Chapter 137

“I’m too much woman to be your side chick, I’m an all or nothing kind of guy when it comes to you.” Daniel doesn’t even look back. There’s a moment of pause, his body language changes subtly as he changes tone completely. “Have you heard from Leila lately?” His voice instantly tense, I catch Jake frowning at the back of his head rather pointedly for a moment.

“Why would you ask about Leila? I thought you two stayed well clear of each other?” Jake sits up, I know that look on his face. A dog with a bone, sniffing out some little secret. Whatever he’s caught onto has peaked his Rottweiler mode.

“No reason. Just, you know, sometimes I wonder how she is.” Daniel slides his food on the floor and lays out across the end of the bed lifting his feet up to get comfy.

“Okay, cut the shit. What happened with Leila?” Jake’s domineering protective tone cuts in, he picks up the TV remote and pauses his movie, slides up, leaving me laying on the bed and leans forward, arms braced on his bent knees. Daniel gets up and looks sheepish, hesitates then blurts it out.

“I kinda did a shitty thing. Don’t go crazy … I know you’re going to want to go crazy but swear. Swear on Emma’s head—”

“Don’t you fucking dare!” Jake jumps to his feet at the side of the bed and stalks toward him menacingly, all male testosterone flying now. “What did you do?”

“Look, maybe we should take this elsewhere, I mean, I know Emma and Leila are kinda close.” Daniel’s stalling, hands up defensively and Jake looks ready to start going twelve rounds with him.

“All the more reason she should know, because if Leila needs a shoulder to cry on then I’m pretty sure she would choose Emma over me. Spit it out.” Jake is mad and Daniel hesitates, eyes darting to the floor, fidgeting with a chopstick in his hand. He sighs heavily.

“We had sex … And then I kinda bailed out and didn’t call her again.” Daniel at least looks sorry, his complexion losing all color. I tense and Jake goes stiff, fighter mode engaging, before he stalks away angrily, pacing around and muttering a string of curse words as he clenches and unclenches fists.

I’m shocked that Leila would even look at Hunter, let alone sleep with him. I’m devastated that he would treat her that way and the urge to go call her hits me monumentally in the stomach. I just glare at him with severe hatred.

“What the fuck? I told you to stay away from her, you don’t think you hurting her once was enough? Of all the women to fuck around on, she isn’t one of them.” Jake’s yelling, voice tense and waving hands at Daniel. I sit biting my lip, nervous of the unfolding scene. Confused that Jake’s implying this isn’t the first time he’s hurt her. I want to punch Daniel in his smarmy face.

“I know, okay, I was a complete shit. I didn’t know how else to deal with it.” Daniel is also pacing now in the opposite direction and they keep bypassing each other at the foot of the bed.

“You deal with it by not fucking sleeping with her. Did you learn nothing when you did it the first time around? You ripped her fucking heart out!” Jake’s furious, Daniel even seems nervous of his rage and they’re doing some sort of male walking around dance in a circle now with a lot of heightened tension. I almost choke on the thought that he and Leila have been together twice in that way. I can’t imagine it at all.

“I know … I know. Okay! Leila’s like goddamn kryptonite for me. I want her but then when I get her, I want to run for the hills man. You know me. I didn’t go out to intentionally hurt her, it just happened.” Daniel slumps down on the bed and Jake looks exhausted. His anger drifting away quickly as his friend crumples, forlorn.

“How did it happen? You swore …” The two of them sit down on the end of the bed, side by side and I watch intently. Silently drawing the back of Daniel’s head daggers with my eyes.

Asshole!

“I know … We were drunk, partying … You know how it is, you know how she is. All fun and smiles and flirty and then she kissed me. That’s all it took.” Daniel gets up and runs a hand through his hair. “Leila is too good for me, I know that. I can’t help myself though. I haven’t talked to her since … Jake, maybe you could …”

“Hell no. Not this time. You do the decent thing and you talk to her. You man up and you tell that girl you’re sorry, stop being the asshole you always make her think you are.” Jake gets up too and they face each other.

“I don’t know what to say to her.” Daniel looks lost and they stand silently mulling it over, staring at one other. Daniel wary and Jake pissed.

“Can I just intervene? … Daniel, Leila would probably feel a lot better if you just sent her a text and said something like I’m sorry I’m an asshole. She doesn’t hold grudges. She’s not naive and if it was just a one-night hook up then show her some respect at least. Treat her like a human, not a cast off.” I still want to punch him in the throat for hurting my beautiful little friend.

“That’s the issue.” Jake turns to me with a look that seems deflated. “Daniel’s been in love with her since forever, he just can’t admit it to himself. So, he acts like a prize moron instead.” He throws an accusatory glare back at Hunter.

I almost choke. I could never imagine the man-whore known as Hunter to give two craps about any woman let alone love one. I was with them on the boat, he had his porn star and she was with one of Jake’s twin friends, neither seemed to care that the other had dates.

“I’m not in love with her, she just makes me crazy.” He paces away and then back as though he’s unsure how to behave.

“Scared. I think that’s the word you’re looking for.” Jake crosses his arms across his chest and stands tapping a bare foot, watching Hunter mull around.

“Shut up. It’s not love, I’m not scared. It’s just … It’s—”

“Complicated?” I butt in and sigh with a smile when I see the agreeing nod from him.

“Told ya.” Jake smiles at me.

“Totally.” I sigh.

“What? What the hell does that mean? You two have some coupley inside language now, or what?” Daniel’s almost pouting as Jake and I turn to sigh at him a little sympathetically.

“I think I used the word complicated maybe a dozen times to brush off how I really felt for Jake.” I point out.

“I think it was more like thirty times for me.” Jake shrugs.

“Fuck’s sake. You two need to back off, okay. Leila is not the girl I’m in love with. Enjoy your Chinese, I’m going to hit the gym and then abuse your shower. I’m staying the night so keep the noise down.” Daniel goes to storm off, but Jake halts him.

“Stay here, bella, I need to have some words with my so-called best mate. I won’t be long.” He kisses me again, his hand smoothing my hair back before he jumps up, leaving all the food behind and stalks out, closing the door behind him. I exhale heavily, a weird trepidation in my gut.

I wait until everything goes quiet out in the sitting room before I get up and pull on some more modest clothing, pick up all the food and arrange it on the tray the security guard brought it all in on. I pad out of the room with it to the kitchen to get myself a drink and lay it on the counter. I notice neither of them are in the open plan space, they have obviously gone to Jake’s games room, his room full of boy’s gadgets, games consoles, and all things that I’ve zero interest in. It’s far down the hall that lies opposite Jake’s room.

I stand and ponder over what to do about Leila. Ponder over whether I should call her or wait to speak to Jake. She’s my friend but all of this is so wildly outside my comfort zone, wildly outside my knowledge of sex and love and relationships. They all seem to have history and I know nothing until Jake comes back. If Daniel really is in love with her then Jake needs to talk sense into him, he needs to figure it out before Leila can hear from him. I ache for my friend, having been the one on the receiving end of heartache for the past few months and agonize over how she must be feeling. I won’t do anything until Jake tells me more, I need details, I need to know what’s gone on between Daniel and Leila to get them here.

The wave of exhaustion runs over me, lately I haven’t been getting enough rest thanks to Jake and his eternal spark and over potent libido, maybe I should just hit the sheets early tonight and sleep. No doubt Jake will come back and watch the rest of his movie, he could use the early night too. Despite his appearance of boundless energy there’s no way he isn’t as tired as I am. It’s been a long couple of weeks already.