to hear it. I turned back to Robert. “Look, I appreciate whatever it is you’re trying to do here because I think your heart’s in the right place, but I really just want to be left alone. And, again, I’m very sorry about all the lying, but I really hope that I never have any reason to run into you or your grandson again.”

That was about as polite as I could put it with the amount of exhausted frustration weighing on me.

I averted my gaze as my hand curled around the handle of my carry-on, and I kept it down as I made my silent exit from Adrien’s life. Permanently this time.

The words “you’re being an idiot” were the last thing I heard before the doors closed behind me. Though this time, I wasn’t entirely confident Robert wasn’t talking directly to me.

* * *

The apartment door tore open the second my suitcase stopped rolling against the marble tiles, before I’d even had a chance to fish my keys out of my purse.

“Hello, Ariana,” a very unimpressed Jamie greeted me, looking like a cartoon villain with the way she was holding a glaring, purring Toebeans against her chest. “Fancy seeing you here, alive and not dead.”

My shoulder slumped against the wall. I hadn’t responded to her messages over the last two days. Not since the Josh thing happened.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“Alba thinks you’ve been kidnapped because you haven’t been responding to her. I haven’t corrected her.”

That sounded about right. “In my defense, there was a lot going on.”

Her left brow rose as Toebeans thrashed his tail against her arm. I couldn’t tell which one of them looked angrier with me. For my own sake, I really hoped it was Jamie.

My lips pushed against each other. She didn’t know about me and Adrien, either. I’d been waiting to tell her when I got home, over a bottle of wine. Back when I thought it was going to be a fun conversation.

“I slept with your future husband,” I said.

Her eyes widened, a slow grin spreading across her face as all signs of anger vanished. “You slut! Tell. Me. Everything!”

“Josh is his cousin.”

Her grin died. “Wait, what?”

“We have to, um, go,” I said. My vision was suddenly very blurry, my throat tight. “Now, please. We have to pack up and go now.”

“It’s almost midnight on a weeknight—”

“Please? Can we just go now?” I needed to be in my own home. In my own bed.

There was a beat of silence, and then she nodded, pulling me inside by my arm. “Okay. All right. Let’s go now.”

We packed quickly, quietly. I tried my best to ignore the worried glances Jamie kept throwing my way, and she did her best to pretend like she didn’t hear my sniffling, didn’t see the unsubtle ways I kept having to wipe my vision clear. And I couldn’t have appreciated her more for it.

The Uber dropped us off at our crummy old walk-up two hours later. We hauled our bags up the stairs, released a yelling Toebeans into the pitch-black apartment, and before Jamie could start asking questions, I said, “I’m exhausted. Can we please talk about it tomorrow?”

She squeezed my hand. “Okay.”

Then I went straight to my room, curled on top of the covers with my jacket still on, and bawled.