Page 47 of The Cinderella Prince

A Time of Healing

Roman

I didn’t speakto anyone as I passed through the living room. Ever since Tristan picked up and left, the guys looked at me as if I had any answers. I didn’t want to get involved. Screw this shit. Madison got the message and stopped looking. Lane frowned whenever I was around, as though on the verge of asking me a question, but he knew better. Oakley was clueless; he could not read the room. So he peppered me with his curiosity like he dissected a frog in biology.

I didn’t want to talk about it. And I didn’t want to meddle when Lane growled at Oakley and Oakley snapped at Lane. I let them work it out however they wanted and skipped over the awkward questions about what the hell had happened to Tristan.

I don’t know, I muttered after Oakley had first asked, and the same three words roamed through my head whenever I was here.

Anger remained at a low simmer, never fully going away but never reaching the boiling temperature. Still, the steam filled the pot, and it had to go somewhere.

The night was warm when I stepped out of the building and crossed the street. Entering Neon Nights, I spotted Mama Viv. She had this unbearable and frustrating new habit of looking at me as if we shared something nobody else did. We did not. It was just the randomness of the universe. We got hurt by a hurting guy.Screw him for taking it out on us. Screw everyone.“Gimme a shot of vodka,” I told Bradley.

The fucker had the nerve to cock an eyebrow at me.

“What? Am I supposed to serve myself on the one night I’m off?” The growl warned him that I wasn’t kidding. And at my bristling, Mama Viv lifted herself out of the chair and carried the books to the back of the bar, slipping through the door and retreating to her apartment.

“Dude,” Bradley said.

“Don’t,” I said tightly. “Just…don’t.”

But if Bradley could keep his mouth shut, Luke Whittaker couldn’t. He entered with Rafael and spotted me. “Hey, Rome,” he greeted, making his way straight to me.

Will everyone just leave me the fuck alone?I wanted to plea for some peace.

“Any news?” Luke asked just as Bradley moved his hand over his throat hastily, signaling to Luke to stop.

“No.” My answer arrived at the same time my vodka did. I emptied the glass and sent it back to Bradley. “Another.”

“Easy, cowboy,” Bradley said as Rafael put an armprotectively around Luke as if I were a threat. The two retreated to the nearest table and sat down.

I glared at Bradley. “I need to get drunk, dicked, or rested. And since I can’t sleep and nobody’s dicking me, give me another.”

Bradley rolled his eyes and kept his opinions to himself. He poured me another shot, took cash, and let me sit in silence. I turned my head around and checked out the crowd at the bar. Not a big one, I saw, but enough to notice a few new faces. There was a DJ on the stage, warming up for the night, and a few people caught the rhythm with their bopping heads.

Rafael and Luke were engaged in a heated debate. Rafael was winning. Batman was, apparently, the superior hero, no matter how you cut it.

I looked the other way and spotted a face that wasn’t so unfamiliar.

He was tall and broad, and he wore a hoodie with the hood halfway over his head. Not exactly party attire. The baggy cargo pants with many pockets that he wore were faded black. He stood along the long, high table against the front window, leaning his back against it and resting his right elbow on it. I had seen him at parties before. There was no forgetting that hoodie. Or the wary look on that handsome face.

I picked up my vodka and carried it over. The rest of the long counter against the window was unoccupied. “Can I join the brooding table?” I asked.

“I’d rather if you didn’t,” the guy said.

I sucked my teeth. “Sharp. Straight to the gut.”

“Not interested,” he said.

I shook my right hand in the air as if I’d just touched glowing coals. “You don’t know what I’m proposing.”

The handsome stranger snorted and shook his head. His gaze avoided me fully. He scanned the room.

I inhaled a deep breath of air. I wasn’t one to surrender. Especially not when someone disregarded me so easily. “You don’t look like you’re here for fun.”

The stranger exhaled and turned to me. His eyes were green like summer grass in Central Park, and his jawline was so defined that he looked like a chiseled statue.I might get dicked after all, I thought. It would be extra fun if he stayed angry throughout. “Pardon me, but you don’t exactly bring fun with you.”

“You haven’t seen me naked,” I told him, my mouth forming a pout against my will.

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