“Why wouldn’t you?” Fallon sounds disgusted with me, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why. If anyone should be disgusted, it should be me, seeing as I now have to explain how not to take advantage of a person you care about to someone I thought knew better.
“Nathan and I just started dating. What we are is brand spankin’ new—”
“You’ve been together for six months, Mina.”
“But it didn’t get real until recently.” I furrow my brow. “There’s no way I’m going to him with my hand out, expecting him to solve my financial problems. That’s just not how you handle relationships.”
“So now it’s a relationship.” Fallon looks like she wants to choke on the word. “Isn’t the whole thing supposed to be fake?”
Is she really calling me out on not being in a relationship when just five seconds ago, she suggested we’ve been together long enough to ask him for money?
What am I missing?
How are we miscommunicating?
“It was fake. But now it isn’t. If you’d just listen, you’d know that, especially because I haven’t gotten to the best part. I was at Nathan’s house last night. This morning too,” I finish with a grin that feels a tad forced.
“You slept with him?” Fallon leans against the window and the grim set of her jaw says she hasn’t been listening at all. She’s too busy being protective. Given what she thinks she knows about Nathan, I can understand.
Time to remedy her misconceptions.
“We had that night, Fal. You know the one. There’s talking and making love and it's intimate and sweaty and beautiful and you know, just connecting with another human being on this personal level with all the physical stuff thrown in to make it real and raw and…” I trail off because Fallon’s just standing there. Staring at me.
No…glaring at me.
“Are you done?” she barks, and I recoil.
“I am now. Why do you look like I just force fed you garbage?”
“Because you did!” Fallon’s jaw drops like I’m an idiot for asking. “For God’s sake, Mina! What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking I’d share the best night of my life with my friend, and she’d be happy for me.”
“How can I be happy when you’re being a damn fool?” Fallon closes her eyes, exhaling slowly, then softens her tone. “We talked about this. Nathan is using you.”
She emphasizes the last sentence, speaking deliberately, enunciating every messed-up syllable.
Now I’m genuinely annoyed. She’s obviously not heard anything I’ve said lately.
“We did talk about this.” I enunciate even harder than she did. “And I informed you that you’re wrong about him.”
“Yet you still can’t talk about money. Or your mom. Or any of the things that matter. Did you tell him about me? That we’re friends?” She holds out her hands, like she’s begging me to see her point, but all I see is someone who’s too proud to admit she might have been wrong.
“I’m sorry but you weren’t exactly top of mind last night. We were at an event—”
“Ohhhh, an event. How very bougie of you. Can you hear yourself right now?”
“Would it be different if he’d taken me to a dive bar and fucked me in the back of a pickup? Would you be happy for me then? Because Nathan’s rich, that makes all this bad?”
“What makes this bad is who he is and who you are. You guys don’t live in the same world. People like him? They see opportunities and they take them. They don’t worry who gets hurt. Or who they use. Or if what they’re doing is right or wrong. That’s how they get ahead. It’s why they’re rich and the rest of us struggle.”
“Funny. His creepy friend said people like me see people like him as opportunities. That all I saw when I looked at him was a dollar sign. Maybe it says more about you and Dom than me and Nathan.”
Fallon takes my shoulders and the intensity in her eyes begs me to see her point. “I make a living following the lives of people like this. I know them better than you. You need to slow down because Nathan West will chew you up and spit you out.”
“I’m good, Fallon. Better than good. I’ve never felt anything like this before and I know you think he’s faking it to use me for some diabolical plot, but you’re wrong. He’s not a villain.”
“Then what is he?”
“He makes me feel safe to be who I really am.” I flash to last night, curled up in his lap on his couch. “And I think he feels safe with me too.”
“Funny thing about con men. They’re pretty good at making you think and feel exactly what they want you to. Facts, Mina. Not feelings. If Nathan West isn’t a villain, what is he?”
“He’s none of your damn business, that’s what.” I unfurl the throw from around my shoulders, fold it carefully and drape it over the back of the couch. “I don’t know if you’re upset because you were wrong about him and will have to stop telling everyone he’s a bad guy or—”
Fallon gasps. “You don’t have to get mean just because you don’t like when I’m right.”
Getting mean? That wasn’t mean. That was me, telling her what I’m thinking, just like she’s been telling me. So, she’s allowed to speak without a filter, but I’m not?
Has our friendship always been this off balance?
Dear God. Feeling a little blindsided right about now. Clarity would be a blessing. Yours forever, Mina Blake.
“You know what.” I hold up my hands in defeat. “I’m gonna go.”
“Mina…”
“We’re not getting anywhere, and I don’t want to go round and round with you. Thank you for looking out for me, but stop, Fallon. Just stop.”
I leave, but don’t want to go home. There’s only one place I want to be, one person I want to be with. I make the drive to Nathan’s house with Fallon’s arguments circling my head. Does she really think now is the time to ask him for favors? I can’t wrap my mind around that. Sure, I haven’t told him she’s my friend yet. I keep meaning to, but the time is never right. And now we’ve come so far, and he hates her so much, I can’t imagine his reaction when I finally do tell him.
Scratch that. I can totally imagine his reaction.
It won’t be pretty.
I haven’t intentionally kept it a secret, and last night was not the time to drop that bomb.
But maybe now is.
And I can tell him everything she said about him, about us, and he can assure me she’s wrong and all will feel right with the world again.
I park in the driveway, then knock on the door, tapping my fingers against my thigh as I wait.
And then Nathan appears in the doorway, looking just as happy to see me as I am to see him, and I take my first full breath since leaving Fallon’s apartment.
“I was just thinking of you.” He draws a knuckle across my cheekbone, and I shiver in delight.
“I’m just now realizing I probably should have called or something. I was out and wanted to see you and here I am.”
