Page 85 of Double Apex

I remember Klaus is still standing there. He raises one eyebrow and pulls my chair out, gesturing for me to sit. I can’t tell if he’s being courteous or bossy—the wine is making me paranoid, and I’m afraid I’m in trouble for something, though I haven’t even talked to Cosmin all night. I lower myself unsteadily to my chair.

Klaus unbuttons his jacket and sits, stretching his legs out. “Aside from in meetings, you seem to be avoiding me since your return.”

“Yeah, maybe.” I look into my lap, running a finger along a tuck in the silky fabric stretched over my legs. “I guess I have a bone to pick with you, Klausy.” My father’s nickname for him spills out, possibly surprising us both. “Your ‘will they or won’t they’ flirtation with my best friend—jerking Nat around for months—it not only hurther, but it put me in an uncomfortable position. Whether you two had cooked up a romance or not, it meant I’d have to pick sides at some point, with two of the most important people in my life.”

His tone is cryptically smooth. “It wasn’t about you. And I was unaware it was subject to your blessing.”

“Wow.” Little nettles of frustration and embarrassment sting in my chest. “Okay, perfect. Thanks—good talk.”

Two unexpected tears fall to my lap. I watch the patternwith mathematical fascination as they bloom on the blue fabric.

Klaus sighs. He reaches for the front legs of my chair, just below my thighs, and pulls me closer, then tips my chin up with one finger. “Forgive me, Schatzi. I seem to be making every conceivable mistake, both with Talia and with you.”

It doesn’t escape my notice that he has a nickname for Natalia. A tiny smile flickers across my lips and fades.Yeah, I called it—they’re not done.

“The thing with Nat isn’t the biggest reason I’m mad at you though.” My throat tightens with awful emotion. “Why didn’t you come to the sea burial?” I demand in a rasp. “I needed you! I had toput him in the water, Klaus. In… the… fucking…ocean!”

He reaches for me and I do a wussy two-handed punch to push him away, but he ignores my flailing and pulls me to my feet, wrapping me in his arms. My body sags into him.

“You’re a coward!” I accuse, voice muffled against his jacket. “You weren’t there for meorfor Mo, probably because you were afraid to see Natalia after treating her like shit.” I pull back, glaring. “And you said the thing with you and Nat ‘wasn’t about me’? Well guess what, dipshit? My dad’s burialwasn’t about you! Maybe you could’ve—”

My words strangle off and I hide my face again, rubbing my cheek against Klaus’s suit and not giving a shit that I’m staining it with mascara.

“You’re not wrong—it was cowardly.” His arms tighten.“I’ll never forgive myself for failing you. I knew I would cry, and I was afraid for you and Talia to see me like that.”

Suddenly Cosmin is beside us, and the balm of his voice, that accent, is something I’ve been longing to hear, though he sounds angry.

“Why is she upset?” he demands of Klaus. “What did you say?”

I pull back and meet Cosmin’s eye. I know I look disgusting—my makeup’s ruined—but according to his expression, I might as well be a desert oasis spring spewing out Dom Pérignon and Bitcoin. Jesus Christ, if he really wanted to see me this badly, why has he been ignoring me all evening while he flirts with some fake-titted penguin?

“I’m just having a rough night,” I tell him. Sniffling, I survey him up and down. My gaze settles on his green pocket square. “Nice outfit. You look like a leprechaun’s pallbearer.”

Welp, I’m nothing if not consistent.Backhanded compliments: just add booze!

One corner of his scrumptious lips tugs upward. “Multumesc,” he says to me, and I’m sort of pleased with myself that I understand his “thank you,” simple as it is.

I grind a knuckle into one eye, and it comes away smudged black. “I need to sleep. I’m turning into a pumpkin on so many levels.”

Cosmin steps close, whipping out the pocket square and cradling the back of my head as he swipes under my eye. “No, the dress is quite flattering,” he assures me.

Oh God.He doesn’t get the pumpkin reference and thinks I’m saying I’m fat, and everything about this moment makes me simultaneously want to throw myself into his embrace and scuttle away like he’s plutonium.

Cosmin—damn him, why does he have to be so adorable?

I push his hands away, slow, like we’re underwater. “I’m gonna get a cab.”

“I’ll walk you out,” he insists.

I slide a look over at Klaus. “See you tomorrow.” I tilt a tired-but-sassy smirk at him. “Unless I fire you first.Asshole.”

He mirrors my smile and does the gesture I’ve been waiting for—your head is above your heart—before giving a pleasingly deferential little bow and excusing himself.

When Cosmin walks me out to wait for a car, we don’t even talk. His arm is loosely around my shoulders, and the smell of him is driving me crazy. There’s a pulse between my legs making me want to climb him like a Wichita lineman shimmying up a telephone pole.

We reach the edge of the curb and stand quietly. Cosmin adjusts the white faux-fur jacket Natalia lent me, popping the collar to keep my neck warm, though it’s not really cold. The thrill of his fingers grazing my neck makes me almost whimper.

Please don’t kiss me good night, please don’t kiss me good night.

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