Playing With Fire. Kayla Perrin
Sickened, she realized there was nothing she could do to stop him. Which would be futile at this point anyway, since Nicholas could likely figure out what the deal was.
Wendell cleared his throat before continuing. “Years ago, when Zienna began working as my therapist, we...we were involved.”
A wave of sensations, hot and cold and dizzying at the same time, swept over Zienna. Good Lord, what had he just done?
For a nanosecond, Nicholas didn’t react. Then the slight, curious grin on his face went flat. “What?”
“It was a long time ago,” Wendell said. “And obviously it doesn’t have any bearing on the present. But there’s clearly been a bit of tension during dinner—no doubt because of this secret. And now that I’m going to be managing your new restaurant...I realized that we needed to lay this out on the table, then bury it.”
Zienna’s skin was growing hot, her face flushed.
“Something like this has a tendency to come out at some point, which would only seem more suspicious the longer we wait,” Wendell explained.
“Right,” Nicholas said, his tone not revealing how he was feeling about what he’d just heard.
But it hadn’t escaped Zienna that he had released her hand.
“It wasn’t a serious relationship. Zienna and I had an off-and-on thing for about six months.”
It wasn’t a serious relationship... Hearing Wendell say the words made her want to slap him. After how crazy she had been about him, to hear him say that their relationship hadn’t been serious hurt like hell.
More than it should.
“But Pam?” Nicholas said, narrowing his eyes in confusion. “When you hurt your shoulder, you were dating Pam.”
“I know, I wasn’t perfect.” Wendell faced Zienna. “I’d been with Pam since college,” he said, as though that was supposed to make his betrayal forgivable. “What can I say? Temptation got the better of me.”
Zienna guffawed and jerked her eyes from his.
“Wow,” Nicholas said, and when she looked at him, she saw that he was shaking his head in disbelief.
“I was just the fuck buddy,” she said, her voice overly sweet. “No need to worry.”
Ghita arrived with the bill at that moment. She seemed to sense the tension, and quietly slipped the check onto the table before turning away.
“Like I said,” Wendell went on, speaking to Nicholas. “You’re my friend. I didn’t want to keep this secret from you, especially when it’s not like there’s anything going on between us now.”
A few seconds passed. The glum mood at their table was accentuated by the happy laughter that came from people nearby.
Nicholas suddenly turned to Zienna. “How serious was this relationship for you?”
“What?”
“Wendell said that you were just a fling. Of course, his heart was with Pam. I don’t agree with what he did—and he knew I wouldn’t, which is why he never told me about you years ago.” Nicholas paused. “But what about you?”
Zienna frowned as she regarded him, her heart thundering in her ears. “You heard Wendell. It wasn’t a serious relationship.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Nicholas asked her. “Why didn’t you tell me yesterday at my place?”
Her lips parted, but much like an accused person sitting on the witness stand, she felt stunned and disoriented, and didn’t know what to say.
Finally, she said, “I do not want to do this. Not here. You want to talk about this, I’m more than happy to leave now, and we can do that.” And then she faced Wendell. “What were you trying to do, dropping a bomb like that without any warning? We’d just had a nice dinner. This was not the time nor the place.”
“You wanted him to keep me in the dark?” Nicholas accused.
Zienna stood, flustered. She didn’t like Nicholas’s tone, even if she could understand his shock. Because suddenly, she was the bad guy, when she hadn’t done anything wrong.
“Sit down,” Nicholas said to her.
“No. No, I don’t think I will.” She spun around, pausing only to say, “And don’t follow me. I swear.”
She made it several steps before she heard her name. Wendell. As if he had the right to even speak to her right now.
“Zienna,” he said again.
She glanced over her shoulder. He was standing just outside the curtains that gave their table privacy. Knowing that Nicholas wasn’t able to see her, she gave Wendell the finger and then stormed off.
She was almost at the exit when her heel slipped on something. And unlike earlier, when Nicholas had been there to catch her, this time she went down on her knee.
Zienna heard the collective gasp of nearby patrons, a group of five who were standing in the entranceway.
“Oh my goodness!” The hostess rushed over and offered her an arm to help her up. Zienna took it, not facing the woman. She got to her feet unsteadily, tears filling her eyes. As she extended her leg, pain shot through her knee. She winced.
“Zee—”
Zienna looked up at Nicholas, who was suddenly beside her, gazing at her with concern. Wendell stood about a foot behind him. In the distance, she saw a concerned-looking Youssef heading toward them.
Zienna swatted Nicholas’s arm away and walked off.
The cool night air washed over her when she stepped outside. She wished she could be like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and simply click her heels together to make a quick getaway.
“Come on, baby,” she heard Nicholas say. “I was just surprised.”
Anger consuming her, she faced him. “You’re treating me as though I was cheating on you. For God’s sake, you just introduced me to Wendell last night. Of course I wanted to tell you. But I was trying to figure out the best way to do it. And it’s not like the relationship mattered,” she added, the words tasting bitter on her tongue.
“Come back inside,” Nicholas said. “Finish your dessert.”
“After I’ve been humiliated in front of everyone?”
She hobbled to the street and threw her arm up to flag a passing cab. As the taxi came to a stop, she was already digging her phone out of her clutch.
Alexis didn’t live far from here. Zienna could go to her place.
“Where are you going?” Nicholas asked.
“You’re so good at figuring things out. I don’t need to spell it out for you.”
“Come on,” Wendell said. “It’s done now.”
Zienna turned to glare at him as she pulled open the taxi door. It was the only thing she could do. And she hoped that her eyes conveyed just how much she hated him.
Then she got into the taxi, slumping into the backseat. She felt crushed.
If only she’d driven herself here tonight. She had dressed to the nines for her man, bought special lingerie.
All gone to waste.
“Eight-fifty West Adams,” she told the driver, giving him Alexis’s address. When the cab made a U-turn, she glanced out the window, saw Nicholas throw up his hands in frustration.
As she expected, a few seconds later her iPhone rang. She saw Nicholas’s photo pop up on her screen, and she quickly pressed the icon to reject the call.
Zienna knew how this was going to play