Cruel Money

by K. A. Linde

  I had just turned up the music, drowning out my own thoughts with Mae’s killer lyrics, when her phone rang.

  She silenced the volume with a sigh and answered, “Hey, Katherine.”

  My ears perked up. Oh, this was going to be good.

  “Yeah, I can’t do brunch. I already left.”

  We had already left. We, I corrected for her.

  “Oh, Lewis told you that Penn was at the beach house, too?” she said softly.

  Fuck. Just peachy. I really wanted to hear the other side of this conversation.

  “Yeah, he’s here. But we’re both working, so you probably shouldn’t visit.”

  Thank god.

  “Look, I know I’m some kind of project for you, but I can’t hang out all the time. I have work to do and a book to finish. Maybe another time, okay?”

  Katherine must have been backpedaling hard with whatever she said next. Natalie looked skeptical by it all, but she seemed to soften a tad by the end.

  “All right. I get it. Maybe let’s talk later.”

  She hung up the phone, and uncertain, I peeked over at her.

  “What did Katherine have to say?”

  Natalie shrugged and looked back out the window. It was several minutes before she said anything at all. “She said she hadn’t meant project how it sounded and that she was sorry for hurting me.”

  I kept my face neutral. That was such a line from Katherine. She was never really sorry for how she treated people, but it wasn’t as if I could say anything at this point. I was the other side of this bet even if my intentions were pure. Hers weren’t, and Katherine had a tendency to dive in too deep.

  “It was really Camden who was the dick anyway. Katherine was just reacting to him,” Natalie murmured and then turned the volume back up, so she didn’t have to talk to me anymore.

  It felt like a lifetime before we got back to the house. As soon as I stopped, Natalie had Totle on his leash and was hurrying inside with her bag slung over her shoulder. I gritted my teeth. This was a mess.

  I grabbed my own bag out of the trunk and followed her inside. To my surprise, she was standing in the living room, waiting for me.

  “Hey,” she murmured.

  “She speaks.”

  She shook her head. “You know what? Never mind.”

  “Wait,” I said, reaching for her. “What were you going to say?”

  She sighed and dropped her shoulders. “I want us to go back to the way things were before…”

  “Before what?”

  “Before we kissed.”

  “Do you really think that’s possible?”

  She bit her lip, and all I could think about was sucking it into my mouth. The taste of her. The feel of her. Going back wasn’t an option.

  “It has to be. And if you can’t do that, then…maybe you should go.”

  “I’m not going to leave, Natalie.” I knew that I should back down, but I couldn’t believe how much she was lying to herself. “There’s something here. I know that you can feel it.”

  “I do,” she admitted softly. “I really do. But even if I did, I am only here for another month or so unless my contract is extended. What would even happen? Nothing. I’d take another job and leave. It would be pointless.”

  “Or you could stay,” I found myself staying. “And we could find out.”

  “You don’t believe what you’re saying.” Her voice shook as she got the words out.

  I arched an eyebrow. “Don’t I?”

  She opened her mouth and then closed it, as if she couldn’t believe what I’d just said. I saw her resolve cracking. The tentative rope she had been balancing on tipping out from under her feet. She took a step forward. I took one closer. Then she stilled and straightened her spine.

  “I’m not stupid. I am not the first or the last in the long line of women Penn Kensington has seduced. I don’t want to be an idiot here and jeopardize my job or my sanity,” she said very calmly. “I would rather if we remained friends. I thought we were good as friends.”

  Friends.

  Fuck. I was being friend-zoned.

  I knew that she wanted me. She’d admitted as much. Yet here we were. Our past getting in the way of our present. My past…once again. Fucking great.

  “Okay,” I finally muttered.

  “Okay?” she asked with wide eyes.

  “We can be friends.”

  “Oh,” she breathed uncertainly. “What’s the catch?”

  “No catch. You said that’s what you wanted, and I can respect your wishes.”

  “I…appreciate that.”

  “You don’t have to appreciate when someone respects you. It should be expected.”

  She smiled tentatively. “Well, thanks anyway.” She wavered in place for a minute, as if she couldn’t decide whether or not I was really telling the truth. Then, she nodded. “Just so you know, my best friend, Amy, is coming into town next weekend.”

  “Oh, you can have friends over but not me?”

  Natalie wrinkled her nose. “I think I had enough of your friends last night. And anyway, you already told Lewis that you were here and he told Katherine. So, cat is out of the bag.”

  “Well, maybe I’ll invite Lewis next weekend too.”

  She shrugged. “Do whatever you want.”

  She went to the back door to let Totle inside, and I watched the sway of her hips with hunger. She said we were just friends. But damn that kiss. No one could deny that kiss.

  Still, if she wanted us to just be friends, I could do that…for now.

  Part III

  All’s Fair In Love And War

  Natalie

  17

  Kissing Penn had been such a dumb move. Now, we were in this strange in-between state. Not straddling the line between hate and friendship anymore, but between friendship and…more.

  That left us teetering precariously in each other’s presence.

  And he was a mystery. I didn’t know what he actually wanted from me, and I didn’t want to find out either. I felt like I was just some conquest. A box to check off—seduced my one-night stand and made her like me again.

  I would rather keep my heart and body safe. I’d said no distractions while I was here, and Penn was distraction number one. I needed to get past this and forget about him.

  It amazed me how easily we had fallen back into the routine we’d adopted. The fact that he actually kept to his word. He hadn’t made another pass at me. We hadn’t even been close to each other. We’d just passed each other’s existence with Totle as the ping-pong ball.

  A few days later, I was out on the back deck, trying to figure out where I was in my story and absentmindedly throwing a small tennis ball for Totle, when my phone rang. The interior decorator had left earlier that morning, so I wasn’t expecting to hear from anyone.

  Definitely not my sister.

  “Melanie?” I asked in surprise as I picked up the phone.

  “Nat,” she blubbered. “Thank god you answered.”

  Then she immediately broke down into a hysterical fit.

  “Mel, are you okay? What happened? Is it Mom and Dad?”

  “No, no, everyone…is…fine,” she stammered through her tears.

  “Tell me what’s going on.”

  “Michael…broke…up…with me.”

  “Oh, honey,” I whispered.

  Michael and Melanie had been inseparable since, basically, the day that they met on the playground in third grade. They’d dated all through middle school and high school. I’d figured they would graduate together, get married, and have the requisite two-and-a-half kids.

  “I can’t believe…he did…this,” she said.

  “Me either. What happened?” I stood from my seat and walked to the edge of the deck.

  Melanie and I had never really been close. We liked different things, and with the age gap, we’d never bonded. But I loved her fiercely and I was glad that she’d called me about this.

  “He said that he just didn’t
…love me like that…anymore. That…that we’d always be friends. And oh, I don’t know,” she gasped. “I don’t know what he was going on about. But, now, he’s taking Kennedy Mathers to homecoming this weekend.”

  “Wait, isn’t that your best friend?”

  “Yeah.” She broke down into sobs again. “Ex-best friend.”

  “Ugh, Mel, I’m so sorry. What an asshole. I can’t believe he would do that to you after all the years you’d been together. And then to take your best friend to homecoming. What are you going to do?”

  “What…do you…mean?” She hiccuped. “What can I do?”

  Sometimes, I forgot how young Melanie really was. She’d only ever had one boyfriend, and she’d never been broken up with before. I, on the other hand, knew all about breaking up and being broken up with.

  “Well, first of all, you can’t text or call him from now on.”

  “What? How can I do that?”

  “Second,” I continued on, “you have to hide him on all social media. I’d tell you to block him if I thought you could handle it.”

  “I can’t block him!”

  “Third, you should come up to New York City this weekend with Amy and visit me. Then you won’t be there during homecoming to bear witness to the bullshit he’s about to unleash on you.”

  Melanie hiccuped one more time. “You want me to come visit?”

  “Yeah, I do.” And I found that I really did. She was my sister. She was family. “I don’t want you to have to deal with Michael and Kennedy alone. I’d rather you be here.”

  “I don’t know if I can get out of dance.”

  “Claim a family emergency or something.”

  “Okay,” she said, already sounding stronger. “Okay, I’ll come. I think…that’d be a good idea. But I’ll have to convince Mom and Dad.”

  “Let me handle them. I’ve got this.”

  “Thanks, Nat. I’m glad I called.”

  “Me too.”

  I chatted with her for the next hour until she cried herself hoarse but didn’t sound like she was going to keel over. I hated that some douche could bring her down so much. Michael should be glad that I wasn’t in town. I’d go to his stupid mansion and give him a piece of my mind.

  After a quick call with my parents, I got the details confirmed for Melanie to come up to the city this weekend. Though it cost a small fortune, which I pitched in for. It was only Amy who groaned in dismay that Melanie was coming along for the ride. But Amy was like that about everything, so I didn’t take it to heart.

  The real question, the one I’d been putting off, dealt with a certain blue-eyed devil. I took a deep breath and then wandered back inside to find Penn. He was standing in the kitchen, prepping steaks for the grill tonight.

  “Medium or medium rare?” he asked me when I entered.

  “Uh, medium.”

  “Wrong answer. Medium rare is the correct choice for good-quality beef.”

  “Then why ask?”

  He glanced up at me and smiled. My heart fluttered. I carefully reined it in.

  “It was a test, not an opinion.”

  “You’re ridiculous.”

  “Guilty.”

  “So, I have a question for you. My little sister just went through a terrible breakup.”

  “That sucks.”

  “Yeah,” I said, sinking into the seat at the breakfast nook. “They’d dated forever, and he just broke up with her to take her best friend to homecoming.”

  “Low blow.”

  “Tell me about it.” I wanted to chop off his balls and feed them to him, I was so mad at him. “Anyway, I told her to come into town with Amy. I kind of want to pick them up when they get in on Friday. So…can I borrow your car?”

  Penn finished prepping the steaks and then turned to face me, leaning back against the counter. “That would be a no.”

  “Ugh, really? I don’t want to take the bus, but I don’t have a car here. It’d be so much easier.”

  “I could drive you though.”

  “That would not be necessary.”

  “Come on. That’s what friends do for each other, Natalie.”

  I gritted my teeth as he threw my own words back in my face. “It would just be there and back. It’d be boring. You wouldn’t want to come.”

  “No way. You can’t do that to your sister. You know what the best thing for a breakup is, right?”

  “Icing?” I guessed.

  Penn laughed. “Icing? What the hell?”

  “Amy’s mother has this thing that, whenever something goes bad, she cracks open a tub of icing and eats it straight from the jar. It’s a tradition now.”

  He shook his head in disbelief. “I was going to go with getting wasted in the city and having sex with a stranger.”

  “Oh my god, we are not going to take my seventeen-year-old sister out in the city, so she can hook up with someone.”

  “And here I thought you wanted her to get this guy.”

  “I want her not to think about him, not make the same mistakes I did,” I said, standing.

  “Haven’t you ever heard the phrase, The best way to get over someone is to get under someone else?”

  “Of course, but she’s my little sister. And it’s not like you would know anything about getting over a breakup!”

  He shrugged one shoulder. “You’d be surprised.”

  Well, now, I was surprised…and intrigued.

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  He shrugged. “If you say so.”

  “I do.”

  “All right. I’ll drive you on Friday then. It’s a date.”

  “It’s not,” I grumbled with the shake of my head.

  “See you for dinner.”

  “That’s not a date either,” I warned him.

  “Didn’t say it was,” he said with a wink.

  * * *

  “Oh, oh!” I cried, pointing my finger toward the two brunettes standing on the sidewalk at JFK International Airport. “That’s them.”

  Penn veered the Audi through the traffic toward where Melanie and Amy were waiting. Totle stood up on my lap with his head halfway out the window and barked at them. I laughed, holding on to him so that he wouldn’t jump out of my lap as Penn pulled up to the curb.

  I handed Totle off to Penn and then hurried out of the car. I threw my arms around Melanie first, and then Amy crashed into us. “Oh my god, I missed you so much.”

  “I missed you, too,” Melanie said, already sniffling.

  Amy shook her head and released us. “I mean, you’re all right.”

  “Shut up. You missed me.”

  “Obviously. But I do love the perks of your job.” Amy’s head swiveled to find Penn stepping out of the car and walking toward us. Her eyes rounded. “All of the perks.”

  Melanie furrowed her brows at Amy’s statement, and then she glanced over at Penn. The furrow disappeared, and her jaw dropped. “Is that…the guy you’re living with?”

  “Yes,” I said tightly. “Melanie, this is Penn. Penn, my little sister.”

  He held his hand out with a bright smile on his stupid pretty face. “Pleasure to meet you.”

  “Uh, yeah, definitely,” Melanie said.

  “And you must be Amy,” he said, moving to my best friend.

  “That’s me. The BFF. The one who knows all her secrets,” she said evenly. She might find him hot, but she was still my bestie. The one person who knew how heartbroken I really had been after Paris. And the person I’d called after our kiss last weekend.

  “Ah, so you’re the person I bribe to get her to open up?” Penn asked as he reached for her bag.

  “Good luck with that,” Amy said.

  “I can be quite persuasive.”

  “I bet you can,” Amy drawled.

  Penn just laughed, clearly entertained by Amy’s antics. He popped the trunk and deposited the suitcases in the back.

  “Don’t mind Totle,” I told them as I opened the back door.

&nb
sp; Totle stood on all fours and stared out at them with big puppy-dog eyes. Both Melanie and Amy melted into a puddle of goo in one look. Forget Penn Kensington. Totle was the real chick magnet.

  Melanie scooted in first, scooping Totle into her lap and cooing over him like he was a newborn baby. Amy followed behind her, reaching for the puppy and forgetting me entirely.

  “Attention hog,” I muttered.

  Penn looked over at me and grinned. “All set.”

  “Great. Let’s get back.”

  We dropped into the front seats. I turned down the radio and swiveled to look at my sister and best friend. Sometimes, I thought that they looked more like sisters than Mel and I did. I had white-blonde hair down to my waist and blue eyes. Melanie had shoulder-length brown hair and hazel eyes that looked green against her green dress. I preferred comfortable, bohemian styles, and she liked short, skintight attire that showed off her dancer body. She was as dark as I was light. Two sides of the same coin.

  “You’re going to love the beach house,” I told them. “It’s massive.”

  “Michael had a massive beach house,” Melanie muttered.

  “And we’re not thinking about Michael this weekend.”

  “I know. I know. You’re right.”

  “The other option,” Penn said, cutting in as her veered us back into traffic, “is that we spend tonight in the city.”

  “Penn,” I warned.

  “I’ve never been!” Melanie crowed.

  “I’m from here. So, I could show you around.”

  “We agreed we were going to go back because I have work.”

  “You don’t have work,” Penn responded.

  “Oh, come on, Nat, please,” Melanie begged. “I want to see New York.”

  “Yeah, Nat,” Amy said with a Cheshire grin on her face. “We want to see the city.”

  “You’ve been before,” I accused. But I saw the light in Melanie’s eyes that hadn’t been there a second before. And I couldn’t deny her this if she wanted it. “Fine. We’ll go to the city.”

  “Yes!” Melanie said. “I’m so excited!”

  I sank back into my seat and glanced over at Penn. “Happy?”