When I walk into the kitchen Jill is sitting at the kitchen table reading a newspaper. She looks up when she hears me come in.
“Well, well…howdy there stranger.”
I scoff and shake my head.
“Besides last night I’ve been here all week. Where have you been?” I counter.
Her eyes start to twinkle like they always do when she’s amused.
“Oh, baby girl, I was here. You were just a little too busy to notice,” she says, smirking.
I push my tongue against the side of my cheek, trying to mask my embarrassment. Even if she didn’t notice the heat that I feel spreading across my face—which, trust me, she has—she is the only person on the planet who knows me better than I know myself and she knows that I am, in fact, mortified at the moment. The idea that she has heard Mika and I getting it on…ugh.
“Oh God,” I groan.
Jill laughs.
“Chill out, I only saw you two make out, heavily I may add. I just grabbed some things and slept at the spa. I needed to be there anyway. I’m having the opening next week, remember?”
Well now I feel like an ass. I make a mental note to be more considerate.
“I’m sorry, Jillybean. I didn’t mean to chase you out of your own home.” I walk over to the breakfast bar and pick up some grapes from the fruit bowl.
“Stop. You didn’t chase me away, I was just messing with you. I didn’t sleep at the spa, though I might as well have.” She shakes her head. “I came in after you went to bed and I left before you ever even got up. And I only knew he was here because that hunky driver of his was sitting in his car outside waiting. But now I know for sure what you’ve been up to,” she says with a smug tinge to her voice.
I toss a grape at her head and burst out laughing when it hits its mark right in the middle of her forehead. She shrugs, picks up the grape, and pops it into her mouth. I walk over to the breakfast table and pull up a chair.
“Now that we have the pleasantries out of the way,” she says, tossing the paper in front of me. “Wanna tell me what the hell this is all about?”
I look down at one of the articles about Mika. I sigh.
“Look, I know what this looks like, but even this says they’re retracting the accusation.”
She looks at me, skepticism written all over her face.
“Oh and that has nothing to do with the fact that Mika has probably thrown a small fortune at some lawyers to make that happen?”
I can’t hide the irritation in my voice when I reply.
“Of course he sends his lawyer after them. What they wrote is slander and they had no proof, just the word of some money hungry idiot and pure speculation. You don’t ruin a man’s reputation based on that alone.”
She scoffs.
“Maybe they were guessing about some parts,” she concedes. “But certainly not everything that has been in the papers the last week has been pure theory. And his reputation is most decidedly not speculation. He did that all by himself or rather, with countless others.”
Jill presses her fingers against her temples and takes a deep breath before she straightens and looks at me, searching my eyes.
“You are one of the smartest people I know, Rae. And normally I would say that you are an excellent judge of character,” she says as she reaches for my hand. “But honey, when it comes to men…I’m sorry to say it but you are as blind as a bat. And frankly what I witnessed between the two of you was nothing short of intense. I am just worried that you are not being objective here.”
I am really not in the mood to listen to this crap.
“I wasn’t aware that you had such a high opinion of me, thanks,” I say, unable to keep the hurt out of my voice.
I shift and attempt to free my hand from hers but she doesn’t let me and just holds on tighter.
“Rae, honey, listen. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings but even you have to admit that this guy is far from the kind of guy you want to take home to your mother.”
I scoff at that and Jill shoots me a warning look.
“Yes, Jill. Because your history with guys is so stellar,” I say, my voiced laced with sarcasm.
I feel bad for a moment when I see from the look on her face that my remark has hit a nerve but she recovers quickly.
“I mean, have you googled him? His track record with women is appalling at best. He’s a freaking man whore. I am not trying to be a bitch here, Rae. I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”
Leave it to my person to zone in right on my insecurities.
“Yes, I goddamn googled him. Don’t you think I know that he can do so much better than me? That there are so many others that would kill to have just one night with him?”
Jill slams her hand on the table.
“That is what you fucking heard me say? That is the part you focus on? I said that his track record was appalling. I never once said anything about you not being enough for him. You, my friend, are a freaking goddess. You are gorgeous and you have no flipping idea how amazing you are. That, however, is not the issue right now. What I am telling you is that he is not good enough for you. And if that isn’t enough, they are alleging that he attempted to murder his own sister. His own sister, Rae!”
I successfully pull my hand away this time and stand.
“Jill, I realize that this will sound like a fucking cliché to you, but I know that he’s innocent. I know this as much as I know that the sky is blue. He adores Mikaela. You should see how much he loves her. She has always been his rock, his world. That is his twin sister for God’s sake. I need you to have a little more faith in me. I need my person on my side.”
Jill also gets out of her seat and we stand there, staring at each other for a moment and silently telling each other what we are feeling right now. I swear, I often think that we are so close, and know each other so well, that we can read each other’s minds. She knows me better than any person on the planet and vice versa.
“I am always on your side, Rae. You are my person, my best friend. Screw that, you are my sister. I am never not on your side. I’m trying to look out for you.”
I feel myself soften toward her. I have never been able to stay mad at her for longer than five minutes and she knows it, mostly because it is the same the other way around.
“I know,” I concede.
She steps closer toward me and grabs my hand again. We both start to tear up.
“I just want you to be careful, okay?”
I nod.
“And I need him to know that I will kill him if he breaks your heart.”
I burst out laughing while tears are streaming down my face. I love the crap that comes out of her mouth. She closes the distance and pulls me into her arms. We stand there for what seems like forever, hugging and crying. Jill is the first one to break the silence.
“Have you seen the pictures of you online?” she snickers. “And the headlines, dear God. My favorite one is ‘Mystery Brunette Bags Notorious Billionaire Playboy,’” she says dramatically. “Or ‘Beauty and the Billionaire—How Did She Do It?’”
Jill pulls out her phone and furiously starts tapping the screen. Moments later my face pops up. It is a picture of Mika and me on our first date—kissing. She taps again and another picture of me pops up. It is a very unfortunate and unflattering picture of me yawning while walking into Hillcrest. Note to self: even if you don’t see the vultures, they most definitely see you.
“I was going to make this beauty my screensaver,” she teases.
I cradle my head in my hands.
“Oh God,” I groan.
She laughs harder and it doesn’t take long for me to follow suit. She grabs my face and cradles it in both of her hands.
“Listen Rae, the way that things are right now…I just don’t trust Mika and I honestly can’t promise you that I will even like him someday. But I can promise you that I will be on board with you. As long as you are in it, I will be there to support you and watch your back. Okay?”
I cover her hands with mine.
“I’m going to need you to like him, Jillybean,” I say as I lock my eyes on hers. “Because even though he acts like Captain Caveman at times and even though he doesn’t have a stellar reputation, he makes me feel good about myself and treats me like a queen. And then there is also the fact that…I am pretty sure that I love him.”
Her eyes widen a bit and her mouth pops open. I think, for the first time since I’ve known her, my Jillybean is actually speechless. She searches my eyes for a moment, as if she’s trying to figure out if I am telling her the truth. I have never used the “L” word before when referring to a guy and she knows that. It feels weird to admit it out loud. I have known it in my head, I have whispered it to him while he was sleeping, but saying the words out loud and admitting to my person that I have finally fallen in love feels monumental. She gets that spark in her eye, the one that she gets when she is happy. She pulls me into a hug and hugs me so tightly I think she might actually squeeze the life out of me. She takes a deep breath and I feel her shoulders relax before she lets me go.
“Captain Caveman? Really?” she says, obviously amused. “I’ll do my very best to like him, okay?”
I don’t think I can smile any wider.
“Okay.”
She returns the smile.
“Now that we have that crap out of the ways we need dinner. How about we order some pizza?”
“Um, only if we can get a garden pizza with extra onions.”
“Is there any other kind?”
It’s funny that I don’t even realize how hungry I am until she mentions food. As soon as she mentions pizza my stomach starts to grumble. Giacomo’s Pizza is about five blocks away, has the best pizza in the world, and I happen to have them on speed dial. I walk over to my purse, pull out my cellphone, and order our food. We walk into the living room and drop onto the couch.
“And we need to discuss what you are going to be wearing to the opening of Serenity. Is it safe to assume that you are bringing the captain?” she says, looking at me with her brow raised.
I laugh and roll my eyes.
“It is safe to assume, yes.”
“Hmmm,” she says, tapping her chin. “I am thinking that a shopping trip is in order. We need to blow everyone’s socks off.”
“A shopping trip does sound like fun.”
“We need our hair done, too. Oh, and our nails. And we need to decide on what colors we are wearing. Are we coordinating? Oh, and shoes, we need shoes.”
Smirking, I nod. I love it when she gets excited about things. She’s all over the place. Sometimes I wish I was more like her. She’s passionate about everything she does and it pours out of her. The pizza arrives and we open a bottle of wine as we pig out on the delicious pizza. We talk for hours. We talk about what we want to wear, how we want to get our hair done, and I fill her on everything that has been going on between Mika and me. Then she fills me in on everything that has been going on with Serenity. By the time we open bottle number two, we are in very good spirits. She wants details and I give her the lowdown. I barely spare a detail when I tell her about my first experience with Mika. I love that I can talk to someone about this. I am so new to all this and I need a sounding board. I think her eyes are going to pop out of her head when I tell her about what happened on the plane. And when I tell her about Mika’s idea of welcoming me to Osaka, I think she’s about to fall out of her chair. She makes me laugh like she always does. I have missed talking to her like this. I am positively giddy by the time I tell her that Mika hates me calling him Captain Caveman and she is highly amused.
“Hey Rae?” she says, eyes twinkling mischievously.
“What?”
“Have you tried calling him CC? You know that he will forever be Captain to me, right?”
I completely lose it, laughing so hard that tears are streaming down my cheeks and my belly starts to cramp up.
“This right here is why you are my person, Jillybean,” I say, still snickering.
“I FLOVE you, Rae,” she slurs.
“I FLOVE you, more than Oreos.”
I sigh.
“Hey Jillybean?”
“What?”
“Thanks.”
We look at each other and I smile at her. I know that I don’t have to explain what I am thanking her for. She already knows.
“Anytime, Rae.”