The next few days we had left at Tokyo flew by and I was honestly grateful for Nick to have pushed me to tag along. In the end, this trip had been amazing even when we met up with Anna’s husband. Turned out he was not as bad as I thought he’d be. I guess when a woman openly pursue another man while being married you can’t help but assume something must be seriously wrong with the husband. Chris was lovely though, as calm as a fresh spring morning. And he wasn’t honestly bad too look at, not bad at all. His voice alone could make a girl’s panty drop. Anna not appreciating any of that made me question her sanity.
We were currently in an SUV, Miles driving us to Nick’s apartment. I still had mine, but I rarely spend time at it. I thought about getting rid of it, but somehow I just couldn’t take that step. If I got rid of my apartment I was taking ten steps ahead in our relationship and we already started our relationship way too fast so it a good thing to take one step back and just take a deep breath. There was no rush to get rid of my apartment so for the time being, I would just hold onto it. And who knew, maybe one day our fire burned out. Then Nick would kick me out of his apartment and I had nowhere to go. It was good to have a backup plan.
I shot a glance at Nick and noticed his frown, “What’s wrong?”
“Chris is still in town.”
I didn’t understand why that was such a bad thing, “So?”
Nick turned to look at me, “Either his conversation with Anna went really well or it went really bad.”
“And bad is not good for us,” I whispered.
Nick clenched his phone in his fist, “I really think it’s the latter, Em.” He ran a hand through his hair and started calling his temporarily assistant so he could set updates with his PR team and crisis management team. Nick was going on the defense here and I couldn’t really blame him.
I grabbed my phone when it interrupted everyone’s conversation in the silent car. Apologizing quietly before I answered seeing it was Evan, my highly intelligent ally.
“You missed us, didn’t you?” I rolled my eyes when Nick muttered something along the lines of Evan being an asshole.
“Yes, dearly… I’m having drinks with Chris tonight. Are you too tired to join us?”
“You’re having drinks with Chris?” I repeated, causing my boyfriend to be on high alert, “How is Chris doing?”
“Are you not so subtly asking about his marriage, Emily?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m asking.”
“She asked for a divorce. There wasn’t anything he could say or do to convince her to stay with him.” Evan took a deep breath, “So since this is his last day in New York I thought I’d arrange a goodbye party for him. Try to cheer him up with booze and beautiful women.”
“So where do I fit into all of this?”
“Don’t play coy now, Em, you fit the beautiful women category… and the fact that you’re a friend of his. Or at least he speaks very highly of you so I assume you two are friends.”
I didn’t know Chris had taken a liking to me, we got along but apparently, our conversation meant a lot to him. It did to me as well, so I was glad I wasn’t imagining things. He’d be a great friend since he was so put together. The complete opposite of Nick, but at the same time just as harsh as him when he did business. Chris would also be a wonderful friend to Nick, maybe someone who could reason with him just like Evan occasionally did.
“Text the time and place and we’ll be there.”
Nick raised an eyebrow at my statement, but I just shrugged in return. I was definitely going and if I was going so was my boyfriend. I decided on that and I knew that Nick felt the same way. He was just surprised I accepted this without discussing it with him first.
“Great. We’ll see you two soon.”
“What did you just agree to exactly?” Nick asked rather calmly.
“To have drinks with Chris and Evan. We’re the cheer up committee.”
Nick leaned back against his seat and buried his head in his hands, “They’re getting divorced, aren’t they?”
It surprised me that he seemed so affected by it. When I heard him talk about their marriage it seemed like he didn’t care, like he thought it was Chris his own fault for marrying a woman like Anna. Now it seemed like Nick just put up a show and it actually did bother him whatever the hell was going on between them.
“Fuck.” He whispered, the words hardly audible since he still had his face buried in his hands, “I thought she’d be reasonable. Now she’ll probably stay here.”
“I think the moment her plane landed she had every intention of staying here.” I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, “We shouldn’t forget that it all started because of Giselle, Nick.” He finally dropped his hands and looked at me, “She brought Anna here with the intention of causing problems. Jealousy is an ugly thing, isn’t it?”
Nick agreed with me, but there wasn’t a lot we could do. She already lost her job and Nick was looking to replace her. He had made it very clear to Anna that he was in a serious relationship with me, so all we could do was hope they’d give up eventually.
“Forget about those bitches.” I said, making my boyfriend smirk, “We’re going to freshen up and join our friends for drinks and have a lovely evening.”
***
Arriving at the bar where Evan organized a little get together for Chris, I could tell that Evan really kept his word this time. It was indeed low profile. I guess he considered Chris his feelings since I could tell that Chris was a really closed off person. Which I considered a good thing, but knowing Evan he could not be happy with such a small party. Evan was the complete opposite of Chris, always looking to have a great time and being able to charm anyone with just one look.
“How was Tokyo?” My partner in crime asked as we approached their table, “Bet you had a blast.”
I took a seat next to him, ignoring that ‘I told you so’ smile, “We had fun.” I admitted while giving my order to the waitress who seemed to have a good time while serving Evan’s business friends, “Just the two of us away from everything… That was fun.”
Nick placed his hand on my knee in reassurance. He knew even though I accepted his lifestyle, it still bothered me. I still needed to get used to dealing with press and jealous people who couldn’t accept the fact that my boyfriend was so successful. Also, women who apparently couldn’t let go because they knew how wonderful he was.
“Tea helps,” Chris added, sipping his wine.
Evan frowned, glancing from me to Chris and back, “You two are both weird.” He pointed to me, “She thinks soups helps with everything and you-” He turned to Chris, “Suggest drinking tea every time one of us is having a hard time.”
I had to bite back a smile when I remembered my conversation with Evan. It made have seemed random at the time, but soup was comfort food. It would slightly lighten up Nick’s mood. Just like tea… Smiling I shook my head and shared a look with Chris.
“Tea definitely helps.” I agreed.