Page 82 of Yellow
CHAPTER 13
New Year’s Eve
Adam
From the time we picked up Faith and Logan at the airport to when we saw them again three days later, my patience with Chloe was almost up. We did a lot of good energy work and she had come to enjoy meditation, but we also kept butting heads during the day – and yet, every night she wanted to sleep next to me.
I hated it and I loved it.
Chloe smelled amazing, and I wanted badly to know how it would be feel to bury myself inside her.
But the woman was also a pain in the butt with her constant need for drama and admiration. It was annoying how she was fishing for compliments by dressing up and looking like she was going to a photo shoot every day.
I had always been into natural beauty and a grounded personality. Chloe was still not grounded, although she had come a long way. And she covered her natural beauty with layers of unnecessary make-up.
Tonight was worse than ever. She had gone to a beauty salon and come back after hours of getting her nails done and her eyelashes extended.
I hadn’t complimented her, which was probably the reason she gave me the stink-eye more than once. Why my opinion would even matter, I had no idea. My only guess was that she was so used to every man complimenting her that she had come to depend upon it to feel good about herself.
When the long black limousine pulled up, Faith, Logan, and his two brothers were waiting on the sidewalk.
Logan opened the door to the car and Chloe, who had been quiet and serious on the ride from her apartment, suddenly broke into a huge smile and got out to greet the party. I followed and watched Chloe hug Faith and Logan with laughter and greetings, looking like a woman on top of the world. And then she turned to Logan’s brothers, each one looking more star-struck than the other.
Their open admiration was like sunlight to Chloe and she instantly became Cleo, with graceful movements and a wide Hollywood smile.
“Which one of you is Andrew?” Chloe asked.
“Ah am,” the tallest of them said, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat.
“Good to meet you.” Chloe reached out to shake his hand. “We already spoke on the phone.”
“Aye,” he said and seemed a little lost for words.
Chloe saved him by introducing me as her spiritual advisor and then turning her attention to the other brother. “And then you must be Derek?”
“Uh-huh.” He nodded eagerly and blurted out, “And ye’re the most beautiful woman on this planet.”
Chloe leaned her head back and laughed in a sweet melodic way that made me tilt my head in fascination. It was like she was portraying someone else. Someone balanced, mild, grounded, and wonderfully sophisticated. This was not the Chloe I knew. The real Chloe was dramatic, argumentative, insecure, and sometimes sweet and caring too.
“Thank ye for inviting us. We’ve told all of our friends at home.”
“That’s sweet. Were they happy for you?”
“Och, they didnae believe us.”
“Really?” Chloe raised a brow. “Then how about you give them some proof?” She moved to stand between Logan’s brothers. “Give Logan your phone and have him take a picture of us together.”
Derek and Andrew both fished out their phones eagerly and handed them over to Logan.
“I want you to get the driver and the limo in the background,” Chloe instructed. “And Faith, come here, you should be in the picture too.”
“No, that’s all right,” Faith declined with a smile.
“No, you have to or some of their friends might think that these pictures are of you and not me.”
Faith moved into the frame and placed her arm around Derek’s waist, smiling for the camera.
The pictures were inspected and approved by Chloe and then we got into the limousine, where Derek and Andrew both started texting away on their phones.
