“What?”
“You remember Ned?”
“No, I mean, what do you mean you sent him to take me home?”
“You and your roommates. You told me what bar you were at and I thought it was time for you to go home, based on your complete inability to speak a coherent sentence.”
“Who are you to decide when it’s time for me to go home? You’re not my mother!” A familiar pang of anger started building up inside me. The nerve of this guy.
“I sure hope not. That would be awkward for everybody. But seriously, are you okay?”
“That is quite frankly none of your business,” I snapped.
What was his deal? Just because he has money and a fancy car and driver, he thinks he can push people around and make decisions for them? We would’ve been perfectly fine taking a cab back home. We’d done it countless times before. It’s not like I didn’t have a life before Zayden came into the picture!
“I would say it is, given our contract. It says specifically—”
“Why don’t you just become a lawyer and be done with it?” I sounded angry and that, combined with the headache that was making me feel like I would go blind any second, made me think that I was perhaps not in the best state of mind to have this conversation with Zayden right now. “Look, I am in a lot of pain right now. I’m sure you’ve experienced the mother of all hangovers. It’s not pretty and I am not functional currently. I assure you I didn’t do anything last night that would even put a dent in the contract—“
“I know. You kept saying that last night. I’m not worried, you were on the phone with me practically the whole evening.”
I was such an idiot! My one night out to clear my head of all things Zayden related and I managed to make it all about him. Why did I drink so much?
“I am sorry for harassing you.”
“It’s not harassment if I enjoyed it.” He was smirking; I could just feel it through his phone. “Really quite entertaining. You’re really something, drunk or sober.”
“Thanks for the expert analysis,” I spat. “Now if it’s okay with you, I am going to go back to lying down until time stops.”
“Call me if you need anything.”
“I won’t,” I said and hung up.
My head fell right back onto the pillow and I collapsed.
---
Hours later – or it could have been days for all I knew – I woke up again to Stacey’s face smiling at me.
“Okay little miss drunky, it’s time to spill the beans…what is going on with you and Zayden? After last night, you have to tell me.”
I covered my face under the pillow and mumbled, “Just kill me now, Stace. Why did we drink so much?”
She placed a cup of coffee on my bedside table. “Because you wouldn’t have it any other way. You were clearly pissed about something, and in your drunken stupor decided that the best way to deal with it was by consuming as much as alcohol as your liver could handle.”
“But.” I looked up at her again. “But, weren’t you and Nick drunk too?”
“Yeah, but we got to a point where we stopped drinking because you were sharing your evening with every person in that big birthday crowd. By sharing your evening, I mean, taking a shot with everyone in sight.”
“Did I do something stupid?” I reached out for the cup of coffee and the warmth of the liquid made my body feel infinitesimally better.
“Nope, you were just having fun mostly. Until the calls to Zayden started. Everyone in the bar spoke to him, thanks to you.”
I buried my face in the palms of my hands. “Shit, Stacey, that’s bad. I never should have called him.”
“What exactly did he do to you anyway? I thought you guys were doing so great.”
I sighed and proceeded to tell her everything that had happened after Rick had showed up at the office.