All Mixed Up by ANGEL PAYNE

Author:ANGEL PAYNE [PAYNE, ANGEL]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance
ISBN: 9780998615806
Publisher: Angel Payne Writes, LLC
Published: 2019-04-16T03:00:00+00:00

17 Days and Counting

“He did that?”

“He said that?”

Even on a Skype video call, I was pretty sure telling Leese and Gigi had been a poorly-executed case of TMI. Sometimes, even with them, too much information was just too much information.

But in this case, I’d been damn near ready to spill my guts to the next stranger I sat next to on the Metro. Not that Lucien hadn’t done exactly the same thing, over the last seven days—resulting in me finally breaking down and pinging two-thirds of my girl posse under the thin pretense of discussing their return trip to Paris.

Thin was right.

Inside a minute, they’d both seen through my façade.

Inside another, they’d guessed I was actually calling about man issues. Neither had even questioned about which man.

“Okay, wait. I need a review.” Leese, ever the pragmatic redhead, went I Love Genie with her forearms while leaning toward her laptop cam. “So after the Paris moment”—her nickname for Lucien and my’s first meet on Avanti’s opening night—“You decided Paget was worth some Parisian-style fun after all?”

“You mean after he went all Prince Phillip on our Metro Sleeping Beauty?” Gigi giggled it out, but her mirth was short-lived. Leese knew how to dagger a moment with her accusing snort.

“Okay, whoa,” she injected, glaring harder into her camera. “Pause button. ‘Metro Sleeping Beauty?’ What the hell, Darienne? What happ—oh, you do not with the eye roll at me, missie.”

I was tempted to continue, because a riled-up Leese was truly a sight to behold. Instead, I went for a bratty tongue poke and a good-natured laugh. “Not a deliberate holdout, okay? I just wanted to get to the point.”

But that was only half the truth too. I was holding back key details—though in my defense, an over-the-ocean Skype call didn’t feel like the best arena in which to tell them I’d signed a pay-by-the-date agreement with one of the world’s most notorious players. For the purposes of this exchange, only here and now, the description was modified for purposes of necessity. And sanity. Though I wasn’t exactly sure whose.

Gigi cleared her throat, stepping into her diplomatic side with ease. I could’ve kissed her, even over the miles, for building on my point and prompting, “So that point being…”

“A consent for casual, that spilled into something more once you hit the sack.”

Leese’s jump in on the conclusion didn’t surprise me. Didn’t stop my answering grimace. Hearing the situation so plainly stated, especially by a person I respected so much, was bizarre. On one hand, I was flooded in relief—but the chaser was a burst of crazy discomfort.

“Well, yeah. More or less,” I finally muttered. I focused tighter on both their faces. “Why isn’t this fazing either of you?”

Gigi shrugged. “Should it?”

I sat straighter, fighting off alarm. “Did Nico…say anything to you?” The man had stayed on in Paris, working nonstop with Milo on the opening month logistics kinks at Avanti. I hadn’t thought he had the time or urge to care about anything beyond that, though he and Lucien seemed good friends beyond their business relationship.

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