Chapter 206

By noon the day after Andrew caught Noah in my apartment, I still lay in bed. I did not sleep a wink the entire night, and yet I had only left the bed to use the bathroom. I had not changed from my pajamas or showered since Lisa’s wedding.

Andrew’s egg-and-sausage biscuits sat in the trash, untouched. Somehow, above everything else, the smell wafted to me from the kitchen, nauseating me at the memory of our fight. I did not have the energy to take out the trash and rid myself of that torture.

I stared at the book that rested just beyond my reach on the bedside table. It was a sequel to the romance novel that I had been reading at Andrew’s second home when Chevalier ambushed Jeffrey and me. In this one, Sapphire and Raphael were trying to escape from Beelzebub’s boss, Lucifer himself.

If only my life could be like in a romance novel, everything would be much easier. I could rely on my male lead’s resources alone to solve all my problems, and it wouldn’t take an eternity just to secure an arrest. Most importantly, all misunderstandings would be resolved within a few pages, and I would be able to live happily ever after with my male lead.

A single tear rolled down my cheek.

Maybe I was in the wrong. Looking back, even I couldn’t justify my drunken decision to have Noah sleep on the floor of my bedroom instead of out on my couch. And it did seem incriminating for his shirt to be off when he came out so he groggy and hungover…

I groaned and rolled over onto my back, covering my face with my hands.

Why couldn’t Andrew have just trusted me? I had never given him any reason not to. I had never cheated on him, and Noah was the only male friend I had that I did not share in common with him.

Yes, I had kept Noah’s ring after turning down his proposal, but my and Andrew’s relationship wasn’t exactly clear back then, either. As soon as it became a problem, I returned the ring. Could Andrew possibly be holding that against me still?

A gentle knock at the front door startled me out of my thoughts. For a moment, I contemplated not answering it. Then, thinking that it might be Andrew, I slid out of bed, wrapped myself in my robe, and made my way to the door.

When I answered, I was greeted not by Andrew’s apologetic face but by Jeffrey’s characteristic neutral expression.

“Good afternoon, Crystal,” he said.

His eyes roved up and down my body, not leering at me but gaging my mental state. Based on the concern that I saw when our eyes met, I assumed that he did not like what he saw.

“Can we talk?” he asked.

I nodded and motioned him inside. I closed the door behind him and sat down on the couch. Jeffrey stood in front of me, just far enough away that I would not have to strain my neck too badly to look up at him.

“How are you doing?” he asked, looking me over again.

I crossed my arms over my chest and shrugged.

“I’m fine.”

Jeffrey arched a brow at me and placed his hands on his hips.

“Really? If I remember correctly, you and Andrew had a pretty bad fight yesterday—”

“Which you did nothing to stop,” I snapped. “You knew that nothing happened between Noah and me. You could have set Andrew straight, but you just let him tear into me!”

Jeffrey cleared his throat. He probably hadn’t expected me to bring that little tidbit up. As my guard and a werewolf, though, he would have been close enough to sense if anything inappropriate had gone down between Noah and me that night. Still, he did not step in to tell Andrew the truth.

“It’s a matter that the two of you need to work out yourselves,” he said.

“He would have taken your word for it—”

“Or he would have assumed that I was covering for you.”

I hated that Jeffrey was right. I also hated that he was able to present his argument so logically and with such a calm tone. It grated on nerves that he didn’t fight back like Andrew, but I tried to not let on how much it bothered me.

“Why are you here?” I asked.

“I’m doing my job,” Jeffrey said. “I’m checking on you, seeing how you’re holding up. It seems like it’s a good thing that I did, too.”

My eyes shifted to the ground.

“It’s only been a day, and you’re already a mess,” he continued. “You miss him, don’t you?”

I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and refused to make eye contact with him.

“Like you said, it’s only been a day.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

“Yes, I miss him.”

“Then why don’t you go talk to him?”

My hand curled into a fist.

“Why should I? He’s the one who messed up here, not me.”

I glanced up at Jeffrey to see him staring at me, his chin lifted slightly, as though silently defying my last statement.

“Does it really matter who’s wrong and who’s right?” he said instead. “Don’t you just want to see him?”

My fist slowly uncurled. My hands fell into my lap, and I stared at them numbly as I contemplated Jeffrey’s last sentence.

I did want to see Andrew, more than anything. It just seemed as though we were fighting about everything the past few days. These weren’t small squabbles, either; these were heart-wrenching fights over relationship-ending topics.

I didn’t want a couple misunderstandings to end our relationship, though. We had been through so much together—too much to be torn apart by Bob’s arrest and a shirtless Noah. Or Andrew’s trust issues.

My fingers dug into my palms. Andrew’s trust issues. If he could have just trusted me instead of jumping to conclusions, we wouldn’t be having any of these problems.

I shook my head and lifted my face towards Jeffrey.

“No,” I finally said. “If we’re going to get past this, Andrew needs to apologize to me first. That’s all there is to it.”

“Are you sure?”

I nodded firmly.

“I’m sure.”

Jeffrey let out a barely audible sigh.

“Very well. I suppose that I have done all that I can to help you, then. Good day, Crystal.”

He headed towards the door. Just as he reached for the knob, though, he stopped and turned to face me.

“You should know that, right this moment, Andrew is escorting King Frederick and his beautiful daughter Princess Aurora to the Lexington Hotel for their extended stay in the werewolf world,” he said.

My eye twinged, but I did not allow myself to physically react otherwise.

“It is a part of his duties,” I said, keeping my voice as flat as possible.

Jeffrey nodded.

“True. I suppose that you already know about the welcome banquet in their honor, then.”

He continued to reach for the doorknob.

“Wait!”

He stopped just as his hand was wrapping around the knob. He glanced at me over his shoulder.

“What banquet?”