Page 84 of Heartstruck at Dawn
“Yes, I was. Mr. Chapman called in a favor and got us a couple of boxed seats,” he replied, grabbing the shampoo bottle. “How do you know I was taking you?”
“William told me. He found out about it, somehow. I’m sure Tobias told him. He’s proven to be a snitch in the past,” I said with a sad laugh.
“It doesn’t matter now. We’re not going. I’m returning the tickets. I’m sure someone else at the office would love to attend.” His tone was getting serious again. He stepped into the stream of water and rinsed the shampoo off his hair.
“We could go. I’d love for you to take me. I don’t mind going again,” I said, combing his hair with my fingers.
“It’s okay, really. William ruined the surprise.” Nathan grabbed the loofah, added shower gel, and lathered my skin with it. “You already saw it, which was what I wanted—for you to see it again. We can do anything else. I truly can’t be arsed by that prick.”
Shit.
Nathan added more shower gel to the loofah and lathered himself.
“I’m sorry. I feel like it’s my fault too. I should’ve called you first, but you were busy working, and I never imagined it would be him.”
“Please, don’t apologize. You did nothing wrong.”
The doorbell rang.
“It must be the pizza.”
“I’ll get it.” He kissed my lips, jumped out of the shower, and quickly dried himself off. He grabbed a pair of cotton sweatpants he kept at my place. He liked changing out of his suit when he came straight from work.
Nathan walked out of my bedroom without a shirt on, and I thought I would die from the mortification. I just prayed Caleb wasn’t the one who brought the pizza. Wet hair, sweatpants, no shirt. Too obvious.
I stepped out of the shower too and changed into black leggings and Nathan’s green Hammarby hoodie. It was the comfiest ever and one of my favorite pieces of clothing in my closet.
There was a conversation going on in the distance. Nathan was speaking in Swedish. No—yellingin Swedish.
I ran to see what was happening, my hair dripping wet. Aaron stood just outside the door. Nathan held the pizza box and argued with William, who apparently had just arrived home. He stood only a few steps away from Nathan.
“What’s going on?” They stopped talking and turned to look at me. William’s eyes were blazing with anger. I didn’t know if his glare burned for having to watch a just showered and shirtless Nathan beside me, for the dress he gave me lying messily on the floor, or for the freaking hoodie I was wearing. Probably an explosive mixture of all of the above.
“Thank you, Aaron.” I took the pizza out of Nathan’s hands. “Good night, William.” But Aaron and William didn’t leave.
I turned to look at Nathan and nodded. I didn’t want our night to be ruined. It was his birthday, for God’s sake. I didn’t want him to spend it arguing with William. It wasn’t worth it.
But I wasn’t convincing enough.
Nathan’s nostrils flared for a second before he grabbed the dress from the floor. He threw it at William and said, “It’s a beautiful dress.” William caught it midair with a bored expression on his face. “It fit herperfectly.”
“Nathan, the pizza is getting cold. Come on.”
He was provoking William unnecessarily. They both stared at each other like a couple of king cobras about to get into a brawl. All I wanted was for Nathan to shut the damn door so we could continue to celebrate his birthday at peace.
I settled the pizza box on the foyer table and pulled Nathan’s arm, trying to get him to snap out of his trance.
“It wassoeasy to take off, too,” Nathan threw in. “Thanks, mate.” Aaron clicked on his earpiece, and that’s when I knew I needed to take a few steps back.
William took a couple of slow steps in Nathan’s direction, but Aaron placed his hand on his chest and politely, but firmly, invited him to walk away. He turned to look at me, running his tongue over his teeth, and disappeared off to his apartment before I could even realize he was gone.
I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly out through my mouth. Aaron excused himself after I thanked him once again. I was so embarrassed he had to listen to the drama, including that bit about how easily Nathan had taken the dress offme.
“Are you okay?” I asked Nathan, finally closing the door.
“Never better.” He smiled. “He cannot have you, and itkills him. So I just had to remind him of that fact. But now we’re even.”
I was glad they didn’t get into a physical altercation. Remember-ing how easily Nathan broke Nicholas’s nose made me shudder. And just by looking at William’s size, I was sure he could do a fair amount of damage too. I didn’t want to see William or Nathan getting hurt.
