by Emma Hart
Dom clapped his hands. “The fucking expenses, Chlo! I need them.”
There was a crackle that sounded like her sighing. “Nope. I’ll come by Peyton’s tomorrow on my way into the office and get them. It’s not like you can get in there without me, anyway.”
Elliott covered his mouth with his hand.
“Fine. Then, I’m not leaving here unless I have the expenses,” Dom said.
What? No. No, fuck off. That was not how this shit worked, Dominic.
“Excuse me?” I blinked at him several times. “You’re leaving.”
“Not without my expenses.”
“Dominic, you’re thirty. Stop being childish,” Chloe chided him through the phone. “Leave her alone. She’s busy.”
“She already got laid. She’s fine.”
I got up and grabbed my water. “Someone bring me my phone when y’all are done. I’m fed up of this already.” I threw a wave over my shoulder and headed upstairs.
“Put on some pants!” Dom shouted after me.
“Get some responsibility!” I yelled back when I reached the top of my stairs. I went to my room and slammed the door behind me.
Goddamn it. Not only was Dom all in my business, now, I knew I’d have a million questions.
About something I wasn’t entirely sure if I cared about anymore.
I knew it was possible to have sex with someone three times and not fall in love with them.
I just didn’t know if I could do that with Elliott—not without taking a huge risk.
My door opened, and Elliott slipped inside. “Hey,” he said, shutting it behind him. “Are you okay?”
“He’s like herpes,” I replied. “And crabs. And chicken pox, all put together in one frustrating illness.”
“That sounds like it might kill someone.” He laughed lightly and sat on the bed next to me. “I tried to convince him to leave.”
“I take it that didn’t go well.”
Elliott shook his head, sighed, and leaned back. He propped himself up on his elbows, and I shifted to look at him. “In fact, I think I made it worse.”
“Oh, God,” I moaned, leaning back against the headrest of the bed. “What did you do?”
“I told him it’d taken me two orgasms to get you out of a bad mood, and I didn’t appreciate him putting you back in that shitty one.”
“That doesn’t seem so bad.”
“Then, he asked me why I cared so much, and I asked him why he was hell-bent on pissing off the women in his life.”
“So, the reunion went well,” I said sarcastically.
He shrugged a shoulder. “He’s the reason all this is happening. I don’t need him to like me.”
“Nobody needs my brother to like them. It’s more of a headache than it’s worth.” I pushed my hair behind my ear. “Are you going home?”
“Why would I go home? Did you hear Chloe on the phone? If Dom is staying, I’m going to be here when shit goes down.”
I stared at him. He looked like an excited kid the way his eyes sparkled at the prospect.
I held up my hands. “Fine, but I’m not going anywhere near him. And for the love of God, please bring me my keys.”
Elliott got up and stopped at the door. “What’s with the key thing?”
“He loses everything. He’s lost so many keys to his side of the office that Chloe has to have the locks changed.”
“For one key?”
“No. At least four in the last year.”
“How does anyone lose that many keys?”
I shrugged. “Ask him. We haven’t figured it out yet.”
***
The shrill ring of my phone broke through the semi-conscious, sleepy haze I was in where I was neither awake or asleep.
Reaching my arm out toward the nightstand, I felt around for it, groaning when I knocked it off onto the floor. My head was heavy, and my eyes were still sticky with sleep, but I managed to retrieve the phone from next to the bed and answer it.
“Hello?” I groaned.
“Peyton?” Chloe’s voice sounded in my ear.
“Why are you calling me so early?”
“It’s seven-thirty. Hardly early. You need to let me in, so I can get the expenses and remove the wart from your living room.”
That was music to my half-asleep ears.
“Give me a minute.” I hung up, yawned, and forced myself to sit up.
At least, I tried to.
There was something around my waist. Something that, when I looked, I discovered to be a tanned, muscled arm. Following the arm, my gaze led me to the face of Elliott Sloane.
Right. I forgot he was still here.
I dumped his arm off me—if I was awake, he could be awake, too—and got out of bed. I quickly got dressed and, retrieving my keys from the floor, went down to let Chloe in.
“You look like crap,” she said, strolling past me into the hall.
“Good morning, sunshine,” I replied, pushing the door shut behind her and following her into the room.
Right at that moment, Dom walked into the kitchen, waist wrapped in a bright purple towel. Chloe stopped dead, blushing.
“What are you doing?” I demanded. “Why are you here? Why are you using my shower?”
He pulled a mug from the cupboard and grabbed a coffee pod. “I’m making a coffee. I’m here for expenses. And I needed a shower. By the way, you need a more comfortable sofa for your guests to sleep on.”
“I have a two-bedroom house where one is an office for a reason. I don’t want guests. Especially not if you’re it.” I snatched the mug from him and made the coffee for myself.
“Dom.” Chloe sighed, putting her purse on the table. “You’re thirty this year. Do you have to be such an insufferable fuckhead all the time?”
“I have taxes to do,” he replied. “Which I can’t do without expenses.”
“You lose everything like a five-year-old. No, a five-year-old is more responsible than you are,” she shot back without missing a beat. “You lose your keys, your phone is misplaced twice a day, and you lost my coffee mug because you used it when yours went missing… In Peyton’s office.”
“I didn’t lose your mug.” He gripped the towel, refusing to look at her.
“Well, I didn’t lose it. Or your phone. Or your keys.”
Elliott slipped in next to me. “Did I miss it?”
“Shh,” I said, reaching behind me for the latte I’d just made.
He nodded, leaning back against the counter next to me and folding his arms as we watched them fight.
“I don’t lose my phone. I just forget where I put it sometimes.” Dom clutched tighter at his towel. “I wouldn’t lose the expenses.”
“Where have I heard that before?” She folded one arm over her chest and tapped a finger against her lips. “Oh, yeah, the last two times I handed you new office keys. Which, by the way, I found your keyring in my car this morning. So, not only are you too incompetent to keep hold of them, you lose them in different places.”
“You found my keyring? Are you finding my keys and withholding them?”
“No. I don’t want to be your babysitter in and out of the building you live in, you turd. I want you to grow a pair and not lose your keys every ten seconds!”
“Then, cut me a new key.”
“So you can lose it again?”
“You won’t be my babysitter anymore, Chlo.”
“No.” She jabbed her finger at him. “Until you can keep the key to your apartment for one whole month without losing it, you do not have the office key.”
Dom let go of the towel, only to have to snatch it back when it almost fell down.
Elliott took my cup of coffee and finished it. Usually, that was a mortal sin that came with a sentence of certain death, but the domestic between my best friend and brother was way more entertaining.
“You can’t lock me out of my office!” Dom shouted.
“I don’t need to! You lock yourself out when you lose yo
ur keys!”
We were this close to a screaming match.
“Should we leave?” Elliott leaned in to mutter.
I shook my head. “I have a feeling we haven’t hit the jackpot yet.”
Dom adjusted the towel once more. Put some freaking pants on, bro. “I don’t know how I work with you.”
Fury lit up Chloe’s eyes. “I don’t know how I work with you! You’re disorganized and intolerable. Not to mention you haven’t grasped that there’s only one thing you’re supposed to lose and never find again: your virginity!”
Chapter Fifteen – Peyton
There was more than one way to get burned.
Fire. Ice. Sunshine.
Women before coffee.
I sucked in a breath.
“Burn,” Elliott whispered to me.
Dom stared at her for a minute before turning and storming off without a word. Chloe glared after him until Elliott cleared his throat.
“Do you want a coffee?” he offered.
Chloe jerked around, as if she’d forgotten where she was. “Oh, um, thanks, but I should probably grab those expenses and leave. And lock him out.”
I snorted. “You know where they are in my office.”
She smiled, cheeks flushed, and ducked her head as she ran to my stairs.
“Is it just me,” Elliott started when I turned to put my cup under the coffee machine again, “Or is there something between them?”
I nodded, changing out the pod. “For years. I’m waiting for the moment it finally implodes.”
“And another thing!” Dom yelled, storming into the front room.
Plus pants.
Thank God.
“She’s upstairs,” I said, pushing the button.
“Shit,” he muttered. “That was a good comeback, too.”
“You know the only comeback you should give her? Kiss her,” I told him, turning around. “Y’all’s foreplay is longer than a teenage virgin’s.”
“I don’t have a thing for her,” he lied, his face expressionless. “She drives me crazy.”
“You have a thing for her,” Elliott said.
Dom raised his eyebrows. “Like you have a thing for my sister?”
Elliott shrugged. “I’m sleeping with her, aren’t I?”
“You have a thing for me?” I said, looking at him.
“I didn’t wake up with a boner over French toast, Peyton.”
Well. There it was. The confirmation my brother needed to grill my ass all day long.
I was going to kill Elliott.
“Got it,” Chloe said, walking back into the room. “Thanks.”
Dom glared at her.
“Don’t look at me like that,” she said. “I’m not going to change my mind.”
“Fine. File your own taxes,” he shot back. “You’ve never done that in your life.”
“Who do you think did my taxes before we went into business together? Which, by the way, second biggest mistake of my life!” Chloe clutched the folder to her chest.
“What’s the first?” Elliott whispered.
I shrugged. “Maybe dating Rory Wilson in eighth grade?”
“Your dad did your taxes!” Dom replied. “And by God, if you think this is the second biggest mistake of your life and feel anything like I do about it, then your first one must be one hell of a fuck-up!”
Chloe stared at him, unmoving. Was she even breathing? Her silence was chilling, and Elliott actually took a step closer to me.
“Oh, it is,” she said, her cold tone slicing through the air. “It was when I had a crush on you. Once upon a time.”
On that, she left.
My brother stared after her, dumbfounded, unable to move.
I stared at the door.
Had I just watched my best friend’s heart break?
“Well,” Elliott said, breaking the silence. “That was a plot twist.”
Maybe if you weren’t privy to the fact she was helplessly in love with him, and that was why she got so mad at him. I didn’t get it, but it was how she coped with keeping those feelings cooped up inside.
“She used to have a crush on me?” Dom asked, turning his head to look at me. “Did you know that?”
“Of course!” I snapped, pushing off the counter. “You just have the eyesight of a bat and the understanding of a saber-tooth tiger.”
“The tigers are dead.”
“Exactly!” I walked over to him and smacked his arm. “Jesus, Dom. How do you two not kill each other?”
“Skill and a weekly agreement over who buys breakfast. If I kill her, she won’t bring me anything to eat.”
I shook my head. “If I were you, don’t go to work today. Shit, I can’t believe I’m saying this—stay here. I have to go and check on her, so stay here, and I’ll bring your computer back here.”
“Does that mean you’ll give me a key?”
I pursed my lips. “The only key you need is the one to access a florist website to buy Chloe some flowers. And me, while you’re at it.”
“You? Why do you need flowers?”
“You hurt my friend, and you pissed me off by breaking in.”
“I didn’t break in.”
“Dominic Nathaniel Austin,” I snapped.
Good Lord, I sounded like my mother.
“Is Mom here? Is she stuffed in a closet somewhere?” he asked.
I turned around, ready to punch him again. Unfortunately, Elliott darted between us and held me back, but that didn’t stop me yelling at him. “None of this would have happened if you weren’t such a fucking tool last night!” I swung my arm to point at him and almost hit Elliott.
He let me go with a murmured apology to my brother.
Dom’s eyes widened.
“You are thirty in two months! Thirty!” More finger jabbing in his direction. “You are a hot mess of a man who can’t be trusted with the expenses of his own business, and instead of accepting your shortcomings, you refused to leave when I wouldn’t give you the documents. This entire situation is because of your stubborn, pig-headedness, and no. Don’t you dare open your mouth to argue with me.”
He closed it.
Maybe he had more brains than I thought.
“You know it’s true. You acted like a fucking child who couldn’t find the cookie jar, and congratulations, you got into yet another screaming fight with Chloe. Except this time, you hurt her. Which means you hurt me, because I’m the one who has to go and see her cry out yet another frustration over your stupidly obstinate ways!”
For the first time in my life, I saw him look ashamed.
“She is worth ten of you on her worst day, Dom, and you’re not even a bad person. You’re a disaster sometimes, but you’re my brother, and I love you. And that’s why I’m telling you this. You need a reality check. I just had one, so it’s time you did, too.”
“Someone gave you a reality check?” He raised his eyebrows. “Did they chain you to a wall?”
Before I had the chance to say a word, Elliott stepped in front of me. He pushed me behind him, closing down any chance of me arguing back at him.
“No. She decided that high school was ten years ago, and she wasn’t a fucktard teen anymore.” His voice was so low with a cold edge that I bristled. “She listened, and she thought, and she was big enough to accept what she did wrong. You should try it, Dom. You might find yourself enlightened.”
Dom stepped to the side and met my eyes. “Does he speak for you, now? Did you decide to fall in love instead of just screwing him?”
I shoved Elliott to the side and stared at my brother. “I’m going to get changed. If I see you here on my way out, I’m going to drag you out by your measly penis.”
“Terrified.”
“And then I’ll call Mimi.” That was my parting shot as I headed up the stairs to my room to get changed.
Something—someone—was under my brother’s skin, but that didn’t mean I’d take his asshole ways.
He acted more like a tee
nager than he did when he was a teen.
***
Luckily for Dom, he hadn’t been anywhere to be found when I left. Neither had Elliott, but I wasn’t surprised by that. He’d come up to tell me his mom had a lunchtime appointment at the salon, so he had to get back for Briony, and I agreed to call him when I was done with Chloe.
I hoped he didn’t expect me anytime soon. I couldn’t find her, even though the main door was open. The door that leads to the stairs to Dom’s apartment was locked, so I tried the Stupid Cupid office.
Open.
“Chlo?” I gently called, walking into their spacious office. Given that there were two of them, I’d happily given up the bigger space, and they had a pull-out wall installed between their desks.
Both were empty, and so was the bathroom that was connected to Dom’s side of the room.
I tried my office.
Unlocked.
Only two other people had the key to my office.
Mellie.
And Chloe.
I slowly opened the door. She was sitting on my sofa, legs curled beneath her. The expenses folder was on the armchair with her purse, and she cradled a coffee mug as if it grounded her.
“Chlo,” I repeated, this time much softer than before.
She looked up, her thick, mascara-coated lashes peering at me through a thin curtain of her blond hair. “I quit,” she said quietly. “I’m going to work with you instead.”
Despite her sadness, I laughed. “No, you’re not. You couldn’t take all the cocks.”
“Words every pornstar heard,” she muttered.
“Hey, if you wanna be the next Lisa Ann, I’m all about that life.” I sat on the sofa next to her and stroked her hair. “He’s a dick.”
“I don’t care,” she said nonchalantly.
“Yes, you do. Otherwise, you’d have stabbed him in the crotch and told the cops that he deserved it.”
She sniffed, looking at the mug I now realized was empty.
I took it from her.
“Chlo…Why do you do this to yourself? He’s an immature prick. He’s not good enough for you.”
She looked up at me. “How can you say that? He’s your brother.”
“Because blood doesn’t trump character. He’s a dick. He needs a slap upside the head with a shovel. You’re my best friend, and I’m telling you right now, unless he does a one-eighty to apologize, I want to drag you away until you get over him.”
