DECEIT (B723) by Hazel Grace (ebook reader for surface pro .TXT) 📕

After dinner, no one wants dessert but more drinks. Stormi and I sip on virgin margaritas while the boys pick at the leftover appetizers they didn’t finish off from earlier.

I dodge Bishop through most of the meal and keep my eyes elsewhere. Paying particular attention to him isn’t going to help the situation, nor the guilty pull that latches me to his gravity.

When the restaurant begins to clear out and quiet down, so does my squad. Ledger, Marty, and Stormi leave first while Mills asks Alexander stupid questions about being a CEO of his company and if he gets to destroy his competition with random methods I don’t pay attention to.

I don’t notice Bishop until he nears Kyson and I, causing me to tense in anticipation of how this is going to go.

I’m not sure how to act or what to say.

I don’t want to make the taut air between us worse, but if anything, I usually know how to read Bishop.

“Ready to take off?” Kyson asks Bishop, wrapping his arm around my shoulders to tuck me into his body. Then he leans in to whisper for all of us to hear, “Do we get to become knights or some shit to protect the princess?”

I roll my eyes but squeeze him harder. “Will you guys please shut the fuck up about the royalty thing? I’m not becoming a princess. But if I do, we’re going to go live on an island. I’ll make sure to stock up on the sunscreen since you burn easy.”

“You’re an asshole,” he quips, pressing a kiss into my hair. “I think I’ve taken all the redheaded jokes I can for this year.”

“Thank you for coming tonight, I—“ Kyson silences me by crushing tighter into his hard body.

“Anything for you, Ems. You know that. Always know that. No matter what happens.” He releases me and tips my chin to look up at him.

He gives me an honest smile then winks before taking off and leaving me with his best friend, my ex-husband.

Well, not ex legally yet.

I flick my nervous attention to him, keeping my chin raised to allude that I’m not.

Bishop takes a step towards me, allowing his blues to flick down the length of my body.

I always feel small under them, like they could suck me right into them for me never to be seen again. I constantly battled between loving and hating it.

However, I’ve never felt so beautiful in them too.

“You been feeling okay?” he asks me, shoving both of his hands into his jean pockets.

“Yeah.” I try to think of something else to say but fall short. I wasn’t ready for him to be here and didn’t think of conversation points if he did show up. “You?”

“Feeling okay?” He perks a brow before saying, “Yeah, I’m good.”

“How’s Scarlett and Hardy?”

“Good.”

“Good.” Okay, this is just plain stupid. “I want to apologize for what happened.” Bishop continues to just stare at me as I struggle to maintain a steady tone. “I…sprung this on you and peaced out. I honestly don’t—I’m not sure how or what we do moving forward.”

He doesn’t say a word, causing my heart to quicken and thud rapid beats into my chest. Under all of his facial hair and broody facade, I see a man who’s recovering.

I know because it’s what I look like in the mirror.

We promised forever. We both messed up everything. We sucked at communicating and landed here.

“I’m not saying this to hash shit up,” I add. “I just wanted you to know.”

“I know.”

“Promise? We’ve been through a lot together. I still care about you, Bish.”

“All I want you to do, Ems, is have healthy babies,” he recites with no malice in his tone. “And don’t snort coke.”

A fractured scoff traipses off my lips and I feel those damn tears rising to my eyes again. “I won’t, don’t worry.”

“And be happy.” He loses more space between us and my body warms to the comfort that is him. To everyone else and sometimes even me, he’s a douchebag, but he was my douchebag at one point. “No matter who you end up with.”

My brain can’t help but wonder what the hell happened to him to where he’s come to terms with this.

Bishop holds grudges and fear.

The man I’m looking at right now, who I wanted to just love me, evolved.

“I want the same,” I force out, clenching my jaw tightly to keep it from shaking. “For you. I never got to tell—”

“You don’t need to,” he replies quickly before flicking his gaze to something over my head. “Just know it’ll never change for me.”

But you don’t know what I was going to say. 

“Are you ready, Emmy?” Alexander chants, coming to my side and wrapping an arm around my waist.

I don’t break my gaze from Bishop, but his falls to hand clutching my waist.

It’s then that his face transforms into the norm—pissed, irritated, and not wanting to be bothered with the man in front of him.

The man currently residing in my life.

“Yeah,” I tell him.

Then I take a chance, one that might go hidden because I do it with all the guys in B723. It wouldn’t come across as unnormal to anyone but Bishop.

I step forward and wrap my arms around Bishop’s torso, crushing him to my frame.

My cheek lies on his warm chest and I release a held exhale, not expecting anything in return from him.

However, Bishop returns the gesture, the pads of his fingers digging lightly into my back. His chin rests on top of my head as he inhales my hair, enveloping me into a cocoon of us.

“Thank you for coming,” I mutter, then release him before it does get weird.

Before I can't.

Alexander holds out his hand to say goodnight, but Bishop refuses to take it. He can’t after that night he found him at my place. He won’t because he’s not that forgiving to anyone that’s not within our realm of clique.

Instead, he salutes him with his fingers across his forehead, giving me one final glance