Girl Abroad

THERE ARE A PRECIOUS FEW SECONDS OF BLISSFUL IGNORANCE BEFORE the memories of last night present themselves forward. It wasn’t a dream. I am the girl who spent the evening barricaded in Lord Tulley’s bathroom. I’ll never show myself among noble society again.

Can’t say I’m too bummed about that bit.

Downstairs, I prepare myself to take a ribbing from the guys as I walk into the kitchen for breakfast. Having all night to stew about it, I’m sure Lee has a few more I-told-you-sos to get out of his system, not to mention a thorough interrogation about my relationship with Nate. He was so upset about my secret keeping that he went back to the pub after we got home last night, where I’m sure he griped about me to some poor bartender trapped behind the bar.

“Morning.” I sit at the breakfast bar beside Jamie. He gives me a shoulder squeeze while Lee remains mute, sipping his tea like I’m not there.

Jack pushes eggs and sausage on a plate for me. “Morning,” he murmurs to me, watching Lee from the corner of his eye.

“Everything okay?” I ask warily. “I know last night was a bit chaotic, but— ”

“House meeting!” Lee interrupts, shooting to his feet.

“What?”

Arms crossed, he looms over us with a hard glare. “We’re having a house meeting, Abigail. Right now.”

“Oh. Okay.”

He’s still pissed at me. Clearly.

“I’ll be nice. I’ll permit you to choose what we address first.” He bares his teeth at me in a feral smile. “What shall it be? Your sordid love affair with our friend Nate or the fact that you placed yourself in danger last night despite numerous objections from yours truly?”

“I figured we’d start with your I-told-you-so,” I answer. “Because that’s what you really want to say, isn’t it?”

Before he can murder me for my insolence, the doorbell rings.

“To be continued,” Lee growls before stomping off. A moment later, there’s some commotion at the front door before a stunned Lee comes chasing after an angry Yvonne. She’s wearing a black peacoat that flaps around the knees of her dark-blue skinny jeans as she marches toward me.

“Bitch!” she hisses at me. “You must think I’m so stupid. Have a good laugh, did you?”

A queasy pretzel knots up my stomach. “Yvonne, I don’t— ”

“Do not even try to play dumb! I heard that one”—she nods toward Lee— “going on at the pub all about you and Nate. You going to lie straight to my face?”

Lee blanches. The repentant flicker in his horrified eyes tells me he feels bad about gossiping.

Yvonne curls the fingers of both hands around the top of Jamie’s empty chair. Her knuckles are nearly white. “I’m a complete mug, aren’t I? Try to be nice and the first thing you do is stab me in the back. Fucking slag.”

“Hey.” Jack shoves back from the counter and stands. “That’s enough. You don’t get to come storming into my house and yelling at my roommates because your boyfriend dumped you. Take it out on him.”

I swallow the lump of regret in my throat. “Yvonne, I don’t know what you heard, but I’m sorry,” I say sincerely. “I swear nothing happened until after you broke up.”

“Do I look fucking mental? All those trips driving you all over the bloody country. You did this on purpose. You bitch.”

“No, you need to go.” Jack approaches her, pointing the way out. “I’m not having it.”

I try again to apologize to her. “I really am sorry. Honestly, Nate and I only got together after— ”

“I don’t want to hear it,” she snaps at me, livid and red-faced. “You’re a cow and a bad person, and you can fuck right off!”

At that, she stalks out of the flat and slams the door behind her, leaving us all stuttering to catch our breath.

I’m still trying to make sense of what happened when Jack rounds on me. “Seriously, Abbey?”

I blink. “What?”

“You and Nate are, what, a couple now?”

“No. I never said that.”

“You told her you ‘got together’— ”

“Yes, got together. Hooked up. Whatever.” Embarrassment creeps up my neck as my dirty laundry is aired to the entire house. “Which you already knew about, Jack.”

“Yes,” Lee interjects, his voice tight. “Let’s discuss that, shall we? How is it that Jackie knew all about this torrid love affair while the rest of us were kept in the dark?”

Jack ignores him, glaring at me. “You still think Nate is a good guy? After all this?”

“All what? Yvonne showed up pissed because she found out I see Nate sometimes,” I retort. “How is that Nate’s fault? He broke up with her before he and I so much as kissed.”

“How can you be so naive? You just saw her. Does that look like a woman who was let down gently? Nate doesn’t care about anyone. Certainly not you.”

I don’t know if Jack’s specifically trying to hurt me with that remark, but it stings just the same.

“But you do?” I shoot back. “You care about me so much you never once asked me to stop seeing him. Right, Jack?”

Lee suddenly gasps.

No. Oh God, no. Not again.

“Hang on,” Lee orders, glancing between the two of us. “Are you two…”

Jamie crosses his arms. “That’s what it sounds like.”

For fuck’s sake.

“We had one rule!” Lee shouts. “To avoid exactly this kind of ugly shit.”

“Would you fuck off with your rules?” Jack snaps.

Lee spins on me. “You betrayed me.”

My jaw drops. “What?”

“We’re supposed to tell each other everything, and you’ve been sneaking around with not one but two blokes? Unacceptable!”

The doorbell rings again.

“For fuck’s sake!” Lee screeches. “Can these people not let us finish one bloody house meeting!”

Unlike him, I’m overcome with relief at the interruption. That is, as long as it’s not Yvonne coming back for a second go at me.

This time, I answer it myself, desperate to place some physical distance between myself and my angry roommates. When I open the door, I’m startled to find Sophie Brown on the front stoop.

“Sophie, hey— ”

“Abbey, thank God.” To my shock, she grabs both my hands and searches my face urgently. “Are you all right? Please tell me he didn’t harm you.”

It takes me a second to realize she means Ben.

“What? No. He didn’t.” I squeeze her trembling hands. “I promise.”

“Truly?”

“Truly. The worst he did was snort a ton of cocaine and mock me for not wanting to get trashed with his friends.”

Relief and disgust war in Sophie’s eyes. “You’ve no idea how relieved I am.”

“How did you know what happened?”

“Ben rang this morning.” She looks annoyed. “He has the dreadful habit of doing that. Behaving in the most atrocious manner and then ringing me afterward to warn me of the potential repercussions.”

I gesture for her to enter. “Why don’t you come in? It’s freezing out there.”

“Oh. Yes. All right then.”

She steps into the front hall, where she removes her long fitted winter coat. Beneath it, she looks chic in black slacks and a red sweater.

“I need to leave for class soon, but I’ve got about an hour. Would you like a cup of tea?” I offer as I hang up her coat.

“Yes, thank you.”

I deposit Sophie in the living room and duck into the kitchen to prepare her tea and pour myself another cup of coffee.

Jamie has gone upstairs, but Lee and Jack are still there, so I give them a contrite look and lower my voice. “Can we please just table everything for now? I don’t want any drama in front of Sophie.”

Jack nods tightly. Lee glowers at me before heading for the stairs. I know they’re not happy with me right now, but it’s not like I planned to get trapped in Ben’s flat and then have my romantic life explode like a grenade in all our faces.

I return with Sophie’s tea on a little ceramic tray because I know how picky Brits can be about preparing it themselves. Thanking me, she pours some milk into the steaming cup and adds one teaspoon of sugar.

She uses the small spoon to stir her tea. “I tendered my resignation before I came here.”

I stare at her in surprise. “You did? Why?”

“Because I can’t do it anymore,” she says simply. “Work for that vile man.”

My eyebrows shoot up. Whoa. I got the sense she didn’t like him, but it’s obvious her feelings for Ben go beyond disgust. It sounds like she truly despises him.

“I never wanted this job,” Sophie confesses. She sips her tea, hands shaking slightly. “My father worked for the duke—Ben’s father, Andrew—for thirty years.”

“He did?”

She nods. “My grandfather had connections with the Tulleys and was able to secure a job with them for my father. Dad started as a driver, but Andrew quickly took a liking to him. My dad is—was—a boisterous, outgoing man. Everyone was drawn to him. Nowadays, he’s not as vibrant.” Sadness flickers in her eyes. “He and Andrew grew close, friends even, and eventually Dad became his private secretary. Seemed only natural that when Benjamin required his own assistant, my father recommended me for the position. I was twenty-two when I began working for the Tulleys.”

“Was Ben easier to work with at the start?”

“God, no.” She laughs derisively. “He’s an absolute wreck of a man. Scandals follow him everywhere. I needed money, however, to pay my way through uni. I was planning to leave his employment once I graduated, but then Dad got sick. It happened so fast.”

My heart squeezes.

“When I told you I pay out of pocket for my father’s housing, what I mean is my terms of employment pay for it. The Tulleys have a deep fondness for my dad, so the duke was more than happy to renegotiate my contract with his son to include provisions for my father’s care.”

“That was kind of him,” I say.

She sets down her cup, guilt creasing her face. “I want you to know—I’ve never been asked to cover up any criminal or illegal behavior. I’ve never witnessed him lay a hand on a woman or do anything untoward sexually. But I’ve flushed his drugs and tucked him in the back seats of cars after causing some scene or another at a club or party. I’ve cleaned up his messes because if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to keep my father where he is.”

“I get it,” I say, completely sincere. “I would do the same for my dad.”

Sophie gives a firm shake of her head. “But no more. Benjamin has conducted himself in reprehensible ways before, but he went too far last night. He said he locked you in the loo?” She looks horrified now.

I reassure her. “No, I locked myself in. They didn’t want me to go, so I needed to escape in order to try and call a cab.”

“But they took your phone?” she prompts. “He mentioned something about that as well.”

I nod, my pulse quickening when I remember the panic I’d felt after Ben and his friends wouldn’t let me leave.

Noting my response, Sophie’s eyes flash. “And who is to say what would have happened if you hadn’t gone to the bathroom, Abbey? Ben might not be a sexual aggressor, but I don’t know about his mates. He doesn’t fraternize with the most upstanding of citizens. He put you in a dangerous position last night.”

“No, I put myself in it. But I understand what you’re saying. And I don’t excuse Ben’s behavior. I’m not too thrilled with him at the moment either.”

“I can’t work for a man like that.” Her tone is bleak. Laced with unhappiness.

“But what about your dad?”

“I will need to find other arrangements for him, I’m afraid.”

That makes me sick to my stomach. As touching as it is that she’s resigning because of what Ben did to me, she has to think about her family. Her dad needs to come first here.

“This isn’t only about you,” Sophie says as if reading my mind. “It has been a long time coming. You asked me what he does, remember? And I responded that he ‘runs’ his nonprofit. That was a lie. I run it. I do all the work and receive none of the recognition. Meanwhile, Benjamin makes mess after mess, and I’m forced to clean up after him.” She shakes her head. “No more. I don’t want this to be my life. And I know Dad wouldn’t want it to be either. He liked and respected Andrew Tulley, but Ben doesn’t take after his father. The duke isn’t the brightest of men, but he’s not self-destructive.”

“Ben must take after Lawrence,” I say dryly.

“It appears so.” She sets her cup on the tray. “Anyway. I wanted to apologize again for his behavior.”

“It’s not your apology to give.”

“Nonetheless. I am sorry.” Sophie rises from the sofa. “I should be off. Thank you for the tea, Abbey.”

“You’re welcome here any time. And I really appreciate that you stopped by.”

Once Sophie is gone and I’ve shut the front door, I turn around to find Lee standing right in front of me.

I jerk in surprise. “Jesus, where did you come from?”

“I’m a ninja.” Lee glares at me. “House meeting.”

I throw up my hand. “No. We’ll have to save it for tonight. I need to get ready for school.” When he opens his mouth to object, I hurry on. “Please. This has already been the busiest morning I’ve ever had, and it’s not even nine.”

“Fine. Tonight,” Lee mutters.

I brush past him and charge upstairs, closing my bedroom door behind me. I lean against it and take a breath. Trying to absorb everything that occurred in the span of forty frickin’ minutes.

At the memory of Yvonne’s ambush, I release a heavy breath and realize I should probably give Nate a heads-up about what went down. When I grab my phone from the desk, I find a couple missed texts from him, sent while I was chatting with Sophie. I ignore those and send my own.

Me: Yvonne came by.

He responds a few minutes later.

Nate: What for?

Me: A chat.Nôvel/Dr(a)ma.Org - Content owner.

Nate: Dare I ask?

Me: She stopped just short of flipping the dining room table. After calling me a cow.

Nate: Whoa. I’m sorry. Wouldn’t have thought her capable of that.

Me: All good. I held my ground.

Nate: Sure you’re all right?

Me: I’m fine. And to answer your earlier questions, I’m fine after last night too. I should’ve listened to you about Ben. He ended up being a creep.

Nate: I’m glad you came to your senses, but I’m sorry it had to happen the way it did. That bloody prick, not letting you leave his flat. I’d like to pay him a visit.

Me: Don’t. It’s over. I don’t even want to think about that guy anymore.

Nate: I’m working tonight, but I’d like to see you. Come over around 10?

Me: Yeah. That sounds good. See you later xx

When I go downstairs, Lee and Jamie have already left for class, but Jack lingers at the front door. We eye each other for a moment. Then he holds out his arms without a word and I step into them.

He wraps those muscular arms around me in a tight hug. “Sorry I snapped at you in the kitchen.”

I hug him back. “It’s all right. Tensions were running high.”

“You okay?” he asks, his breath tickling my forehead as he presses a kiss atop it. “It’s been a bloody mad morning.”

“Tell me about it.” I tip my face up, and suddenly his lips are on mine.

“I was so fucking worried about you last night,” he says hoarsely.

I touch his cheek, giving it a reassuring stroke. “I know. And I never got the chance to thank you for coming to my rescue.”

Jack kisses me again, deep and earnest.

And I realize I can’t keep doing this. Seeing them both. I just made plans to meet Nate later tonight, and now I’m standing here kissing Jack.

It’s time to make a choice. I know that. But I also can’t help thinking about everything Celeste said yesterday, how I don’t even know what I’m choosing.

Sure, they both offer me hot kisses and sexy words, but what they’re sorely lacking in providing is clarity. I want to know where I stand with them. Where they truly see things going with me.

I think it’s time I find out.