Page 55 of When You're Home
Tori ripped open the door of the sunroom, stumbling back slightly from the momentum as it swung out. She felt a hand find the small of her back and steady her in place. She whipped her head around, ready to tell Rhett off again, only to find Jake looking down at her instead.
“Cool it, baby. It’s just me.” He assessed her up and down. His hand was splayed across her bare back. It was then that she remembered she wasn’t wearing anything except a bathing suit. She pushed off Jake’s body and stalked over to the storage cabinet in search of a robe.
“Alright, Chandler, you ready for round two of Jake School?”
What the hell…Jake was supposed to beherfriend. Why was he paying so much attention to Chandler? Tori hadn’t realized she’d have to compete for everyone’s attention tonight. Rhett, yes. He had proven to be spineless all day. She knew his angle before she even crossed over that fence. He was still playing pretend, trying to make everyone believe he had things under control, acting like he was in a committed relationship with Chandler. But Tori was surprised by Jake’s abandonment.
“Tori, come sit with me,” Cory called from across the room. She sulked over to the couch and plopped down next to him, leaning her body against his and closing her eyes. She opened them quickly when she felt someone sit down on the other side of her, but exhaled in relief when she saw it was just Lia.
“You’re in rare form tonight, Tor.” Lia laughed as she reached over to adjust Tori’s robe. She closed it around her front then pulled the sash tighter. “What made you decide to come over here after all?” Her tone wasn’t accusatory, just curious.
Tori huffed out another sigh. Why had she come over here? She was drunk and tired and cranky. She was having a hard time remembering why she had left her bed in the first place.
“Honestly? I think I needed to see it for myself,” she admitted, nodding her head toward Chandler and Jake behind the bar. As if on cue, Chandler let out a shrill laugh, wrapping her manicured hand around Jake’s bare bicep in response to something he said. Tori winced.
No one said anything, so she took it upon herself to keep talking.
“I mean, I’ve seen pictures of her, and he talks about her, but this is the first time I’ve met her in person. For the first time in three years, Easton Barbie actually seems real.”
“Why do you care so much?” Cory asked.
Tori considered his question and contemplated how much she wanted to share. She felt far less filtered than normal as the warmth of the Jameson continued to spread through her limbs. She probably had another five or ten minutes before she would succumb to the haze of her indulgence. It was now or never.
“Rhett and I have been… together-ish… for the last three years,” she whispered, her eyes fixed on Chandler as she spoke. Cory gasped. Lia stayed silent.
“That’s why he comes home so often. That’s why he picks up shifts at Clinton’s. Even though Easton is four hours away. And he has a sizable trust fund. He doesn’t need the shifts. He doesn’t need the money. He comes home to be with me.”
She felt Cory sit up straighter, but he stayed quiet, so she continued.
“We were together this weekend. In Michigan,” she clarified. “Rhett asked me to be with him for real, and he said he was going to break up with Chandler.”
Understanding passed through Lia’s eyes.
“Then what is she doing here?!” Cory exclaimed. He put his own hands to his mouth when he realized how loud he had been. Thankfully Jake had turned up the sound system so loud that the windows behind them were vibrating to the bass. There was no way their voices could carry all the way across the room over the Machine Gun Kelly song blasting through the speakers.
“My question exactly,” Tori retorted. She felt like she could use another drink, but she wasn’t about to approach the bar with Chandler behind it. Instead, she slumped back into the couch between her friends. “I believed him when he said he wanted to be with me and only me. But when we got to Clinton’s this afternoon, Chandler was there. Rhett admitted to talking to her this morning without telling me.”
Cory sighed dramatically. “You know Rhett could have anyone he wanted. If he wants you…”
“He clearly doesn’t know what he wants.”
“Tori,” Lia scolded from the other side, “I saw you both when you walked into Clinton’s this afternoon. Rhett definitely wasn’t expecting things to happen the way they did. He was really upset with Jake.”
“So? What is that even supposed to mean? Of course he was upset. He was in the process of getting caught.”
“Oh, come on, we both know…”
“Please don’t try to defend him, Lia. You don’t know what’s going through his head.”
“And you do?”
She had her there. Tori quieted, glancing around to make sure their conversation was still private. “I thought I did,” she admitted.
“Who are you really mad at right now?” Leave it to Lia to hit the nail on the head. Tori let her silence serve as her answer.
“That’s what I thought. You and Rhett need to talk. Really talk. Sober talk.”
She rolled her eyes at her best friend’s scolding.
