Struck from the Record (26 page)

“Hey, baby,” he said casually. “Gigi just came to pick up her stuff. She was trying not to disturb us.”

Andrea wrinkled her nose. He knew that she still wasn’t over what she thought had happened with Gigi…even though nothing had happened. He certainly didn’t consider the ill-conceived kiss he had given Gigi the night he thought he’d lost Andrea for good anything for her to worry about.

“I see,” she said, crossing her arms and eyeing Gigi.

“Yeah. So sorry. I wouldn’t have bothered you at all, but well…I don’t have any other clothes,” Gigi said hastily.

Clay gave Gigi a sympathetic look. This was so awkward for her.

“Just really glad to see you two back together.”

“We’re not back together,” Andrea said frostily.

Clay’s head whipped back to face her. “
What?
”

“Um…I didn’t mean to cause any trouble.” Gigi held her hands up. “I’m not into Clay at all. He’s like a brother.”

“What do you mean, we’re not back together?” Clay asked.

“It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?” Andrea said.

“I don’t think it’s fucking obvious at all. What was all of this, if we’re not getting back together?”

Gigi backed up a step. “Fuck. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come to get my stuff. I’ll just, um…go back to Chris’s or something.”

Clay heard her in a fog. He wanted to feel triumphant that he’d been fucking right about Gigi and Chris, but all he could hear was buzzing in his ears. Gigi backed out of the room, and the door clicked shut behind her.

“Why are you freaking out?” he demanded. Without another thought, he strode across the room and got in her face. “We go from fucking this morning to you pissed at me all over again?”

“Do you expect me to be happy when I see her in your hotel room while I’m off in the bathroom?” Andrea asked. She crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not going to let that shit slide. I can’t do it anymore, Clay.”

“There is
nothing
going on with me and Gigi!” he bellowed. “Nothing!”

“Then, why were you hiding her? Then, why was she sneaking around?”

Clay grabbed his phone and shoved it in her face. “Read. She didn’t have any of her shit and was staying in Chris’s room because I booted her yesterday so that we could be alone. She had her own room. We weren’t even going to be sleeping in the same
room
, Andrea.”

Andrea scrolled through his phone and then seemed to crumple under the weight of the messages. “You’re…you’re really not with her?”

“I’m really not,” he told her firmly.

“I don’t understand how you can just be friends with another girl,” she said uncertainly. “You’ve only ever had that relationship with me.”

“I didn’t either. Honestly, I had no idea what the fuck I was doing. But it’s never been like that with me and Gigi. We’re too much alike. We spend too much time together. And she gives me shit for everything.” He shook his head. “I actually think she’s more on your side than anyone else is at this point. She thinks I’m a big fucking idiot forever letting you get away.”

“Well…you are,” Andrea said.

“Yeah, you’re right. And I’ve been regretting it every day for the last four months.” He reached out for her, and this time, she let him take her hand. “I know it’s not going to be perfect. I know we both have issues with moving forward. We both fucked around on the other for ten years and that was fine. Then when we were coming to terms with the fact that it wasn’t fine to do that anymore then, we acted like idiots. But I’m here, and we’re going to have to trust each other. I’m trying, and there’s no one else here for me but you. Do hear me?”

She nodded. “Yeah. I just…I guess I need to see this in action before I can start to move past those issues.”

“That’s fine by me. I think we both will have to work through it. I mean…” Clay scratched the back of his head. He hated admitting how fucked up he’d been about the break up, but he had been a total maniac. Andrea walking out on him had been one of the hardest times of his life. “You walked out without a word, Andrea. No matter what you
heard
while we were apart, that wasn’t easy for me.”

“I know,” she whispered.

“But I made up my mind in our time apart that we’d do things differently if we got back together. After last night, I thought that’s where we were headed. So, I don’t want to hear you saying that we’re not getting back together again.”

Her eyes narrowed when she looked back at him. “That’s my decision.”

“No, it’s not. It’s
our
decision, and I don’t want you to go and make it without me again.”

“I just…” She swallowed and dropped her hands. “I just don’t know how to do this.”

“Yes, you do. We do it together.”

“Who are you, and what have you done with Clay Maxwell?” she asked lightheartedly.

“I’ve been here all along. Right here. I just…I don’t know…grew up?”

She laughed. “Who would have guessed?”

“Probably no one. Ever.”

“Yeah.” Andrea brushed her hair off her shoulders and sighed. “So, where do we go from here?”

“Well, we should probably start with Gigi.”

Andrea clenched her jaw. “Do we have to?”

“We already dealt with Bad Suit. I don’t want Gigi to be between us.”

“Ugh. I just don’t like her, okay?”

Clay nodded. “You don’t have to. But she’s going to be around, Andrea. We work together, and we’re friends.”

“Friends,” she said dryly.

“Yes. Just friends. I’ll tell you as many times as you need for it to sink in.”

“Why didn’t you just
tell
me that she was coming to get her stuff? Why did you have to hide it?” she asked, her voice small. “I understand she had to come get her stuff and that you weren’t going to be sleeping in the same room, but did you really have to sneak around?”

Clay ran a hand back through his hair and shuffled on his feet. This had been him for so long that some habits die hard. He knew from now on that he was going to have to be careful. “I don’t know. Maybe I was a little worried about ruining the peace we’d established.”

Andrea blew out a shaky breath and shot him a hesitant smile. “I was kind of a bitch, wasn’t I?”

“You were…less than pleasant,” he said carefully. “But I should have warned you that she was coming to get her stuff.”

“Yes, you should have told me. But I guess I get why you didn’t,” she said finally. “I just don’t want you to do it again. If Gigi is forced to be in our life, then I don’t want to be second-guessing everything between you.”

Clay bent down and placed a soft kiss on her lips. “Done.”

“And I guess I’ll try to be more…pleasant. Maybe we should…see if she and Chris want to get brunch?” She chewed on her bottom lip after she’d said what he was sure was a really hard thing for her to ask.

“I’m sure they would like that.”

Twenty minutes later, the four of them were seated inside the Estate’s restaurant for a champagne brunch. Gigi looked supremely uncomfortable. Andrea downed her first glass of champagne in two point five seconds and had already requested another one. Chris just kept looking up at Clay and snickering under his breath.

Yeah, this was his doing. And he had to admit…he was a total idiot.

This was not going at all how he wanted it to go.

“So…should I address the elephant in the room?” Clay asked.

Gigi and Andrea both looked up at him with strained eyes. Chris looked like he was trying not to laugh still.

“Did you and Chris fuck?”

“Oh my God!” Gigi cried. She buried her head in her hands.

Andrea swatted at him. “Ass.”

Chris actually did burst out laughing. “Why am I not surprised?”

“But come on! Everyone is wondering it,” Clay said. He waved his hands between them. “She said she stayed in your room. You guys hung out all night. Just tell us.”

“You are such an insufferable ass,” Gigi cried. This time, she smacked him on the arm. “I cannot believe you brought that up.”

“Really?” he asked, honestly surprised.

“Okay, no, I can. But thank you for one of the most awkward weekends of my life.”

“Anytime, De Rosa.” He grinned at her, and she just shook her head.

“Well, I’m glad we can all agree on something,” Andrea said airily to the table.

“That Clay is an idiot?” Chris joked.

“Precisely.”

It was his turn to be affronted. “Hey! I was just trying to break the mood. You two looked like you were either going to gouge each other’s eyes out with forks or never make eye contact with anyone else again. If it takes a few laughs at my expense, it seems worth it.”

Chris grinned. “That’s the spirit.”

“And, anyway, you guys should probably get used to hanging out together,” Clay said, “my best friend and my girl.”

“Which one is which?” Andrea said under her breath.

He gave her a long, level look. Then, he reached for her hand and kissed it. “You know the answer to that.”

“You’re right,” she said with a sigh.

“I’m the best friend, in case anyone was wondering,” Gigi said.

Chris chuckled. Clay looked relieved. Andrea seemed unconvinced.

“Yeah. I guess I still can’t get over you coming downstairs in his boxers at his townhouse,” Andrea said. “Sue me.”

Chris’s eyes rounded as he looked between Clay and Gigi.

“That’s actually what we do,” Gigi said with her own tentative smile.

Andrea cracked up. “True.”

“But really…that wasn’t what it looked like. We didn’t have sex and never have.” She shuddered. “I still feel really bad that you assumed otherwise.”

Andrea gave her a curt nod.

“Man, Clay,” Chris said, cutting the tension, “you sure know how to keep things interesting.”

“I do what I can. Now that we’ve gotten all of that out of the way, do you think we could eat?” Clay asked.

“Food would be excellent,” Chris agreed. “Though I don’t mind more awkward conversations, if that’s necessary.”

Both girls rolled their eyes at the same time. Then, when they realized the other had done it, they burst out into laughter.

“Men!” Gigi said.

Andrea nodded. “Right?”

Clay didn’t understand it, but at least they were getting along. That was all that mattered to him.

Chapter 25

BIG SURPRISE

Two weeks later, Clay and Andrea landed at LaGuardia Airport in New York City. Clay had managed to get the weekend off and had this whole vacation planned out.

After the wedding weekend, he and Andrea had been on good terms. It wasn’t exactly like everything was suddenly all better. They weren’t living together again. She stayed at her apartment. He stayed at his townhouse. Their house in the suburbs was basically abandoned. He hated her absence when he didn’t get to see her, and even more so because they’d had endless sex the wedding weekend and that had since come to a standstill.

She had been more selective of her time and body with him since coming home and returning to reality. He didn’t like it. He had every intention of changing her mind. At least, that was the plan this weekend.

They spent the better part of the next two days relearning how to be a couple. In so many ways, it felt the same as it always had. They had always been good together. They’d traveled together so often that it was easy to slip into a simple routine. But still, it was as if Clay had this awareness of her that he couldn’t even explain.

He’d reach out his hands to keep people from drawing near her. He’d open car doors for her, pulling her in for kisses before letting her sit down. They’d enjoy wine and whiskey together—not to numb the pain, but to remember the taste with the other. In some ways, it was just incredible, being with her and remembering all the things about her that he’d fallen in love with in the first place.

They’d just left the Metropolitan Museum of Art after spending several hours observing the paintings. A display had recently come in from The Louvre, and they’d spent so much time in there, discussing the pieces that Andrea adored. She’d been an art history major at Yale, much to her father’s chagrin—not that she had ever needed his approval for anything.

He’d made a reservation at Tavern on the Green, a historical Central Park fixture, so after the museum, they sat outside under the Chinese lanterns in the gardens, enjoying a decadent dinner and polishing off their second bottle of wine. An excellent vintage.

His head felt as light as the clouds, and a lazy smile rested upon his face. Andrea looked quite as relaxed as he felt. All in all, he thought the evening had been a success. And it wasn’t over yet.

Clay paid the tab and then took Andrea’s arm.

“A walk through the park?” she asked when he drew her away from the open cul-de-sac where the cab had dropped them off at the restaurant. “Isn’t it a bit too late for that?”

“Indeed.”

He kissed her hand but kept walking away from the restaurant. She didn’t protest, even in the mile-high heels she always wore. He was looking forward to fucking her in just the heels later tonight.

Her mouth opened slightly in surprise when she saw the horse-drawn carriage waiting for them. Her eyes glittered. “For us?”

“Anything for you.”

“This is…romantic, Clay.”

He chuckled. “You seem surprised. I told you I wanted this to be about us.”