The Boyfriend

She hugged Kelsey as she passed, and then lingered her tight embrace on Preston.

“How’s my favorite girl in the world?” he put both arms around her and swayed her.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” Julie said.

Nathan had his arms around Kelsey but his eyes were on Preston.Content bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.

“Trouble in paradise?” he sensed the hostility from the host.

“Please get me out of here,” she whispered.

“My plan exactly,” he said with a naughty grin and kissed her forehead.

Preston helped them put their stuff inside before excusing himself. “You have a very lovely home here, Mrs. Sommers, but I need to check-in at my hotel and get some drinks with Julie … we have a lot of catching up to do.”

“Oh … but I hope you’ll be joining us for dinner at Ardor? I’ve arranged a nice private dinner for all of us there at 7,” she said.

They were all looking at each other. Nathan’s stare was sharply pointing at Julie.

“Of course … how could I say no to such an invitation, we’ll see you at Ardor?” he kissed Lana on the cheeks.

Letting him leave with Julie was the last thing he needed, Nathan grabbed her arm gently.

“I’ll see you at dinner,” she said smiling, their eyes locked for a second.

“We’ll catch up later, ‘kay babe?” Kelsey gave her a proper hug this time. Nathan looked away.

**********

Preston was staying at The Hard Rock Hotel. It was a slow afternoon, so he decided to have a few drinks there. He took out a pack of cigarettes, grabbed one with his teeth. “You look like you need a drink,” he said and lit up his cig.

She blew her hair with her mouth, threw herself on the corner seat.

“He looked like he was going to stab me or something … what happened? Did you sleep with him?”

She looked at him in horror, “No! I would never!”

He laughed amused, but mostly relieved. “Well … spill it out then.” He was ready for whatever’s coming out of her. As hard as it was, he was willing to learn to handle it.

“He tried to kiss me, and I slapped him … and his mother walked in on us,” she covered her face with both hands.

He laughed so hard that people were actually turning to look.

“He said he was going to break up with her, I told him not to … God … this is awful, do you think he’s going to do it?”

“Not today,” Preston blew out a smoke, “But he will,” he added.

Julie didn’t respond.

“What are you going to do about it?”

She has absolutely no idea. “There’s no way I can be with him, but he wasn’t taking ‘no’ for an answer.”

Preston nodded, “Yeah … he got it bad … I know the feeling.”

“I can’t be alone with him, not with Kelsey around … or ever … I don’t know,” she held her head.

Preston took her hand, “Stay with me here … I’ll be staying for two nights, I want to spend every minute with you.”

She looked at him, “Two nights? Why so short?”

“I can’t stay long, I have things I need to do,” he looked away.

She thought about it for a moment, “Okay … I guess I can take my stuff later and come back here with you.”

“He’s not gonna like that,” Preston sipped his drink with a smile.

“I can’t stay at the villa with him sleeping with Kelsey in the other room, and his mom next to mine.”

There was a bit of jealousy in her voice. She shrugged it off and ordered a drink. She wasn’t going to let herself think about it any further.

She held Preston’s hand as they approached Ardor. The warmth of his palm calmed her nerves. Nathan was standing by the kitchen with his back on them. He had cleaned up, rolled his white T-Shirt sleeves revealing his wrists. He was giving orders to his staff, ran his fingers through his thick black hair. Her heart pounded faster.

He noticed them coming in, he quickly looked away, pretended not to see them holding hands. Kelsey greeted them and escorted them to the balcony where it was reserved for their private dinner. Lana was already there, she had been talking to Kelsey while Nathan was organizing dinner. She was glad when they came through the door, there was so much she wanted to know about her son’s new group of friends, especially after what she saw that afternoon.

They were engaged in small talks, Julie’s eyes wandered through the glass door as she watched Nathan in her favorite state. Clean shaven, leading his staff, deciding on everything, she can even smell his cologne in her mind. Their eyes accidentally met when he looked up from the bar, she looked away.

“Julie … I’ve heard so much about you, and I’ve read all your reports, and the digital marketing you’ve designed for Ardor … I have to say I’m impressed,” Lana interrupted her thoughts.

“Oh, thank you, I happened to learn it at school fairly recently,” she replied.

“We’re planning to open a coffee and eatery corner, thanks to her … Julie’s been a great addition to our team,” Nathan joined in the conversation.

Lana raised her eyebrows and smiled, “That is wonderful … I hope you’re planning to stay with us after graduation?”

Nathan took a seat across from Julie, their eyes met again. She took a deep breath, “That’s the initial plan,” she smiled nervously.

“So … what’s the story with you and Kelsey?” Lana asked.

A waiter came to pour some wine in their glasses. “We’ve been best friends since we were in kindergarten … my parents were rarely home, so they let me stay at her house everyday after school … ’cause we lived close by,” Kelsey answered the question.

Julie nodded, “And when my parents divorced when I was 12, I stayed at Kelsey’s for weeks … it helped me a lot.”

“We’re basically sisters ’cause we literally grew up together … we’ve been through thick and thin, puberty, adolescence, all the weird phases … we always have each other’s backs,” Kelsey added to that while Nathan never took his eyes off Julie. “I love her to death,” Kelsey continued.

Preston cleared his throat, “Don’t we all?” he lifted his glass, “Let’s cheers to that.”

Julie blew a kiss to Kelsey to return her love. They all lifted their glass. Lana took a quick glance at her son who looked gloomier than when he first sat down. “To friendship,” Lana sipped her wine.

Nathan put on his best smile for everyone’s sake, but he couldn’t hide his disappointment at the end of the night when he learned Julie was staying with Preston for a couple of nights. He didn’t want to see them off so he went to the kitchen to do something else.

Preston and Julie were planning to watch some strange movie that night, one of the things they like to do together. But when Preston got out of the shower, Julie was already fast asleep on the bed. He turned off the light, tucked her in under the blanket and kissed her cheek. He hadn’t told her what he came there to tell her.