No greeting, no apology, just a demand for my help. Vaguely I wondered if she’d always been so self-centered and I hadn’t noticed because I cared about her.
“Well, I’m sorry to hear that, Katie, but I can’t imagine why in the fuck you’d think I’d help you after the way you treated me the last time I saw you.” When she didn’t speak, I continued, “Or after I saw the video of you groping my boyfriend.”
“Hey! King took that video before you and he hooked up, you can’t be mad about that!” she exclaimed.
“I wasn’t talking about King,” I answered softly.
There was another long pause.
“I also know exactly when the video was taken because you and Justin were dressed up. You were fucking my boyfriend after my New Year’s Eve party a few weeks before he died.”
“Jena, that’s not important right now-” she began.
“Shut the fuck up,” I whispered shakily. I didn’t trust my control, so I had to keep my voice low or I’d end up shrieking at her. “What kind of person are you? Hell, who the fuck are you? After years of being friends, how could you do something like that to me?”
“Because I was sick to fucking death of you getting everything!” Katie yelled. “Perfect fucking Jena, always getting exactly what she wanted. You had the perfect job, the perfect apartment, the perfect car, clothes, boyfriend, EVERY GODDAMN THING! It was my turn to get what I wanted!” she screamed.
Tia jumped to her feet and I knew she could hear Katie shrieking. I shook my head at her. Her eyes narrowed, but she slowly sank down into her chair. I could tell by the tension in her body that she was supremely pissed off.
“And it didn’t matter that you had to betray me to get it,” I stated, still quiet.
“Oh, I’d say you landed on your feet,” she replied nastily. “You forget, Jena, I’ve had King too. He’s so much better in bed than Justin and richer, so I don’t think you’re going to be crying into your cereal at night, surrounded by cats.” Her words were followed by a bitter laugh. “It was so disgustingly clear to everyone but you that King wanted your ass. I saw it at the funeral. Why in the hell do you think I fucked him two days later? I knew he’d give you time to grieve then he’d make his move. I had to have your sloppy seconds when Justin and I were together, so I figured it was only fair you have mine.”
The toast and coffee in my stomach soured at her words, but I refused to be weak in front of Katie. She didn’t deserve my reaction, even if I felt it, there was no way in hell I’d show it to her.
“Well I guess the joke’s on you,” I retorted, “because I don’t care. King and I both have pasts. If I got pissed off about every skank he’s ever slept with, I’d be angry every day for the rest of my life.”
“Did you just call me a skank, bitch?” she shrieked in my ear.
“Yeah, I did,” I answered, my voice stronger. “I’m done with you and with your shit. I don’t care what kind of help you need, find it somewhere else, because the only thing I’m willing to do is spit on your grave. Have a nice day, Katie.”
With that, I hung up. The phone immediately started ringing again, but I dropped it on the table and dashed into the house. The roiling in my belly was too strong. I couldn’t hold it back anymore.
I ran through the house to the bathroom by the living area. I made it to the toilet just in time to lose the contents of my stomach.
I heaved over and over, even after there was nothing left. I couldn’t believe the hatred I’d heard in Katie’s voice, the things that she said to me. I couldn’t believe I’d never noticed it before.
The intensity of her loathing for me was so strong that I didn’t understand how I could have missed it. No one could hide hatred like that.
As the heaves wracking my body eased, I felt someone crouch behind me, pressing a cool cloth to the back of my neck. Finally, I stopped and took several slow deep breaths.
“Better?” King asked.
“Yeah,” I whispered, taking the cloth he held out to me and wiping my face.
Stiffly, I got to my feet and moved to the sink. I rinsed my mouth out with water. Tia appeared in the doorway with my toothbrush and toothpaste. I gave her a grateful smile and quickly brushed my teeth.
When I was done, King wrapped an arm around my waist and led me into the living room to the couch.
“What happened?” he asked Tia, pulling me across his lap.
“I can talk,” I insisted hoarsely.
They both shot me a look, so I wisely shut my mouth.
“Some bitch named Katie.”
Sitting on King’s lap like I was, I could see the muscles in his jaw tighten. I even thought I heard his teeth grinding.
“Don’t worry, she won’t be calling back. I blocked her number.”
Damn, why hadn’t I thought to do that myself?
He nodded shortly.
Tia looked at me. “I’ll get you some tea or soda to settle your stomach.”
King’s jaw worked and I knew he was gritting his teeth. His eyes met mine. “What did she say to you?” he asked quietly.
I shook my head and sighed. “She wanted my help. I basically told her that I knew about Justin and that I didn’t really give a damn what she needed. It deteriorated from there.”
His face was so tight I worried that he might pop a blood vessel. “I take it she mentioned the fact that she and I-”
I really didn’t want to talk about it. “It came up. We both have a past. Regrettably, both our pasts have Katie in them.”
He cupped my face, his fingers threading through my hair. “I’m going to say something and I want you to listen closely because I’ve never said it to another woman before.”
I sucked in a breath and held it, but I nodded.
“I love you, Jena. You’re right, we both have people in our past, but you’re my future.”
My vision started to get blurry and my heart beat so hard and so quickly that I could feel it in my fingertips. I knew I loved King, but I honestly never expected him to say those words to me, or me to him. He wasn’t emotive. He didn’t talk about his feelings. Instead, he expressed them through actions. Hearing the words was so unexpected, I didn’t know what to say or do.
“Breathe, Jena.”
I released the air I was holding and sucked in another deep breath.
“Jesus, are you gonna pass out?” he asked, amusement in his voice.
“No, no. I just…” I took another breath. “I just didn’t think you’d ever say that to me.”
He frowned. “What?”
I waved a hand. “I didn’t think badasses ever said ‘I love you’.”
King’s eyes twinkled and a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Well, this badass does.”
Though I wasn’t big on sentimentality, I did have one thing I wanted to say. I put my hand to his cheek and looked him straight in the eye. “You know I love you too, right?”
He grinned even wider. “I kinda had a feeling you did.”
“I think a beach wedding would be a good idea. Small, simple, and everyone can lay out in the sun for the rest of the day,” Tia called from the kitchen.
My eyes widened in horror, but King burst into laughter.
Still chuckling, he answered, “Sounds good to me.”
“You do realize the rest of my family is crazier than she is,” I murmured.
“I heard that!”
Wrapping his arms around me tightly, King started laughing again. “I don’t care, as long as I get you.”
Because that was an awesome answer, I melted into his arms, hugging him back. Tia was right. If joking about us getting married didn’t freak King out, he was in it for the long haul.
Chapter Twenty-Four
‡
Two weeks later, I sat in my office, pretending to work. The past fourteen days had been nothing but the same monotonous routine. King escorted me everywhere; he dropped me off at the office, picked me up after work, then back to his house.