Wild Nights With My Brother's Ex-Best Friend novel Chapter 53

ROMAN

I bring the cigarette to my lips and inhale the smoke deep into my lungs.

It does shit to help me calm down. I'm up to here with Carmen and her entire family. Being forced to come to this shitty fucking Hamptons beach festival is not how I thought my weekend would turn out.

I had plans with other people, but of course, I'm forced to play a role or be fucked in the ass with no lubricant by Garith Fucking Lowett. Some days, I have this feeling of wanting to say 'fuck it' to everything and letting them have me arrested.

At least in prison, I'll be free of Carmen and all the Lowetts.

"Come on, Roman," Blaine says behind me. I'd almost forgotten that I'd invited him to come with me so I'd at least have one person whose face I could tolerate. "There's a lot to do. Your fiancée is going to spend all night socializing and you'll be free to have your share of fun."

I ignore him because...that's just what the fucking problem is.

I don't want to have fun. Not anymore. I don't feel like my usual self and I haven't for some time now. Everything seems pointless.

"...or is it that there's someone you can't get out of your mind?"

I turn my head to fix him with a look. I was so deep in my thoughts that I didn't catch a word he said before that sentence. "What?"

Blaine rises, buttoning his white blazer. A broad, shit-eating grin is on his face. "Come on, Roman. You don't have to lie to me—I know how it is. It's that woman. You've been in this state ever since you ended things with her?"

I'm trying to remember when exactly I told him about Nikki, and then it hits me. The sex club. He was there that night and he saw her. I also casually mentioned to him that I was no longer seeing her when he asked me some weeks ago.

"You're leaping to conclusions," I grit out. "You've known me for years. Am I the kind of guy to get hung up on some chick?"

"There's a first time for everything," he replies in all seriousness as he leans against the balcony. From where we're standing, we have the entire view of the festival. I can even see people's faces because we're not that high up. It's so shitty and infuriating. The lights. The fake smiles. The getting shitfaced. All so damn superficial.

"Well, this wasn't mine," I lie. I don't trust anyone enough to confess my true feelings to. Blaine's a solid guy, but loyalties can always shift. Everyone has a price. I don't need more people being aware of Nikki when I already messed up by not being careful.

My mistake was not guessing how far Carmen would've gone. But there's no point in going there when what's done is done.

"You should give me her number, then," Blaine says, and all my thoughts quiet down and narrow to the anger his words evoke. I don't turn my head to look at him because I know he'll see the truth written all over my face. "I thought she was a fine piece of ass."

"How generous of you to assume I kept her number," I claim. If he says something else about her, I won't give a shit about staying calm and not making things obvious.

"A shame," he remarks.

I hear something in his voice that I don't quite like. It doesn't sit well with me.

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