Chapter 101

The next day, Angela asks to hang out with me so we go out to a small café to have brunch. Brunch is one of those novelties that I’m fairly certain people use drink alcohol before noon. I’m still trying to stay awake so I order coffee. Angela has an orange juice in front of her, but I don’t know if it has champagne in it.

With the wait she’s fretting, I wouldn’t doubt it. She likely needs something to take off the edge.

“Are you okay?” I ask, after we’ve ordered our food.

She cuts right to the chase, something I can deeply appreciate. “Something’s going on with Neil.”

“I know,” I say but I’m not sure if I should elaborate. Angela gave me the green light to go after Neil sexually, but that doesn’t mean I want to own up to the fact that I have.

Saying something like, Neil’s dad’s mad that I got hot and heavy with your boyfriend, doesn’t seem like the most tactful answer, even if it’s probably the most accurate.

“He was called in to speak with his father,” I say, and hope that’s enough. I’m willing to bet that the Hayes’s patriarch has enough of a reputation to fill in the blanks.

It does. Understanding immediately flashes across Angela’s gaze, though she seems no less anxious.

“That might explain it, but…” She sighs. “These past few days, he’s been more… intense than usual. He keeps asking me questions about the future.”

For a typical couple, those kinds of questions might not seem all that odd, but Angela and Neil are only dating for the show of it, to please their families. They have no real meaningful attraction to each other. They seem to be okay with each other, but I’m not sure they are even friends.

Future talk doesn’t seem to fit them.

“He asked me…” Angela looks around but no one is paying us any attention. She still lowers her voice. “He wanted to know what I thought our relationship might look like down the line.”

“What did you say?” I ask. I don’t like the way the question sits sourly at the pit of my stomach, like I ate something spoiled.

“What relationship?” Angela says. She taps her manicured nails on the table. “I don’t know. Maybe I was naïve. I always thought this thing between Neil and I was temporary.”

“Just because he asked what you want in the future doesn’t mean he wants to make your relationship permanent.” Maybe I was grasping at straws. Maybe the thought of those two married with children made me want to flip the table over.

I don’t know why. Angela is very nice, as is Neil. Their children would be attractive, capable, and smart.

But they don’t love each other. I like them both. I don’t want them to be miserable.

“He asked me how I would feel if he and I were together forever,” Angela says.

Oh. That seems pretty definitive.

My heart sinks down into my stomach. “That can’t be something you want.”

“It isn’t. Trust me, I’m not thrilled about spending the rest of my life married to someone I don’t love,” she says, frowning. “But if that’s what needs to happen, then I’m resigned to it. Besides there are plenty of worse Alphas than Neil.”

“But that’s so… sad. Don’t you want to marry for love?” I ask. “What if you find your mate?”

Her demeanor wilts somewhat but she shrugs. “Life isn’t a fairy tale, Chloe. Very rarely do people get what they actually want. If I can help my family, while being with a man who isn’t the worst… I can’t hope for much more than that.”

I understand life can be difficult. Just as I understand that sometimes we have to sacrifice our own needs for those we care about.

But to feel like she has to settle?

And for her to settle for Neil?

I hate the way she talks about him, like being with him is such a burden. Yes, he’s a raving asshole sometimes, and a control freak most of the other times. But he isn’t someone that anyone should feel like they settled for.

He’s gorgeous and smart. He can be kind much of the time. He’s a generous lover, and never once pushed me farther than I was willing to go. Even now, thinking of the way he kissed me, with his hand stretched across the base of my neck, has me hot under the collar.

Angela watches me closely. I try to play it cool, not wanting to give myself away, but I’m a lousy liar compared to seemingly everyone else at the Academy. She can see my distain clear on my face.

“I’m sorry, Chloe,” she says. “If there was any way I could change things…”

I shake my head, annoyed at myself for putting so much blame on Angela. She’s a victim here, too. She’s also a catch, one that Neil doesn’t want either. Both of them are great and deserve great people. Neither should have to settle.

“I’m sorry, too.”

Our food order comes and we eat for a while. As we are about to part, Angela asks me, “Are you coming to the formal dinner event the brothers are holding?”

I nod. “I’m bringing Mia.”

Angela gives me a small smile. “I’ll see you there then.”

I don’t know why I’m surprised. Of course, Neil would bring his girlfriend to a formal event. Yet knowing they will both be there, interacting together, twists around inside of me like shrapnel.

On the way home, I make a side-trip to the hospital to see Tide. I told Neil I was going to brunch with Angela but didn’t mention when I would be back. He didn’t ask any questions either, seemingly just wanting to get me away from him.

So I reason that I could make time to visit the hospital without him knowing.

The nurses seem surprised when I ask for his room number.

“I’m a friend,” I say. That’s true, right? Close enough, I guess.

One of the nurses gives me the number. “None of his family has visited,” she says.

I can’t imagine it. I know he has family, and that they share their debt and gambling addiction. It seems so strange to me that he would be here and no one would visit him.

If I was in the hospital, nothing would be able to keep my mom away.

And the Hayes brothers… Well, they might check to make sure I wasn’t dead, at least.

Tide is still in a coma. He might look peaceful, like he’s sleeping, if his face wasn’t so battered and bruised.

I feel a fresh pang of guilt. I know this isn’t my fault. I know that even if I gave him the money he needed, he might not have used it to pay off the loan sharks. I know, even if he paid them off, they might still do this.

But it still hurts. Especially knowing his own family hasn’t been visiting.

I resolve to visit him more often, at least until he’s better.

No one should have to be in the hospital alone.

By the time I make it back to the Pyramid, I’m so hungry, I’m borderline cranky. I head straight for the kitchen, ready to chow down.

As I draw closer, I hear the sound of voices.

I recognize Beau and Neil, but can’t make out the words.

Until Beau starts shouting, incredulous, “Dad wants you to marry her?”