Addicted for Now (Addicted #2)(107)

“What about your mother’s company?” I ask Connor.

“Cobalt Inc. isn’t a household name. People don’t associate us with our products like they do Hale Co.—your name is on the label of every baby shampoo and diaper package. We deal with manufacturers and subsidiaries.” Like MagNetic, I remember. “My affiliation with you or Lily won’t hurt the company, and for that, my mother won’t care. And plus, if she’s outside of the scandal looking in, she enjoys the drama from time to time. It keeps her days interesting.”

I wonder if that’s how he sees us sometimes. Interesting. Entertainment. Something to make each day unpredictable.

I also can’t imagine the woman who spawned someone like Connor. She seems as fabricated as a character in one of my comics.

“Like I said, Lo,” Connor finishes, “I know how to use the door.”

Ryke nods to me. “You going to give me an out too?”

“No, if I’m going down, you’re burning with me.”

“Does that qualify as a brotherly obligation?”

“For me, yeah.”

Daisy fumbles with the remote and it drops loudly on the hardwood. “Sorry,” she mumbles and continues to stare at the black television.

I want to watch the news and figure out how much the media already knows. Finding the leak has become a second priority. Our first task is to clean up whatever blowback we’re about to receive. I suspect Greg Calloway and possibly my father are already working with a team of lawyers to subdue the crisis. One of the many reasons they’ll want to talk to us.

I don’t trust them. But I do trust the people in this room, and that’s enough to put me at ease for the current moment.

I realize Daisy is still in the dark—about a lot of things. It’s not fair to her, especially since we’ll be talking freely now. “Do you have any questions, Daisy?” I ask, slouching on the couch.

She places the remote carefully on the coffee table and sits cross-legged on the floor.

“I do have a beanbag,” Ryke says.

“I see it.” But she hugs her knees loosely, making no move. Her eyes flit to me. “I have hundreds of questions, but I can wait to ask Lily. I don’t want her to be upset if you reveal something that she wants to keep secret.”

“You’re going to hear it on the television or the tabloids anyway,” I tell her. “She would prefer if you knew the truth from me.”

She hesitates. “I can ask anything?”

Anything is a strong word, but I’m confident in my ability to deflect the too-personal questions. I agree with a nod.

“If this is going to be a Q&A, then I have a couple questions as well,” Ryke says.

I smile bitterly. “Of course you do.”

Daisy throws the nearest pillow at him. “This is my Q&A.”

He catches the pillow. “Now you’re throwing my things, but you won’t sit on the damn beanbag?”

“You’re pushy—did anyone ever tell you that?”

“I do all the time,” I say. “He never listens.”

Ryke raises his hands like what the f*ck. “I’m sorry if I can tell that there’s an uncomfortable girl on my f*cking floor, and I know how to fix the problem.”

“Don’t,” I warn him. We’re not opening those floodgates ever, ever again. I can withstand him being friendly to Daisy in tiny microscopic doses, but when he starts talking about girls on floors and fixing shit, it makes me nervous.

Daisy asks the first question, which doesn’t necessarily lessen any tension in the room. I’m not sure anything can after the leak. “Have you and Lily been in an open relationship?”

I like to refer to what we had as a “fake” relationship, but when we became a pretend couple, we were a couple. I had everything with her that a boyfriend would have. Except the sex. But when I think of open relationships, I picture swingers and people who have multiple partners. I’m sure the term is vague enough to encompass a variety of situations. Just not ours.

I don’t have a yes or no answer for Daisy, so I have to go into explaining what we did. How we lied to her and everyone around us. How our friendship turned into something more but still remained something less.

“Wow,” Daisy says when I finish. “All to hide your addictions? Couldn’t you have just, I don’t know, moved to Europe?”

“We contemplated it.”

Her face falls. “I was joking.”

I shrug, indifferent about it all. “Lily and I never ignored you because you’re younger. The phone calls we didn’t pick up, the lunches we canceled, all of that was because we’d rather drink and have sex than be around people. Especially ones that we’d have to lie to.”

“That’s messed up,” Daisy tells me.

“So I’ve been told.”

“Actually, I told you it was f*cked up,” Ryke clarifies.

Daisy ignores him. “Why is she a sex addict? Is there something that caused it?”

My throat goes dry and my eyes flicker to the bedroom door.

Lily and I haven’t discussed the cause of her addiction, but I know she’s been trying to sparse through the past with Allison.

Lily shuts down when it comes to her childhood, refusing to look at her relationship with her family for what it truly is. I can touch her painful memories without being terrorized by the hurt, and in turn she can focus on mine without bearing the guilt. It’s a symbiosis that I’ve come to recognize after hours and hours of therapy.