At this point crashing Cam’s date honestly sounded more appealing than replying to any of my friends, all of whom sounded more concerned about me being broke than the fact that I might be, you know, having an actual shitty time.
But that was the kicker, wasn’t it? Even when I fell, I’d never truly fall. I’d never be homeless or hungry or deal with the shit that regular folk had to. That was the privilege of being an Easton, and what Lena had called me out on.
I exhaled slowly and deleted my way down the list, finally coming to the earliest texts from this morning.
Rough time? Allie’s worried.
My mouth curved when I saw who sent it. Four words—Ryland was as straight to the point as ever.
Are u ok?? Why didn’t u tell us?
Let’s talk when u want to.
We’re always here for u, ok?
Three texts in succession from Karin, followed by two sad face emojis and three pink hearts.
Feeling a little less shitty, I skipped Ryland’s and Karin’s texts and went on deleting everyone else’s.
That’s when I realized that Lena’s name was missing from my list of messages.
Huh. Weird.
Going to my “Deleted” folder, I carefully went down every one of the four hundred messages there in case I had deleted hers by mistake—but no Lena.
I frowned.
She had my number from when I called her. Did she forget to save it? Or maybe she just did not give a fuck? She had to know by now, right? What did she think of me now that she knew about my fall from grace?
I stared at my phone intensely as if that would trigger a message from Lena…
…and then I remembered her crush on Cam.
I jerked upright.
Shit! For all my flirting with her the night we broke into her old office, I knew that the only guy Lena had on her mind was Cam.
And now he was going on a date with another woman to talk marriage.
“Fuck,” I breathed.
From the looks of it he wouldn’t be back tonight, and Lena would be pining after that dumbass while he was out screwing another woman. She’d probably even see it on social media tomorrow morning.
Damn, but that’s really messed up. I could already imagine Lena’s serious face all splotchy from crying.
That was not gonna happen if I could help it. Not on my watch.
I quickly sent her a text.
Hey, u up? Wru?
I stared at the screen and willed her to reply.
Come on, come on…
The phone pinged.
Yeah, I’m at home. What’s up?
So she had my number after all. I had to admit, it stung a little that she didn’t text me first.
Not that I had been waiting or anything.
Wanna hang downtown w me? I’ll get u home by midnight.
Also, I got u entry to an event tmr night. There’ll be media people there, like u wanted.
That bit was true, at least. It hadn’t taken me more than a quick text to secure it for Lena.
I popped my jaw as I waited for her reply. For the first time in my life, I was no longer the golden boy. There was now a chance that someone didn’t want to be around me, and honestly that made me feel more vulnerable than I liked.
Lena’s text came through then, and I tapped Read faster than was cool.
Ok. Come pick me up?
I found myself grinning like a fool as I read and reread her message before replying.
Copy that. See u soon.
For the second time in three nights, I pulled up at the street where Lena was waiting.
As she made her way to my car, I took the chance to study her. She was wearing a t-shirt and jeans this time, and her abundance of blonde hair was in a fuss-free ponytail at her nape.
Once again I was struck by how quiet she looked, as if she just wanted to fold into herself and disappear. Lena Hastings did not look at all like the kind of woman who would go up against a crazy boss to protect a friend. She did not look like someone who was planning to drop an exposé on some unknowing douchebag and nuke him into oblivion.
And yet she was. For that reason, I was unable to take my eyes away from her.
Lena got into the car, and I sat there in rare silence just looking at her.
She looked self-conscious as she buckled in, her blue eyes darting everywhere except my face. “What?”
“You’re kinda cool, you know that?”
She glanced away. “You don’t have to say that,” she murmured, her go-to line for whenever I complimented her.
I backed off out of sympathy and started to drive. “I sent the access pass to your email a couple of minutes ago.”
“Thanks.” Lena checked her phone. “You said media people will be there?”
“Yep. Including Jacob Kline, the guy I asked you to spy on, so you can kill two birds with one stone.”
Lena didn’t return my grin. She was busy staring at the event invite with a pensive expression on her face.
“Where are we going?” she finally asked, tucking her phone back into her pocket.
“I’m taking you shopping for clothes. You asked me for help on that, remember?”
Lena blinked in surprise. “I didn’t think we’d do it so soon.”
I shrugged. “No better time than now.”
When we arrived at the boutique, I held the door open for Lena before the sales consultant could get to it.
“Don’t worry about us being seen,” I murmured in her ear. “The owner has a solid stance on client privacy, so take your time to pick some stuff out. It’s on me.”
Lena shook her head immediately. “Oh no, I can’t let you pay.”
“Sure you can.” I gave her a tiny push in the small of her back.
As I’d hoped, Lena’s gaze was instantly hooked by the clothes the moment she stepped in the brightly-lit store. Her blue eyes widened behind her glasses.
“Just one small thing, then,” she said faintly. She slowly made her way down a rack of clothing, wearing the expression of a lost deer.
“If you need my input, just say the word.”
She considered that for a moment. “I’d like to try.”
I grinned slowly. “Attagirl.”
After a few minutes, she picked out a pale blue dress. Her hand went straight for the price tag, and she did a double blink before quickly stuffing the dress back on the rack like it was a live bomb.
“Not a chance, Hastings. You’re trying it on.” I reached for the dress, but Lena grabbed my wrist in alarm.
“It costs more than my rent, Gabriel,” she whispered frantically. “I can’t wear something like this.”
I frowned in confusion. “But you like it.”
“It’s not about that. I can’t spend this much on something I’ll only wear a handful of times in my life.” Lena shook her head helplessly as she tried to explain. “The dress is beautiful, but it will not make me happy.” She met my exasperated gaze, her lovely eyes firm. “I won’t take it.”
I frowned as I stared down at Lena, wishing there was a way I could figure her out.
“Okay, we’ll keep to a budget,” I finally said. “Does that make you feel better?”
Lena relaxed, her lips curving in relief. “It does. Thank you.”
For a girl who claimed to be painfully shy and terrible with guys, Lena Hastings was doing a hell of a job getting her way with me.
“Don’t thank me,” I muttered as I stuffed the dress back on the rack. “You’re the one saving me money.”
Lena spent the next half hour selecting only pieces in her decided price range—which ruled out a majority of the selection at the store—and handing them to the store assistant apologetically.
When she was done, we headed upstairs to the private changing rooms for her to try them on.
Lena in a changing room was probably as frequent as a white elephant sighting. I heard ominous thuds and soft cursing as I waited on the sofa outside.
“You good in there?” I called after an especially loud thunk from behind the door.
“Yes, I just… I’m trying to figure out where the straps go…”
The sales consultant popped up on cue like the freaky paperclip from a Word document. “Do you need any help, ma’am?”
Dead. Silence.
“Ma’am?” The consultant began to reach for the door handle, but I grabbed her arm before she could barge in and give Lena a cardiac arrest.
“I got this—” I glanced down at her name tag, “—Sarah. I’ll let you know if we need any help.”
Sarah smiled back at me in a loopy sort of way before retreating and heading back downstairs.
Once we were alone, I rapped on the door. “Lena, she’s gone. It’s just me.”
“Thanks.” Lena sounded out-of-breath. “I completely froze at the thought of her coming in while I’m half-dressed.”
I grinned. “I know.”
Some more rustling and sounds of struggling, and then silence again.
“How is it?” I called. “Do you like it?”
“I don’t know,” came her muffled voice. “I’ve never worn anything like this.”
Lena said something else, but her voice was drowned out by the sudden clomping of heels up the stairs.
The noise was accompanied by shrill voices and loud laughter that were definitely not from Sarah the sales consultant.
“Shit.”
I froze for a second before I did something that Gabriel Easton would never, ever, ever do.
I went for cover.
Yanking the door open, I ducked into Lena’s changing room just as the footsteps neared the top of the stairs. I shut the door behind me just in time. Another second more and I would have been spotted.
Fuck me, I should have booked the whole store instead of betting my luck that we wouldn’t run into anyone else. Where was Sarah when you needed her?
“Gabriel?” came Lena’s bewildered voice behind me.
“Sorry, just let me hang out here for a sec—” I glanced around at Lena and promptly forgot the rest of my sentence.
Lena’s eyes were round and wide, and one of her hands were pressed to her chest to keep the cream dress she was in the midst of trying on from falling off her.
It was practically a default thought in my brain by now, but Lena Hastings might be one of the most breathtaking women I’d ever met.
“Just pretend I’m invisible,” I managed, though that didn’t ease her wariness. “Some people were coming upstairs, and it’s better that I’m not seen right now. The news about me,” I explained lamely, though there was no way she hadn’t heard about me being cut off.
She hadn’t mentioned it yet though. Why?
Lena nodded slowly, keeping her eyes on me like she expected me to pounce on her any second. “I think I’ll go behind the curtains.”
“Great idea,” I said, my voice sounding like gravel.
Lena retreated to the other side of the changing room that was thankfully the size of a large suite, and I dutifully kept my nose to the door and tried to ignore the fact that she was changing out of her clothes just twenty feet away from me.
Then a shrill laugh and the mention of my name on the other side of the door snagged my attention.
“Did you hear that Gabriel Easton got cut off?”
Yep, there we are.
“I know! What the hell, right? Do you think it’s fake news?”
“It looks real. CK’s already pulling their endorsement deal with him.”
“So is Gabriel Easton like, penniless now?”
Whoever said the last sounded snarky as hell. If I had to bet, she had something in it for me.
“It looks that way. He's completely cut off, apparently. He doesn’t even have his inheritance anymore, and no assets either.” Shrill girl gave a long, sad sigh.
“So his net worth is like, zero dollars now? Or is it negative dollars?”
“Oh, definitely in the negative.”
“What about his penthouse at Upper East? I haven’t even been there.”
And she never would. I was starting to realize that I liked women who were intelligent, bonus points if she was easily flustered and wore glasses. Who woulda thought?
“What did he do to piss off Jemima James?”
“Who knows, that old bitch is a certified psycho. Sucks for Gabe.”
“You look happy about something.”
“Duh. Remember what happened at Haydie’s party?”
“What?”
“I came on to him, and the cocky son-of-bitch turned me down? Do you even listen?”
I raised my eyes to the ceiling. Yup, this chick hated me. Called it.
“Oh my god, I remember now! What the frick was he thinking? He’s lucky you’re even putting out for him!”
“Don’t you see? This is my chance to get even. Since he’s broke now, no girl will want anything to do with him, and he’ll be grateful for any attention I give him.”
“Oh my god, that’s so true!”
I winced at the combined shrill laughter that assaulted my ears.
“I might just fuck him, you know, just to see if he’s really all that.”
Not a fucking chance. As if I’d ever lower myself to that.
“I heard he’s like, ah-may-zing in bed. Roxy said he’s huge and gave her the best orgasm she ever had. He just goes on and on and on.”
The conversation outside was so ridiculously entertaining that I almost forgot I was in the changing room with Lena until I heard a soft rustle at my side.
I turned to see her by my side, still wearing that mind-boggling dress, her face deathly pale. My grin faded instantly and my brows drew together.
“Hey.” I tipped her chin gently to face me. “Hey, hey, hey. What’s wrong?”
“They’re horrible,” she said hoarsely, staring at the door as if she could glare at the girls through it.
“Nothing I haven’t heard before,” I shrugged.
“I caused this.”
My brows snapped together when I heard the tremulousness in her voice. Had the guilt about the article been weighing down on her? Was that why she hadn’t said a word about it to me?
“Lena, this is not on you,” I said, needing her to understand. “People bitch and gossip, that’s just how it is.”
Lena shook her head in jerky movements. “It’s disgusting, and I’m part of the problem,” she said, looking furious at herself.
“You’re not anymore—Lena, where are you going?”
“I’m going to talk to them.” She tried angling past me. “I’m going to ask them to apologize to you.”
I grasped her arm, bemused that this girl with crippling social anxiety was going out to confront a pair of catty women she didn’t know for me. She was practically shaking in her shoes, and all the while she was trying to get out there in my defense.
An unlikely knight in shining armor.
My lips curved in amusement, but even so there was an odd pang in my chest as I gazed down at her frustrated, lovely face.
“That’s not how it works in my circles, babe,” I said gently. “They will say whatever they want whether you write your articles or not. People rise and fall. For a while I was at the top, and now I’m not. That’s all there is to—are you crying?”
“No.”
Lena was definitely crying.
I stared down at her, speechless and confused. I’d never met a girl who cried so easily.
“You cry really easily,” I managed.
“I’m sorry,” she protested in a clogged voice. “I’m trying to fix that.”
“No, don’t fix anything.” I pulled her into my arms and rubbed her back in soothing circles. “Alright, angel, don’t cry. I’m fine, see?”
Lena pried her glasses off to wipe impatiently at her tears. “They’re wrong about you.”
“Actually they were spot on about the size of my—sorry. Lena, you gotta know that it takes bigger shit than this to bothe
r me.” I carefully took her tear-stained glasses from her face and set it by the side table.
“I never wanted to be a tabloid writer,” she muttered angrily as she swiped at her tears that kept falling. “I was supposed to go into real journalism and change the world for the better.”
“And you are,” I soothed. “You still have your takedown piece on that Wall Street guy, remember?”
“But how many people have I ruined with my articles?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s none.” I sighed. “I’ve read your stuff, Hastings. They’re no Nobel Peace Prize essay, but they’re not as mean-spirited as per industry standards. Probably explains why your boss had it out for you.”
Lena bit her lip, looking a little hopeful. “Are you sure?”
“That you suck at your job? Yeah, I’m pretty sure, so cheer up already.”
She exhaled and relaxed against my chest, still looking unhappy. “I’m still sorry, anyway. You’re not at all like what the tabloids made you out to be.”
I raised a brow. “And you got all that from the seven hours we’ve spent together?”
“I researched you for half a year,” she pointed out. “Both the good and bad parts. I know more about you than you think.”
I frowned, not liking the turn this conversation was taking. “Pretty sure it’s mostly bad parts.”
Lena wordlessly shook her head.
“I know you asked me out to distract me from Cam,” she said quietly.
Shit, they’d been sighted on their dinner date. I cursed under my breath.
“But you didn’t have to do this. I’m not upset at all.”
But she had to be. She was crying and completely heartbroken—for Cam, and not me.
For the first time in my life, I found myself bitterly jealous of my best friend.
“You said I was hiding myself away from the world,” Lena continued, her grey-blue eyes staring up at me. Seeing me. “But I’m not the only one who has been hiding.”
“Yeah?” I countered coolly, feeling pissed all of a sudden. “And how would you know that? You’re a tabloid writer masquerading as a journalist. Your words, not mine. Are you also a psychiatrist now?”
Lena reared back at my cruel words like I had physically struck her, and I despised myself in that moment.
Charming (New York Heirs #3) Page 11
