I watched as Eric’s fists tightened at the way the two older women were being so blatantly disrespectful towards Ladasha. Ladasha’s eyes met with mine and I mouthed an apology. Michelle bounced over to Ladasha in her costume and smiled brightly. “I don’t know what they are talking about. You look fabulous!” She placed her hands on Ladasha’s waist and smiled. “I would kill for your curves.” She winked at my best friend and walked away to help Cooper locate some of his costume pieces.

“Ouch!” I whined as my mom stood behind me and poked me with a pin.

“Hold still!”

I looked towards Ladasha and could tell the women’s comments were truly bothering her. “Mom, why do you hang out with those ladies? They aren’t nice people.”

My mom glanced at the two women and shook her head. “I’ve been friends with those two for years. Besides, they weren’t exactly wrong,” she murmured.

I was shocked. I had heard my mom say some terrible things to me, but saying them about Ladasha pissed me off. I was embarrassed by how closed-minded this town could be sometimes. I was sure Dasha already felt a bit out of place being one of the only black people in the town, but for them to speak to her in a way to draw attention to it was too much.

“IT’S FINE,” SHE told me after we finished trying on costumes. We walked around the backyard, Freckles meowing in Ladasha’s arms, and sat at a bench after brushing off the snow covering it.

“It’s not,” I insisted.

“I ran into Eric last night.” When she said that, I raised an eyebrow. I wasn’t sure if they had spoken since the drunken car ride home on Friday. Whenever I mentioned it to either of them, they shrugged it off as if it had never happened.

“What happened?”

“It’s embarrassing,” she said. I asked her once again. It appeared Ladasha had been standing in the bathroom, door closed, giving herself one of her pep talks. “I realized I hadn’t felt comfortable or had confidence in myself in a long time…and after Eric mentioned it in the car that night, I knew I had to find it. So I stood in front of the mirror and said it over and over again. ‘I’m good enough.’

“And I kept saying it until I somewhat felt it. And when I opened the bathroom door, there he was. And he took my hands and said it back to me. Over and over again.” Her voice sang as she remembered her moment with Eric. She started to frown. “And then his fiancée had to go and be one of the nicest people ever. I’ve never met a person who hugs so much and is so touchy-feely. And I’m falling for her soon-to-be husband. I’m a terrible person.” She sighed, sticking out her bottom lip.

“It could be worse.” I smirked.

“How so?”

I opened my mouth to speak and closed it. My shoulders shrugged. “No. You’re right. You’re a terrible person.” Ladasha laughed and nudged me in the arm. She rested her head on my shoulder.

“What are we going to do with our lives?”

I had been wondering the same thing. There was one thing I knew—I didn’t want to stay in this small town anymore. I had outgrown it. And I didn’t want to be far from Ladasha. We needed each other. “Let’s go back to New York.”

Her eyes lit up and she grinned ear to ear. “I’m so glad you said that because I kind of sort of applied to a summer program at New York Film Academy.” I was ecstatic for her! Film was the right road for her to take. It was her everything and I knew she would shine at it. “Eric pushed me to do it last night.”

“Dasha, that’s amazing!”

“That’s not all. I kind of sort of applied for a job at a dance studio in New York. Under your name.” She closed her eyes to avoid seeing my reaction, “I would need a roommate and I couldn’t think of anyone else I would want to live with. Please don’t kill me.”

I didn’t kill her. I hugged her.

THE WEEK FLEW by, and it was two days before the big Christmas party. I was actually pretty excited for it all, surprisingly; it seemed to be shaping up to be a good time. I sat in the coach house with Cooper as he stared at his laptop, going over emails. “Have you seen my cell phone?” he asked. “I swear I hate those damn things. If it’s not physically attached to my body, I lose it.”

“I haven’t seen it.”

His hands ran across his face. I watched him murmur something under his breath before he spoke loud enough for me to hear him. “Shit. My manager said he has been calling me all week. He said it’s urgent. I need to go back to New York for a day to meet with him.”

“Why?” I wondered. It seemed like he was holding back from telling me something, fighting the urge to let me into his head completely.

“I have to take care of some work. Figure out a few issues.”

The sound of his voice was filled with worry, which in turn made me feel extremely troubled. “Coop, is everything all right?”

He bit the tip of his thumb and smiled. “Yeah. I’m sure it’s fine. He didn’t say what the problem was. Kyle overreacts. I’m sure it’s nothing.” He closed his laptop, leaned over, and kissed my nose.

I felt a vibration under me and pulled his cell phone out from the couch cushion before handing it to him. My heart raced as I looked at him with hopeful eyes. “Let me come with you.”

Chapter Thirty-Four

WE SAT ON the airplane, and I was freaking the hell out as I thought of landing in New York City. I didn’t let Andrea know how worried Kyle actually was in his letters. Something was definitely not right, and I needed to find out what was going on as soon as possible.

“Did you bring sunglasses?”

“No, why?” she asked.

Damn. I knew the paparazzi would be waiting at the airport for photos. Kyle had already set it up for them to get their shots of me returning to the city. He said it may be needed down the line.

As we got off of the plane, I slid on my sunglasses. Andrea looked at me with questioning eyes. I took her hand into mine and rushed her out of the airport. There were a ton of people flashing their cameras in our faces. The look of horror on Andrea’s face made me cringe. I felt awful. I quickly pulled her into a taxi and slammed the door behind us.

“What the hell was that?!” she hollered, looking at me, shocked. My head hung low in embarrassment. I felt terrible.

“Welcome to my life.”

We arrived to the hotel, just to be tackled by more paparazzi there, and I raced her inside before any questions could be asked. As we finally made it to the room, I sighed heavily and fell onto the bed. Andrea stood with her hands on her h*ps and raised an eyebrow.

“Cooper. What’s going on? Why are they following you?”

“Iris and I are filing for divorce. Ya know, they love their drama.”

Her hand flew to her mouth, “Oh my gosh. They are going to think I’m the other woman!”She paused before continuing, “How do you get used to that?”

I took off my shoes as she joined me on the bed. “You don’t.” I needed to warn her if she came across the paparazzi when I wasn’t around. “Andie…those people. They have a way of knowing things about us. Things we don’t know about ourselves. And they lie. It’s their f**king jobs to lie. Just…don’t feed into any of it if you cross paths with them.” She nodded with understanding, but I knew it wasn’t something she could understand without experiencing it firsthand.

“When do you meet with your manager?”

“Tomorrow morning.”

She removed her shoes, and climbed behind me, and started giving me a back massage. My eyes closed with satisfaction as her fingers rubbed me down.

“We should go to a world where there is no drama. No death. No cheating. No divorce. No one else but us. Back to where we started,” she said as she lightly kissed my earlobe. A slight moan escaped my mouth.

“Back to our space in between,” I agreed.

“Back to us.”

I turned towards her and rotated her body on top of mine. I brought her face close to mine and studied her beauty. She wasn’t the same girl I’d met that one Friday night. That girl was hardly there. But today, Andrea was staring back at me, her eyes sparkling. Her light had been found. My lips ran across hers and she slightly parted her mouth, before pulling back. Raising an eyebrow, I asked her what was wrong.

Her blue eyes blinked and I watched them reappear. “I know people have told me that I need time. Time to heal. I need space to find my way. But what they don’t know is I have found my way. I was led to you during my lowest form of Chaos. I found my Order. I found you. Cooper, I love you.”

Our next kiss was the best kiss we had ever shared. It was as if our lips were destined to be together forever and always. I pulled back and smiled towards her. “I love you, too.”

I laid her on the bed and stood over her. She was wearing a light blue button-down shirt and tight blue jeans, f**king stunning. I started with the top button and worked my way down. She was patiently waiting with her arms to her sides, and I took my time. We weren’t in any hurry. We were going to enjoy this moment together, making love for the first time with one another.

Before when we had sex, it was a way of forgetting. Of getting lost, of letting go of reality, and finding a single moment when we could shut off our brains from overthinking. But now… now we did it for us. Just the two of us. No one else.

I bent down and kissed her stomach with gentle pecks. She lifted my arms and pulled my shirt over my head. Her fingertips ran across my chest as she pulled me closer to her. I began kissing her neck, running my tongue across the same spot, massaging her skin with my mouth, sucking lightly, moving down to her collarbones. I continued to explore her body. She moaned my name, begging for me, but I was the one addicted.

“Cooper…” she sighed as I curved my tongue to outline her bra. Sliding my hand behind her back, I unhooked the bra and slid it off her body. Her br**sts were so perfect, and I was happy to glide my mouth over her hardened nipples. Her whimpers pleading for more of me turned me on so f**king much. She unzipped my jeans and slid them off, allowing her hands to travel into my boxers before she slid them to the ground. For a moment I just lay there.

“Mmm…Andie…” I whispered as my lips explored her br**sts a moment longer before I covered her mouth with mine. I kissed her hard, and she kissed back harder. Deeper. She parted my lips and allowed our tongues to get to know one another on a deeper level. I loved her kisses. I loved her so f**king much.

We didn’t leave the hotel room. We stayed wrapped in each other’s arms. I never could have dreamt of the beautiful moment we had shared with one another. That night, we stayed up, learning more about one another. Finding out more details about our drives in life. Our passions. I asked her everything I could think to ask about her life. And she asked me the same. Her mind brought out the best memories, and she would start laughing as she shared them with me. I wanted to know everything about Andrea Mae Evans, and I was so thankful she took me there.

She didn’t put her clothes back on. Instead she wore one of my white t-shirts that swallowed up her small frame, yet somehow it appeared to be a damned perfect fit in my mind. She picked up my camera and started taking pictures of me. I felt uncomfortable because being behind the camera was where I belonged.

“Tell me what you like about me,” she grinned, holding the camera up and snapping away. I hesitated, rolling my eyes, knowing how this game ended the last time. “Don’t worry. I’m not freaking out this time.” Her smile pulled me in, she looked so sexy in my t-shirt.

My hands wrapped around her waist and I lowered her down to the bed. Straddling her, I smiled, allowing her to keep taking photos of me. Then I took the camera away, sitting it next to us, and stared at her. “Alright…but I’m warning you, if you panic, I’ll hold you down forever.” I cautioned. She smirked wider, wiggling her nose.