CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Cami
“Are you sure you don’t want to go help your sister?” Brand asked me as we were sitting in the shop waiting for the next appointment to come in. “I don’t mind packing up stuff and moving all the big boxes.”
I smiled despite the circumstances.
See why I loved this guy?
He was really amazing and I wondered how I’d gotten so flipping lucky. He was mine. All mine. And I hoped I made him as happy as he made me.
“No,” I said with a sigh as I tucked my hair behind my ear. “I asked her, several times, might I add, but she said she wanted some alone time.”
So when I say that crap had hit the fan, that was kind of an understatement. Our mother was livid when Laurel had told her the news. Maybe livid was putting it nicely. I was glad I hadn’t been there, that was for sure. I almost wanted to feel sorry for my mother, because it seemed like between Laurel and me, we had managed to rock the foundation and dignity of this side of the Benson family. I was sure we’d be on the bottom of the list for Christmas cards this year. But I didn’t really give a flying cow at this point.
Laurel had been cut off much like I had. She flat out refused to go crawling back to Brice and ask for forgiveness and tell him that she’d made a mistake. In her heart, she didn’t believe that she had. And by the way she had talked about it when we went to lunch, I agreed with her wholeheartedly.
In case you were wondering, yes, that meant I was out of a place to live too. But I’d been staying with Brand at the compound and surprisingly, had grown to love it. Don’t get me wrong, there were times it was really frustrating and the walls in that room were thin. I had to learn very quickly to either keep quiet or get over my embarrassment that everyone there knew what was going on in that room. Yep, I chose to go with the latter. There was simply no way to keep my mouth closed with all the things Brand could do to my body. No fucking way!
Everything was gone. Her car. Her apartment. Her allowance. Everything.
“You think it’s good for her to be alone right now?” Brand asked and I loved the softness and concern that lingered in his voice.
He was good people. Actually, most of the men in that club were. When word had gotten around about Laurel, several of them stepped up and offered to help move her stuff. Where they were moving it to, well I didn’t know yet. Laurel said that she had it under control, but I wasn’t so sure.
“Yo,” Sketch said, strolling into the shop carrying a cup of coffee and what looked like a folded up newspaper. “Check this out,” he said before I had a chance to question why he had a newspaper…I mean…what? First, who gets newspapers anymore? And second, Sketch just looked so weird carrying one.
With a loud smack, he plopped the paper down in front of Brand and me. As I reached for it, I saw fuzzy pictures of Brice filling half of the page.
Laurel Benson calls off engagement with Brice Dumont due to his cheating ways.
“Oh shit!” The word slipped out of my mouth a little too easily.
There were at least five pictures of him with different women caught in very compromising positions. They were not ones that could be explained away. There was no “she tripped and I caught her, that’s why it looks like we’re hugging” or “I spilled coffee and she was only helping me clean it up.”
Some of them even had proof of the nights that photos had been taken. One had a professional shot in the corner of Laurel and Brice at a charity event, his suit was clearly the same in both pictures.
This was the last thing Laurel needed to deal with right now. With everything that had already happened, I could tell she was holding on by a thread. I worried that this might send her toppling over the edge.
I hoped that she hadn’t seen it, but I knew that was unlikely. Because it was obvious who was behind this. Our mother. And since I knew the woman so well, I would have put money that she had once paid a good price to have these photos buried. Which meant she knew all along what was going on behind Laurel’s back and did nothing about it. Now that it was convenient for her, these photos made it into the light of day. Anything to keep the family name clean, right? This made Laurel’s decision to call off the engagement look like a positive thing for the family, and now I was sure, all the sympathy would come rolling in for the Benson name.
This was beyond ridiculous. I was ready to pull my hair out. Poor Laurel.
“I should…”
“Go, baby. Text me when you get there.” He pulled me in for a tight hug, buried his nose in my hair, then kissed my temple. As I pulled away, he snagged my chin and tilted my head. He kissed me, lingering a beat longer than a second, but it was nothing short of earth-shaking.
“Okay,” I said, getting to my feet. “I’ll let you know what’s going on.”
Then I was making my way across the shop, out the back, and into my car. The whole ride over to her apartment, I tried to imagine what could have been going through her head. I couldn’t even begin to think how this made her feel. Even if she knew about the cheating, which I honestly had no clue if she did or not, it wasn’t right that it had been aired to the whole city like that.
“Dad’s already been here,” Laurel said as she pulled the door open and moved to the side to let me pass.
Her eyes were red and her hair was thrown up in a way that I’d never seen on her before. A giant, ratty ball of golden blonde sat on top of her head. Her makeup was slightly smudged but not to the point where she looked like a sorority girl on a bender. And then there were the sweats. As in sweatpants and matching off the shoulder sweatshirt. I mean it was trendy and cute, just not anything I ever imagined that Laurel would own, let alone be caught dead in.
“Yeah, I’m a fucking mess. I know. You can say it. Oh, how the mighty have fallen, right?”
I didn’t bother commenting on any of what she’d said. She was clearly drunk. Or well on her way there.
“I’m fine.” The f sound went on for way longer than it should have. “I got what I wanted right. Freedom. I now have all the fucking freedom to find love. Pfftt. Love. Feelings. Such bullshit, right?”
“Here, come sit down. Maybe we should get you some water. And food. Yeah, I’ll order some food.”
I helped her to the couch and she went without protest. Then I brought her a bottle of water and ordered a pizza. Normally she’d scoff at the grease and cheese topped dough, but I had a feeling she was going to need every bit of that and more to soak up all the alcohol in her system.
While we waited, I sat with her and just let her get everything out. I tried to follow along as best I could, but honestly, some of the things she said made no sense.
“I’m so stupid to think that our mother would just let this go. Like for real. She didn’t even give me a heads up. There was no hint about any of this. Like, how many people knew? Am I sitting here looking like the world’s biggest idiot right now? Because that’s how I feel. I’m embarrassed and…humiliated. Me! ‘So perfect, Laurel,’ what a joke.”
And yes, she did the air quotes and all.
“I couldn’t even have this one thing. I was so proud of you for standing up to her and, well, I think you gave me the courage to look at my life and want to change things. And they just let you go, like whatever. They didn’t try to turn it around or fix it. Then I stand up, and she finds a way to turn it all around and knock me over again. I have nothing, Cami. Not even my dignity.”
“Laurel, you know that’s not true. I’m proud of you. She’s not an easy woman to go up against. You did it, take that with you. Everything else, we’ll figure out, okay?” I tried to be reassuring but the downturn of her lips and the fact that she was shaking her head too fast for me to keep up told me she wasn’t buying it.
The pizza arrived and I didn’t even have to coax her to eat any, she started shoveling slices in her mouth as soon as I flipped open the lid. All the while, still rambling on. This Laurel I didn’t know, nor had the first clue what to do with.
Apparently, our father had come by sometime before I’d arrived. He was the one that broke the news to her about what I’d seen in the paper and brought an offer with him, that if she played along with the whole thing and apologized to our mother, then they would forget everything that had happened. The way she explained it made it sound like he was giving her a first and final warning.
I had expected her to tell me that she’d agreed, but she shocked the socks off of me when she said she all but told him to shove it. She was determined to be her own person. She swore that she didn’t need the fancy car, or the new clothes that were intended to only be worn a season, or the apartment that came with a maid and shiny marble floors.
I had to say I was impressed with how she sounded like she’d handled the situation. But then again, I wasn’t there, she could have totally gone off on our father and was giving me the cleaned up version.
So, it seemed we were both out on our own. Only thing was, I had someone to fall back on, in a way, not that I’d planned it that way or was ever going to take it for granted. Laurel, she had nothing. I was sure her friends would distance themselves now that everything had come out, and once they got a whiff that she’d been cut off from the family, they would act like they hadn’t known her in the first place. Laurel was more immersed in the high-end living than I was and I knew this would hit her hard. Clearly, by the state I’d found her in, it had already.
The room went silent, both of us taking in everything that had happened in our lives the last few weeks. Two rich girls, fallen hard, both sad and pathetic and helpless in the real world. Although, I think one of us was slightly less all of those things. But I wouldn’t ever open my mouth to voice who that person was.
“How did things get so messed up?” she asked and I could tell it was a rhetorical question. Though, I had wondered the same thing from time to time. “Tell me it’s worth it.”
Her face swiveled to the side as she looked at me and somehow her eyes had gotten puffier since I’d gotten here. All of this was crashing down on her and it was showing. I hated that I couldn’t make it better for her, but she’d made the decision, and unlike me, it seemed like she had gotten a second chance to get everything back. I wasn’t angry or resentful, it wouldn’t have mattered if they’d offered me forgiveness, I wouldn’t have taken it anyway. So, in a sense, I totally got where Laurel was coming from.
As I thought about everything it was like the answer was crystal clear. Would I give up Brand and the shop to live back at my parents’ house? To have my car back without the sneakiness that the club had pulled to get it back for me? To not have to worry about how I was going to pay for my next meal?
“It is. I mean, I don’t have it figured out like at all, but he makes me feel like it’s going to be alright. And when you find yours, you will see that this life could be so much more than all that bullshit we had to deal with.”
That was the darn truth. I could breathe a little easier. I didn’t have to worry if I was going to say or do the wrong thing. I could keep the company that I wanted to.
“All my life, I just feel like I’ve been stumbling along, letting people pull me in whatever direction they wanted me to go.” A few stray tears fell from her glassy eyes. “I’ve hated myself for so long.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but a sharp knock on the door halted my words.
“I’ll get it,” I said moving to get up.
“No,” Laurel said, placing her hand on my arm to stop me. She stood, straightened her shoulders, and held her head high. “This is my last day here and I will answer that door like I own this damn place. I will not let this get me down.”
I couldn’t argue with that, so I let her go, moving to stand at the end of the long hall that led to the front door. I half hid behind the wall. While I wanted to stay close enough to help her out if she needed, I didn’t want to encroach on the situation.
Pulling off the grace of a princess despite her disheveled state and less than stellar clothing choice, she swung the door open just enough so she could greet whoever was out there.
Then her body went rigid and her hand automatically went to her hip.
“What are you doing here?” she asked and I could hear the shock in her voice. “No. I don’t want you here. You!” Her hands were flying wildly, but I couldn’t see who she was talking to and by the elbow jerk, I had a feeling that the person was feeling the hard poke of a fingernail in their chest. “This is all your fault! My life is ruined because of you! If you hadn’t…”
Her voice dropped off and I couldn’t make out the rest of that statement. But I had a pretty good idea what she was talking about because I had a feeling that it was Brice on the other side of that door. And to be honest, I wasn’t about to stop her and all the anger I imagined she was ready to unleash. True, she had been the one to call off the engagement even before this all came out, but in all fairness, he’d been cheating for a long time. If there weren’t those indiscretions to be kept hidden, then they wouldn’t be out there now.
There was a response, low and murmured, and I couldn’t make out a single word from him. I waited but gave her the space to get it all out.
“I don’t care. You are less than nothing to me. Just…just stay away, please.” I didn’t miss the sad pleading in her tone.
She slid back into the apartment, the door never opening wide enough for me to see his face. But that was probably for the better, I might have had to march my butt out there and throw a few choice words his direction if I had.
“You okay?” I asked as I walked over to her and pulled her in for a hug.
“Yeah.” Her ankles wobbled and I did my best to hold her up. “I think I’m done for the night. I’m not drunk, but I know if I stay up, I’ll keep going.”
“Okay, I’ll sleep in the spare room.”
“No. I just want to be alone.”
She was turning and walking away from me before I could say anything else about the matter. Her bedroom door closed with a soft click and I stood there for a long beat wondering what I should do.
I had a good idea that she was not only angry, but embarrassed. If I were her, I’d want to be left alone, too. So I cleaned up the mess we had made from dinner, gathered my stuff, sent Brand a text saying I was on my way to the compound, then left after double checking that the door was locked behind me.
What a mess. I felt so bad for Laurel and I hated that there wasn’t a single thing I could do to fix this.