Chapter 21

Chapter 21

POV:

*Adelaide*

“And now they’re having a baby!” I slammed the empty beer down on the counter.

“Wow,” Kathy said with wide eyes. “That’s messed up.”

“You should murder them in their sleep,” Lacey growled, setting down. her beer. “That’ll show those backstabbing ba-”

“I think you’ve had a little too much to drink, Lacey,” Kathy stole her drink away from her. Lacey whined, her cheeks flushed red as she clung to her wife’s jacket.

“I’m not drunk,” Lacey slurred clearly intoxicated.

“Of course not, dear,” Kathy smirked, laying a kiss upon her wife’s forehead.

As I watched their sweet exchange, I noticed a buzzing from my pocket. A text from Damon?

When I opened it, I turned bright red..

It was a text that if my grandmother saw, she would outright faint. A text that could make a nun blush, and in my tipsy state, I was nowhere near prepared enough to deal with it. But I couldn’t deny how excited it made. me feel.

I read it over for the third time, ‘I can’t stop thinking about the other night. You felt and tasted so good.’

‘What do you think you’re doing?’ I wrote back, hurriedly, ignoring the typos. ‘I’m in public with Lacey and Kathy’

It took less than a minute for him to respond as he sent back just an emoji with an arched eyebrow.

“Are you okay, Addie?” Kathy asked me, concerned. “You’re all red.”

I practically threw my phone in my pocket, my face heating to concerning levels as I tried to play it cool.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I laughed, nervously, “It’s just the beer. I might’ve drank too much.”

“No, you didn’t!” Lacey grinned, slurring her words a bit as she wrapped her arm around me. I almost slid off the barstool as she pulled me into her. “We’re gonna party all night!”

Lacey threw her hands up as she cheered.

“As much as I’d love to party, I do have work tomorrow,” I told her with a grin.

“Party pooper,” Lacey pouted.

“I’ve got a call to make. Watch her for me, will you, Adelaide?” Kathy smiled.

“Sure,” I nodded with a smile.

Speaking of which, I pulled out my phone and flipped to Peter’s number that he had given me.

‘Could you drive me home? I’m hazy from the drinks.’ I sent it, although quite a number of the words were misspelled.

It was true though. My alcohol-soaked brain was not fit to be driving my car. If I wrecked, I couldn’t afford the repairs, nor did I want to risk myself or anyone else driving in this state.

‘Of course!’ Peter’s reply came soon after.

“You know,” Lacey said, once we were alone. “I think you and Damon are perfect together.”

“What?” I scoffed, “No way. We’re….too different.”

“Not as different as you like to believe,” Lacey smiled. “You know how we met?”

I shook my head.

“It was in college during one of the dorm parties. Well, I ended up getting pretty smashed. I don’t even remember most of the night.”

Lacey sighed, “I wasn’t paying attention, and I guess somebody slipped me something ’cause next thing I know, this guy I don’t know has got his hands all over me, and he’s taking me somewhere, and my head’s all fuzzy.”

I sobered up real quick as I listened to the nightmare she told me.

“But then,” she said and smiled, eyes glistening under the bar lights, “Damon burst in. He punched the guy off me and wrapped me in his jacket. Even though I was drugged, and wasted, and I couldn’t even walk straight, he just took me home and told me to be more careful. I started to like him after that and well…”

I stared at her in disbelief, unable to believe what I was hearing. Damon did all that?

The Damon who used to say that he hated getting involved with others?

Was he a good guy inside? Had I been wrong about him all these years?

“I liked him.” Lacey said with a frown. “But I didn’t love him. I felt so bad. for breaking his heart but he took it in stride. He didn’t let it affect our friendship. Well, now we’re best friends, and I’m married to Kathy, and he’s married to you, so I guess it all worked out well.”

“I’m glad Damon was there to help you,” I said once I got my thoughts together. “I know he’s not the kid he was before. He’s sweet to me now, but… it’s complicated.”

I sighed, laying my head on my arms. “Things used to be simple. He hated me, and I hated him. We were enemies.”

“Why did you hate him?” Lacey asked.

“Because he was so mean to me!” I growled, remembering all the times he’d humiliated me.

“Even when we were kids, he would make up stupid nicknames for me. Every year on my birthday, he’d dump a whole bottle of glitter on my table just so I would get in trouble with the teacher. He told all the boys. in school that if they touched me, they would die from cooties. I was a class pariah!”

Lacey burst into laughter, tears filling the corners of her eyes from laughing so hard.

“It’s not funny,” I pouted, crossing my arms. Though, saying it out loud now, it didn’t seem as mean as it once was.

“I’m not defending him, but really, those are the worst things he did as a kid?” Lacey chuckled, shaking her head.

“Did it never occur to you that he was trying to cheer you up with the birthday thing? Or that he just didn’t want the other boys in school to touch you so he made up the cooties thing? Maybe, he just wanted you. all to himself.”

I opened my mouth to retort, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized she was right. Though it was annoying having to clean up the glitter, Damon was the only one who told me happy birthday year after year.

My father hadn’t even bothered for many years. But Damon never forgot, not once.

And if Damon believed I had cooties and that I would infect him, then why did he hang around me so much as a kid? He and Ashton were the only two willing to be around me after that incident.

“Damon used to mention you a lot when we were dating. He does even now,” Lacey said. “Just casually in conversation, you come up. Adelaide hates this food, and Adelaide likes this movie, just random things het knows about you. I doubt he even realized he was doing it half the time.”

Lacey smiled wistfully, and then grabbed my hand and held it close. “I know how much Damon suffered from his family. You know it, too.”

I swallowed looking away. I did know, and I hated it.

Corinna had been welcomed by my father, but Damon did not receive. the same. He was a stain on the Steyn family tapestry, and he was treated as such.

I knew about it but there had been nothing I could do as a kid or an adult.

“He told me once that you were his light when he felt hopeless,” Lacey said, meaningfully. “That you were the reason he made it through all of it and became the man he is today.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything. The bartender poured us another round of drinks, and we toasted one another before downing them in one go.

But I didn’t forget her words, even as the alcohol overtook my reason. Had Damon actually cared about me all that time? How did I not see it?

When Peter picked me up, I couldn’t stand straight. The streetlights looked like fireflies as they twirled around me or perhaps, I was the one twirling around them.

I felt dizzy but also incredibly elated. Everything I’d learned and Damon’s text left me feeling surprisingly happy. I actually felt like I missed Damon, which was such an odd sensation.

The ride home was a blur to me as I struggled not to throw up all over Peter’s nice car. I didn’t want him to dislike me, and I knew that was a guaranteed way to make that happen.

Peter dropped me off, saying something about my car, but I only giggled, patting his cheeks as thanks before stumbling my way upstairs. He laughed at me as I walked away, but stayed until he knew I’d made it  inside.

“Dios Mio,” Mrs. Rivas said as she spotted me. “I’ll get some water, and  some coffee.”

“For what?” I asked, clueless as I swayed on the spot.

I kicked off my shoes somewhere between the car and the stairs as I stumbled my way into the bedroom, feeling like I’d won the lottery.

When I entered, however, I wasn’t alone. I stopped, holding onto the doorknob to keep myself upright.

“Damon?” I asked, blinking. I wondered for a brief minute if I was. hallucinating.

Damon sat on the bed, a pile of blueprints laid out in front of him, but I knew for sure he wasn’t a hallucination because he wore a pair of thin, square glasses.

He gazed up at me as I leaned on the door to keep my balance, one of my socks missing and my dress halfway down my shoulders.

“You look like Dr. Seuss,” I giggled, playfully as I stumbled forward.

“And you’re drunk,” Damon said back but he couldn’t keep from smiling.

“So?” I grinned, stepping forward. “Why are you back early? Didn’t you say a couple of days?”

Before he could answer, I tripped on my own feet and stumbled right onto his blueprints. I laughed as he stared down at me, unimpressed.

He smirked, leaning down to press his lips gently against mine. He tasted like mint, and I probably tasted like alcohol.

I giggled excitedly as he pulled back, his eyes soft as he brushed his hand  across my cheek.

“I just couldn’t stay away from you.”