Chapter 51

A couple days after the party, Lily asked to come over after I got off work for a girls’ night in. It seemed like an odd request so soon after such a big party, but I brushed that off and let her come over. After all, she had to have her reasons for wanting to get together.

I set out a plate of flourless brownies I had just found the recipe for and a couple glasses of milk—I was swearing off alcohol for a while, given the trouble it had just gotten me into—in anticipation of her arrival. Anxiously, I wondered if Barnett had told Lily about what had happened between us.

Don’t be silly, I told myself. Why would he tell his NIECE, of all people?

Lily is really easy to talk to, my more worried inner voice countered.

But wouldn’t that be really awkward, especially considering that she’s my best friend?

Maybe that’s why he would consult her, to get the opinion of someone with insight into how my brain works.

I’m assuming that he even cares enough to want to talk to someone about it. It probably didn’t even mean anything to him.

By the way he stormed off, it surely seemed to mean something to him.

I was about to give myself mental whiplash when I heard Lily knocking at the door. I wasn’t sure how I didn’t catch all the notifications on my cellphone from security letting me know that she was approaching. I really needed to pay attention to that if they were going to be of any use to me.

“Hello?” she called through the door. “I come bearing gifts!”

I laugh.

“Come in, it’s unlocked!”

Lily opened the door, cradling a platter of deli meats and cheeses in one hand. Tucked under her other arm was exactly what I had hoped to avoid: a bottle of red wine.

“Girl, get that evil shit out of my house,” I said jokingly, holding up my index fingers in the sign of the cross.

She laughed and kicked the door closed behind her.

“Oh, come on! Just because you lost some of your guts on the deck of my brand-new yacht doesn’t mean that you have to become a nun and swear the stuff off forever.”

She looked at the coffee table and spotted the glasses of milk immediately.

“Milk? Really?” she asked, laughter sparkling in her voice.

“What? It’s a good source of Vitamin D, and it goes great with brownies.”

Lily rolled her eyes as she set the deli platter and wine on the coffee table, next to the brownies and milk.

“Whatever, Mother Theresa. Let’s get right down to business. Why are you really avoiding alcohol right now?”

I chuckled nervously and went to retrieve a couple plates from the kitchen.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I called over my shoulder. “I had a hangover so bad that I missed an entire day of work. That stuff can shake you.”

“Yeah, right. I think it’d take a little more than a bad hangover to shake you—”

“No, it’d take more than a bad hangover to shake you,” I said as I returned with the plates. “I’m not used to all-night parties.”

Lily accepted her plate, and we began to pile them with meat, cheese, and brownies.

“Maybe not, but it’s not like you’re some sober saint. So, I ask again, what happened?”

She looked me in the eye and grabbed my hand as I reached for my milk.

“You can tell me anything. You know that.”

I instinctually clutched my stomach.

Not everything, I thought, but most things.

“I…you know how you sent me home in your limo after the party the other night?”

Lily leaned forward, her attention entirely on me.

“Yes?” she asked, drawing out her reply.

“Well, it seems that there was someone else in the limo with me. A man.”

Lily’s lips twitched into a smirk.

“Oh, yeah. I remember that.”

I sat straight up now.

“You knew that there was someone else in the limo? And you sent me home in it anyway?”

“It was Barnett. I didn’t think it was a problem.”

“Well, it turned out to be a problem. We slept together,” I hissed.

Lily’s eye twitched, but she didn’t initially react. Was she too shocked to register what I had said? Did she not believe what I had just told her?

“And you didn’t tell me the second you woke up?” she finally said.

I choked on some of the cheese that I had been stuffing into my mouth.

I swallowed and replied, “I had some more important things on my mind at the time, like the naked man in my bed.”

She cringed.

“Great, now I have the image of my naked uncle in my mind. Thanks for that.”

She tore off a corner of a brownie and popped it into her mouth.

“If you’ve got such a wild, perverted imagination, that’s your own fault, not mine,” I countered. “But seriously, what do I do about this?”

“About what? So, you slept with Barnett. What did you do after you woke up and realized what had happened?”

I blushed and shrunk down in my seat. After Barnett’s reaction, I didn’t really want to admit what I said to him to his niece. Still, she was my best friend, and I didn’t have anyone better to turn to for advice.

“I told him that I wanted to pretend like it didn’t happen. He got mad and stormed out.”

Lily reached for her milk and took a long, slow drink from it.

“So, you used him as a fuck buddy and tossed him aside after the night was over?”

I glared at her.

“That’s not fair. I barely even remembered it happening. I didn’t have the wherewithal to consent—”

“But if you had and the opportunity arose again, what would you have done? Would you have turned Barnett down? Answer me honestly.”

I stared down at what was left of my food. I couldn’t get myself to eat any more, so I set my plate on the coffee table in front of me. What would I have done, if I had been sober enough to give consent?

I looked up to see Lily staring at me expectantly. I sighed.

“I guess…I wouldn’t have turned him down,” I muttered.

Lily nodded knowingly.

“That’s right. And why? Because you have feelings for him.”

Lily set her plate on the coffee table as well.

“You’ve had feelings for him since high school,” she continued. “And I’ve told you, time and time again, that he has feelings for you. What is keeping you from telling him about your feelings?”

“I told you, Lily, he doesn’t—”

“Don’t start with that ‘he doesn’t have feelings for me’ crap. I know what I know. Don’t ask me how, I just do.”

I refused to look at her now, but I could feel her stare burning a hole in the side of my face.

“You need to tell him how you feel, before it’s too late. Do you really want someone like Julia to swoop in and take your place again?”

I shook my head but remained silent.

“Then you can’t let anything hold you back.”

I know that Lily is right, but I can’t let myself get close to Barnett like that, not when my days are numbered. Yet I can’t tell Lily that. She would be devastated, and I couldn’t imagine what Barnett’s reaction would be.

I was trying to think of another excuse when my phone dinged. I could’ve just ignored the notification, but I jumped at the chance for a distraction.

“Hold on a sec,” I said as I picked up my phone.

Lily rolled her eyes but motioned for me to go ahead.

As I looked at my phone screen, a tabloid headline caught my eye:

FITNESS VLOGGER ANNA LEONARD CAUGHT WITH MYSTERY MAN AT INFLUENCER’S PARTY

Below it was a picture of me getting into Lily’s limo, assisted by Lily and her employee from behind and a man’s arms coming out of the limo in front of me. Barnett’s signature cufflinks shined in the light of the photographer’s flash.