Chapter 217
-CHARLOTTE-
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We were already on the second coffee when they started.
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Blair first. Then Olivia. The kind of questioning that was not actually a question. More like a statement. More like they were trying to confirm what they already knew and were being polite enough to let me lie first.
“Nico mentioned something strange,” Blair said, too casual, stirring her cup like she was discussing the weather and not my public humiliation. “Luca picking you up. You know. Lifting you into his arms. Carrying you to the lift. In front of a hotel bar. With everyone looking and Luca not having a care in the world. But it is Luca. He never has a care in the world. Scandals follow him wherever he goes.”
I felt my face go hot.
I did not think Nico would tell them.
Why was I even surprised?
The man had been eating popcorn. Having the time of his life!
“He was upset about something,” I said. “He reacted poorly.”
I did not want to go into the details. Or that I had been acting out because he would not give me sex. Or that he had then given me sex. Against a wall. On a desk. In front of Barcelona.
That part was staying in the suite where it belonged.
“Sure.” Olivia tipped her cup. “I think he was jealous seeing you with Nico. That’s why he acted that way.”
I frowned.
Jealous.
Of Nico?
Why would he ever be jealous of him? Other than those days when Nico beat him in a race. But they always joked about that. They did not get jealous. They got competitive and then they drank.
“Definitely not.”
“And why not?” Olivia asked, smiling like she already had an answer and was only waiting for me to trip into it.
“Because to Luca, I’m just his best friend. He has never truly recognized me before. I don’t think that will ever change. I’m not like the women he sleeps around with. And the only girl he’s ever truly liked was you.”
Olivia snorted like I had just told her the biggest lie.
“Please. Luca liked the idea of me for five minutes because I was not interested in him like all the other girls
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throwing themselves his way. That is not the same thing.”
Blair smiled like she had heard this speech before.
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“You know it sounds a lot like Roman and Olivia. He denied it until he couldn’t take it anymore. You’ll see eventually. Even Olivia at one point didn’t think Roman liked her, even though I could see it as clear as day.”
“I was in denial,” Olivia said.
“It is not like Roman and Olivia,” I said.
Roman had stayed away because he did not want to hurt his friendship with Ethan.
This was different.
This was one night and a rule I had already agreed to and a body that had not gotten the memo.
This was love bites under my shirt and Luca saying just one night while he was still hard. This was me having no right to want more because I had been the one who offered the deal in the first place.
“You two are so wrong.”
“I have a bet ongoing with Roman.” Olivia laughed. “You can join in.”
I gaped at her. “A bet on my friendship with Luca?”
“Something like that.”
“That is insane.”
“That’s marriage,” Blair said. “You have to keep the fun going. Otherwise you start talking about grocery lists and whose mother is worse.”
I almost laughed.
I could not believe they were having fun at my torture.
I was not telling them about last night. I was keeping that to myself. If I said he carried me upstairs and then I lost my virginity against a wall, Blair would order champagne and Olivia would text Roman to collect based on their bet.
The conversation shifted when we hit the store.
Too many mirrors. Music that made everything feel lighter.
Blair and Olivia went wild in the way only women with husbands did. Women who could not wait to surprise their men when they got home. Women who shopped like seduction was a sport and they were both winning.
They chose the most revealing outfits they could find.
They kept holding pieces up against me like I was a project.
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“No.”
“Yes,” Olivia said.
“That is not a dress. That’s a top, given how short it is.”
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“That’s the point,” Blair said. “Believe us, Luca will lose his mind and you’ll see for yourself there is something between the two of you.”
“There is friendship between the two of us.”
Olivia held up a black slip that looked illegal.
Blair nodded. “This. She needs this.”
They piled different options on my arm. Insisting I try them on. Black. Deep red. Skirts and dresses that would not survive a hard breeze.
Something with a neckline that made me want to apologize to my own collarbones. I was so far out of my comfort zone I could see it in the mirror, standing behind me, judging.
“I look like I got lost on the way to someone else’s date,” I said from the fitting room.
“Good,” Olivia called. “That is the goal.”
Blair’s voice came through the door next. “If you can sit down in it, it’s too long.”
“That is not a real rule.”
“It is now,” they said together.
I laughed despite myself.
I did not tell them why I stopped saying no.
If it could help me get Luca to sleep with me again, I would try it.
That part stayed with me.
I turned in the mirror and saw the marks on my throat I had tried to cover. Last night came back in a rush.
One night. Just one night. That’s all it was supposed to be.
These clothes were me cheating on the deal.
I still took them off the hanger.
“This one,” Olivia decided, holding up something with almost no back when I came out. She looked far too pleased. “I would like to see Luca survive something like this.”
Blair tilted her head. “He won’t. He’ll pretend he survived. Then he will start a fight with anything in front of
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him.”
“Maybe with Nico,” Olivia added.
“Especially Nico if he sees him.”
I paid before I could think twice.
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On the street the Barcelona heat hit us again. Shopping bags bumped my thigh. Olivia linked her arm through mine like we had been doing this for years.
“For the record,” she said, “best friends don’t look at each other like that.”
“Like what? When did you catch us looking at each other?”
“You weren’t there. If you’re talking about the bar.” I quickly added.
“Nico was,” Blair said. “Nico gossips like a woman.”
They both laughed at that.
I could not help laughing as well.
“He had popcorn,” I admitted.
Olivia stopped walking. “He had popcorn?”
I nodded. “In the bar. Watching us. Like it was a show.”
“Again?” Olivia exclaimed. “Where does he keep pulling these popcorns from? It’s like he always has a stash on him, just waiting for the right moment to start munching!”
Blair put a hand over her heart. “You have to admit, he is funny.”
“Sure.” I rolled my eyes.
Then, “Luca told him not to follow.”
“And he listened,” Olivia said. “Which means he wanted to live long enough to tell us.”
We kept walking. Past cafés. Past race week banners. Past a shop window that reflected the three of us looking like trouble.
I felt lighter than I had this morning and still not light at all. The bags were a secret I was carrying in public. The bites were a secret under my clothes. Last night was a secret I could feel when I walked.
Then I thought of practice.
Luca in the car. Focused. Too focused. Like last night had not followed him onto the track the way it had followed me into every step.
Dex Morgan
Dex works to elevate each story with clean writing, emotional balance, and thoughtful flow for readers.