“What do you mean?”
“You know.” She meticulously unfolded her napkin and placed it in her lap. “Now that you and Nico are getting married. I heard it wasn’t going to be a long engagement.”
“Who told you about that?”
“Oh, was it a secret?” While her voice dripped with sugar, her eyes were like diamonds, hard and unforgiving.
The fact that my arrangement with Nico wasn’t a secret didn’t stop me from holding out hope I could get out of it. I’d dropped by Nico’s house this morning to get his signature on a furniture order, and he acted like a complete and total jerkoff.
He snapped at me about the cost of the sofa and grilled me about whether I was up charging him. He shamed me for wearing a dress he considered too low cut. He told me he didn’t like my makeup. Then he had the nerve to corner me and try to shove his tongue down my throat before I left. I shuddered, remembering the way he exploded when I pushed him away.
“Not really. Things aren’t final, so I’d appreciate it if you kept it to yourself for the time being.”
Two weeks had passed since the first time I’d spent the night with Kon. I had promised Gian I’d give Kon up and stay away from him, only I couldn’t. Every day we found ways to be together. A hotel here, another stolen moment in my room, a planned meeting in the bathroom of a club or a restaurant, even a dressing room in the department store.
We were playing with fire. We both knew it, and yet it didn’t stop us. I couldn’t get enough of him. Every second spent out of his company felt like torture. I counted down the seconds until our next rendezvous, and the minute I left his side, I started planning our next encounter. It was sick. He was my addiction, and I was pretty sure I’d never stop wanting him.
Ava tilted her head to the side. “That’s not what I heard.”
“What’d you hear?”
“My mom was going on and on about your mom’s plans for the engagement party this morning when I called her. You know how sisters are.”
“Right.”
Evidently, my mom had ignored my request to limit the engagement party guest list to immediate family members and Dominick. I shouldn’t have expected anything else. I hated that my family couldn’t be like most families and stay the hell out of my love life. I wanted to make my own choices, and I resented not being able to.
I’d always thought I was lucky I loved Rocco, and he was the person my family wanted me to marry. Both of our families had pushed us together from the moment we could walk. Now I wondered if I loved Rocco partly due to the fact that my family approved of him and deep down I was a pleaser. As traitorous as it sounded, none of the time I spent with him felt half as significant as the fleeting moments with Kon. As quickly as the thought flooded my brain, I buried it into a box never to be opened. It felt like a betrayal of Rocco.
Ava flipped open her menu. “I don’t understand your attitude toward Nico. I mean, I know you loved Rocco, but it’s time to move on, don’t you think?”
“Mind your own business, Ava.”
Her eyebrows arched and she straightened shoulders, shooting me a cold stare down the length of her tapered nose. “Nico deserves someone loyal who isn’t caught up on another man.”
I tossed my napkin onto my plate, my hands shaking and my temples throbbing. “What Nico and I deserve is none of your concern.”
“Nico won’t tolerate you holding a torch for another man.”
“Have some class, and keep Rocco out of this. He’s dead. He’s been dead for three years.”
Popping onto my feet, I grabbed my purse from the back of my chair and slung it over my shoulder. Gian hated Ava. I didn’t have much to do with her until a little over a year ago, and right now I regretted the decision to overlook all of the things I always hated about her. She was spiteful, she was jealous, she was a bitch, and she’d likely never change. While she was my cousin, I didn’t have to spend time with her outside of family events, and I no longer would as of today.
I was about three steps away from her when she said, “Who said I was talking about Rocco?”
I stopped in my tracks and whirled around. “What did you say?”
She folded her arms across her chest, and her plastic boobs shot up her bony chest. “You heard me.”
“Are you accusing me of something?” I curled my hands around the edge of the table and bent at the waist until we were eye to eye. “Because the last time I checked, you aren’t exactly the pristine angel your parents think you are. I’d be happy to enlighten them, if need be.”
Over the last year, I’d learned a lot of damning things about Ava. She laughingly told me about the affairs she had with men underneath her dad, including names and descriptions of what they did. If she screwed with me, I wouldn’t hesitate to fight back.