Page 128 of Sins (The Sins Trilogy 1)
She squints at me long and hard. “I swear to God! For a woman who plays the piano with such sensitivity, you can be so obtuse. Byron hates Tony, and he’s going to be resentful you’re doing him. Get it?”
“Noooooo… I can see him getting upset if you slept with Tony. I mean, you’re his sister. But me? Why would he care?”
Julie sighs, giving me a look that’s a cross between pity and exasperation. “Fine, have it your way. But don’t say I didn’t warn you if Byron gets pissy.”
“Yeah, yeah, Miss Overactive Imagination! I’m going to go get ready for work tomorrow.” Shaking my head and laughing, I go to my room and plug my phone into the charger. It starts up and begins notifying me of a bunch of texts and missed calls. I cringe at the ones from Sam. He’s pissed off about the videos Julie mentioned, although his texts are so typo-laden that it’s impossible to figure out exactly what the problem is.
There are also some from Byron. He’s more coherent than Sam, but most of his texts are about how vile Tony is and how I need to be careful and stay away from him.
My phone rings, and…speak of the devil.
I debate briefly, then answer it. “Byron! Hey, how are—”
“My God, that video! What were you thinking, Rizzy?”
Sigh.“That the wine was colder than expected?”
It only seems to upset him more. “No! Anthony Blackwood. He uses people, and the only thing he cares about is money. Don’t think it’ll be different with you.”
I need to cut this off, because the more he says, the less I like him. “Okay, stop. You don’t know anything about—”
“Oh come on, Rizzy, you have no idea—”
“Yes, I do. He isn’t using me for anything. I don’t have money or fame. In fact, I have so little that I’m crashing at your place at the moment. If what you’re saying is right, then he’s made a pretty big mistake. But he doesn’t strike me as the type to screw up like that.”
“Rizzy, I’m trying to protect you. He isn’t someone you can rely on.”
“I don’t need your protection, Byron. And since you didn’t know, he’s the one who helped me write a résumé and land a job.”
“He did that to fool you.”
“Look, the only thing I want to hear from you right now is congratulations. If you can’t bring yourself to say that, then just hang up.”
I can hear him breathing, but that’s all. It hurts that he can’t bring himself to say congrats. He sat in that café and heard me talk about wanting a job. Or is he just upset that he wasn’t the one to help me with the résumé, emotionally stuck in some weird competition with Tony?
“Goodbye, Byron.” I hang up.
I resist the urge to throw the phone down. Byron’s never reacted this way to anyone I’ve associated with, and I don’t understand what his deal is. Julie said he and Tony don’t get along due to their business rivalry, but does he have to be so condescending about it, pulling that “I’m doing this to protect you” crap? He sounded exactly like Sam at his worst!
He’s just trying to look out for you, my mind whispers.
Well, I don’t need him to do that. I’m almost twenty-eight, not eighteen, and I don’t need him hovering and trying to tell me who to get involved with.
