Page 47 of Deception
“Becauseyoulove Chinese food,” she says and takes a slice to put on her plate. “You’re not a big fan of pizza, which I neverquite understood. I think you might low-key be a serial killer. Anyway, she adjusted. For you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean, Alexis?”
“Well,Rocco,” she says with a glare, “it means that Autumn loves you enough to change and accommodate you.”
Tapping his fingers on the table, he clenches his jaw as he speaks through his teeth. “Marriage?”
“She’s talked about her wedding since we were in the second grade. You will never get married, and she… adjusted. For you. She loves you enough to give up things, but you’ve never quite met her on that same level.”
“You think I should propose and sacrifice my own freedom just to make her happy?”
This dinner was nothing but a gigantic mistake. Lex will never stop being the world’s biggest bitch.
“Why is it sacrificing your freedom?” Colt asks and takes a bite of the slice he takes from the top box. “Is that why you were out fucking bunnies?”
Calm down, Rocco. Freaking out will get no one anywhere right now.
“Autumn and I had a few problems, and I found what she stopped offering elsewhere. Kind of like you and Diane, but I regret it. The moment I saw her face when she walked in on us, I regretted it.”
“I never fucked Diane,” Colt growls.
“I thought you just had a problem with strippers,” Lex says and picks a pepperoni from the cheese of her slice. “Stripper glitter and all that.”
Licking his lips, Rocco nods and grabs food from the smaller box he ordered for himself. He doesn’t like pizza sauce, so the only acceptable option is chicken Alfredo. “Yeah, I guess I’m not one to be tied down.”
“Then why don’t you let her go?” Colt asks. “She wants something you can’t give her, and she obviously isn’t giving you what you want to stay faithful to her. Why not just go your separate ways and find what makes you truly happy?”
“Because I love her!”
“Not enough to keep it in your pants,” Lex mumbles.
He slams his fist on the table. “Or maybe if you weren’t such a bitch, Autumn would be more willing to be your friend again.”
“Yeah, maybe,” she says with another shrug and picks another pepperoni from her pizza.
“Watch your mouth,” Colt warns.
The way he glares makes Rocco a little happy that a table sits between them. It won’t keep him silent, but at least he’s not within arm’s length to take a hit.
“I’m just saying that there might be more of an incentive to repair the friendship if Lex wasn’t—”
“I swear to God, I will break your fucking jaw if you call her a bitch again,” Colt cuts him off. “You think she’s a bitch? Because she can be. She can ruin your entire relationship with just one word.”
He laughs and looks at Lex. “Yeah? And what would that be?”
“Vicky.”
His face pales. “That’s not funny.”
“If you read what she wrote about you, you might think differently,” Lex says and chuckles. “Actually, you probably wouldn’t.”
“What she wrote?”
“Ky’s not the only one she outed in her diaries.”
Rocco hasn’t thought about Vicky in years. And he didn’t think anyone would ever know he slept with her in high school. After she died, he thought the secret died with her.
“She lied—”
