Chapter 24 CHAPTER 024
"He is my stepdad, and my mother is dead. Of course, we are awkward because, in theory, we have no reason to be in each other's life anymore, but in practice, things are a bit more muddled, so awkward is our middle ground. Now, please, drop it. I don't want to talk about it." It is so easy to lie by omission.
I am not exactly lying, but it is not the full truth anyway. We are awkward because we fucked and then he basically called me a child and said I should stay away from him because I can't control my emotions as well as he can. But he still wants to mess around with me on his own terms and shit. So yeah, of course, we are fucking awkward around each other in public.
"Okay, okay. I am sorry. I was just teasing around." Ashley puts her hand up. I glare at her and she tickles my feet.
"Yeah right." I go back to my phone.
"But, Charlotte has been going around with an explanation for the awkwardness." Ashley says cautiously after a few seconds of silence.
"Look at you, already caught up on office gossip."
Sarcasm drips from my voice but my heart is pounding. Ashley has not spent a full week here yet and Charlotte's stories about whatever she thought she saw has already gotten to her. I can only imagine how much damage she has done to my name.
Nothing has gotten around to me yet because everyone is being careful due to Linc's influence as the CEO but I can just feel the dirty looks behind my back.
Why the hell hasn't he fire her yet?
"Please. The office gossip caught up to me. There is a difference." Ashley rolls her eyes.
"Yeah right." I roll my eyes right back. I know Ashley.
"So what did you hear?" I try to keep the dread out of my voice but I can't help it.
"Well, Charlotte thinks you guys are fucking. Or already fucked. Or would eventually fuck. The majority believes you guys already did.
There are also rumors about Kathryn and Linc being separated long before her death, so it helps fuel that particular rumor about you guys having already shared a bed." Ashley drops the bomb so casually, and I swallow my soda into the wrong pipe.
I start coughing. Sputtering with tears in my eyes. Fuck, it is really as bad as I imagine.
"Here, here, sorry." Ashley pats on my back soothingly as I cough, "Should I bring you water?" She gets up when I don't respond because I am still coughing my lungs out.
My heart is racing. And my head would not shut up long enough for me to actually think straight.
Fuck, how could they be so on point?
Is Charlotte really that discerning or was I just that obvious?
Linc is obvious, he doesn't care. He is the boss. He is untouchable. But I am not. I will be facing the worse of the vitriol that comes from situations like these. He might think he can protect me but he can't. I would be the treacherous daughter who seduced and tempted her stepfather after her poor mother died.
Fuck, what was I thinking coming back here? I can't even remember what convinced me to.
"Here. Drink this. Sorry for startling you like that. I was just relaying what is going around." Ashley's eyes are twinkling. She knew all along. Or at least suspected. The little rat.
I glare at her as I drink the water she offered. She just gives me a cheeky smile. Well, I guess there is no use lying anymore.
"You know I can get every single one of you peddling that gossip fired." I eye her, she can't keep her cheeky smile off her face. I find it both cute and aggravating.
"So you admit it." Ashley says.
"Fuck off." I wave my hand at her but I can't help smiling as she giggles, kicking her feet in the air.
Maybe I can trust her after all. She is my best friend, of course she won't judge me. Maybe I am just overthinking the whole thing. It can't be as scandalous as I think it is.
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"Oh my fucking God!" Ashley has been screaming my ears off, stopping me in the middle of my story that I have contemplated just keeping shut but she won't have it. Our food arrived almost an hour ago, it has gone cold yet Ashley wants all the tea else we won't eat tonight.
She is having way too much fun at my expense because I don't really enjoy retelling how I was lusting after my stepfather when I was eighteen. But I don't have a choice. I have to start at the very beginning. As a way to lighten the guilt I feel at finally falling.
"You are being so dramatic." I cut her off and she laughs. I laugh too but I can't keep my hands from shaking. Whether from mutual excitement or relief from finally telling someone all this shit I have carried for years. Linc was right. I feel too much guilt for it to be fine between us.
But it doesn't remove from the fact that I want him enough to work on that. What makes me so angry with him and feel heartbroken about how he just tossed me aside is that he won't see that. He won't give me a chance.
"Am I? Am I, really? I feel like I don't know you. Who is this new Amelia? Surely not my friend of over two years now. Oh my gosh, wow. So which is it? You guys already fucked or eventually would?" Ashley prods.
"We did..."
Ashley gasps theatrically, cutting me off and I roll my eyes.
"But it was just recently. A few days after I came back, actually. So no, I didn't fuck my stepfather, technically. He and my mother were separated.
That is another long messy story. Fuck. When did my life become this messy?" I sigh, rubbing my eyes. A flashback of Linc running his hand through his hair comes to me. I miss him.