Make Me Yours: A BWWM Billionaire Love Story (3 page)

That
was another thing about Daniel; he had been dropping way too many
hints about wanting to move in with Bain. They just weren’t
there
yet.

Meaghan beat the
buzzer by twenty minutes, “How did you get here so fast?”
Bain asked.

“
I
took a taxi,” Meaghan said breezing in and taking off her coat.
“It sounded urgent.”

Bain
smiled, Meaghan always
could
read his tone and mood without need for words. He sighed internally.
Luigi had been able to do that too…

“
What’s
up?” she asked.

“
Have
you seen your boyfriend today?” he asked as a preamble.

Meaghan frowned in
puzzlement. “Nope, the hospital had an emergency and I’ve
been working all day.”

“
Is
that
all
you’ve been doing?” Bain asked.

“
Ye-es,”
Meaghan said puzzled by his tone. “I was at work all day and
then one of my supervisors took me for coffee and then I went home.”

Bain’s
forehead cleared and Meaghan’s wrinkled even more to see it.
“What’s up Bain?”

“
Well,
did your…supervisor take you to coffee at
La
Trattoria
?” he asked.

“
Yeah!
How did you know? Oh, Luigi told you?” Meaghan said, asking and
answering her own question.

“
Luigi
told me that you were having coffee at his place and
Dean
was spying on you,” Bain said sitting down on the sofa and
crossing his legs.

“
What!?!”
Meaghan said.

“
He
thinks you’re cheating on him?” Bain said picking up a
magazine and pretending to leaf through it.

“
Luigi?”
Meaghan asked in puzzlement.

“
Dean,
”
Bain said rolling his eyes.

“
Dean
what?” Meaghan said totally turned around by the conversation.

“
Dean
thinks you’re cheating on him with your…supervisor guy,”
Bain said.

Meaghan stared at
him as if she had lost the ability to understand English. “What?”
she said at last.

“
That’s
what I said,” Bain said.

Meaghan ambled over
and dropped on the couch next to Bain staring in front of her in
shock. She took the whiskey Bain held out to her without a word and
drained it.

“
Why
the fuck would he think that?” she said after several moments
absorbing the news.

Bain shrugged,
“You’d know that better than me wouldn’t you?”

“
Apparently
I wouldn’t,” Meaghan replied dryly.

“
So
maybe you should ask him,” Bain said with another shrug.

“
Ask
him why he thinks I’m cheating on him? He’s never so much
as brought up such a thing. Where would I even begin without ratting
you and Luigi out?”

“
Aww
Meaghan, you’re always so sweet and loyal. But I give you
permission, throw Luigi under the bus.”

“
What?
Why?” she asked.

“
Because…the
bastard broke my heart and I’ve never said a word about it.
This is my pay back,” Bain said.

Meaghan looked at
him, really looked.

“
Hey
Bain?” she said softly. “How are you?”

“
I’m
good, how’re you?” he replied automatically.

“
No
Bain. I mean, how
are
you?”
she asked bending her head so she could meet his eyes as he looked
down at the magazine.

He looked up and met
her eyes and then he inclined his head in a gesture of helplessness.

“
I
don’t
know,
”
he said leaning forward to rest his head against hers. “I
should
be
happy. I
am
happy. But I feel so
restless
.”

“
You
don’t know what’s wrong?” she asked stroking his
thick brown hair slowly.

Bain sighed. “I
think I’m just…I keep wanting things I can’t have
and not wanting the things I can have. It’s stupid.”

“
What
are you trying to self-sabotage this time Bain? Is it Daniel?”
she asked.

“
He
could be a gold digger,” Bain protested.

“
Why
coz he’s a stripper? You’ve known that for six months.
What’s changed?”

Bain sighed, burying
his face in her bosom. “Why can’t I be straight? Then you
and I could be together.” He moaned. Meaghan smiled.

“
Aww
thank you Bain but to get back to the topic of why-“ Meaghan
persisted.

“
You’re
such a good friend,” Bain interrupted. “I mean you must
be
freaking out
about Dean and the whole cheating thing yet here you are trying to
sort me out.”

Meaghan smiled,
“Very good try Bain but you’re not distracting me. What’s
up?”

Bain sighed again,
“I think Daniel wants to move in with me.”

Meaghan found that
her mouth was open and closed it before the flies started moving in.

“
Okay.
And…?”

“
And
…?”
Bain repeated in disbelief, “What do you mean, ‘and’?”

“
I
mean, what’s the problem? You two spend every night together
anyway.”

“
That’s
different,” Bain protested.

“
How?”
Meaghan wanted to know.

“
I
can always throw him out any time I like and we don’t have to
worry about who is paying which bill or how untidy he is.”

“
Okay
so you don’t want to permanently share your space with someone.
Makes sense. Have you tried to tell him so?”

“
I
have…tried. But he has these puppy dog eyes…”
Bain looked at her helplessly like he was at his wits’ end.

“
So
what then? Break up with him, begin the search anew?” Meaghan
waxed poetic.

“
No.
I don’t want us to end. I just want us to go on the way we are
now. Is that too much to ask?”

“
You’re
asking the wrong person. You should be having this conversation with
Daniel.”

Bain smiled, “God
I’ve missed you.”

Meaghan lurched
forward and enveloped him in her arms. “I’ve missed you
too. Let’s not disappear on each other again like this. Ever.”

“
Deal.”

As if it had heard
them, her notifications pinged. Meaghan looked at the screen
expecting the hospital but it was a message from Dean.

I need to see
you. Where are you?

It
reminded Meaghan of the other message she’d gotten from Dean
today, asking her where she was. She’d said she was at work,
while she was really at
La Trattoria
.
She glanced over at Bain who was still looking miserable wondering
what to do. If she told Dean where she was he’d ask her to come
over to his place. Bain and Dean didn’t live too far from each
other. But she felt like she couldn’t cut short her night with
Bain. They still had so much to talk about, catch up with. He was her
best friend long before Dean was her boyfriend and she’d been
putting him last for way too long. But…Dean thought she was
cheating on him. If it wasn’t so sad it would be really funny.

I’m at
Bain’s.

She typed and sent
the message and then leaned back with a second drink that Bain placed
in her hands. She was just opening her mouth to speak when her
notifications pinged again.

Come over

He said, as
predicted. Meaghan’s head thunked on the seat rest as she tried
to think of a way to say no that wouldn’t seem like blowing him
off…again.

Its girls’
night Dean. Bain has some stuff he needs to sort out. He needs me.
I’m off tomorrow though. See you then?

There. That sounded
about right. She heaved a sigh and sent it with Bain looking over her
shoulder.

“
You
can go if you want,” he offered.

“
I
really can’t. it’s been a really long day; I don’t
think I can deal with tantrums tonight anyway.”

Bain smiled. “Does
Dean do tantrums?” he asked in amusement.

“
Bain,
if you’d asked me half an hour ago, I would have said Dean
didn’t do stalking. Shows how much
I
know.”

Bain laughed, “Yeah.
Wow, your problems are making my problems seem like made up or
something.”

“
Nah
Bain, I know you. I’ve seen you in pain. And you are in pain
over something. Now we’re going to get properly drunk and we’re
going to sort this out,” she said in determination.

“
Yes
ma’am,” Bain agreed with a grateful smile.

*****

Dean stared at the
text from Meaghan, his blood literally boiling. He composed a text;

I don’t
believe that after everything we’ve been through you would-

Then he shook his
head and erased it. He tried again.

How could you do
this to me-

And then shook his
head again vigorously grimacing with how pathetic it sounded and also
how hurt he was feeling. It was pathetic and he never would have
believed it of himself if it wasn’t happening to him right now.

You lying bitch.
Are you with him right now-

Dean almost sent
that one but then he erased it because it sounded too much like the
texts Samantha used to send him in the first months after their break
up. He would not be that guy.

Never mind. It’s
fine. Whatever.

He stared at that
one for a long time, thumb hovering over the send button. Then he hit
it with a sigh and threw his phone on the bed. He stood up and
extracted a full bottle of whiskey from the bar not bothering with a
glass. He downed a good quarter of the bottle in one gulp and then
lay down, feeling dizzy already. He had this heavy weight on his
chest that he couldn’t seem to shift and he just wanted to
escape somewhere where he could forget. At least for a while. He
leaned forward and snagged the whiskey bottle, cradling it like a
baby. He moved back so that his back was against the headboard, and
stared out his window at the stars of New York. They could possibly
be lights, he’d heard it said that the stars over New York City
were invisible. Either way, they were glowing pin pricks of light
gleaming against a black back drop of infinite sky and he could get
lost in it. Better than thinking about Meaghan maybe moving on from
him, finding someone else…but why would she do that? They were
happy. Weren’t they? I mean the sex was off the charts
regardless of Meaghan’s relative inexperience. Dean could
sincerely say he’d taught her everything she knew – and
they’d discovered a few more things along the way too. They
didn’t have much time together, their schedules were crazy what
with him running a company and she being an resident surgeon in
training. It was a wonder they found any time to be together –and
that doctor guy was at work with her all the time. They definitely
could find more time to spend quality time together. Not that his and
Meg’s time wasn’t quality. They’d certainly learned
each other’s bodies to an expert degree by now. But maybe they
could possibly spend more time talking…she’d seemed so
intensely engaged with the conversation she was having with that guy.
They probably had more in common as well. Both doctors and shit…

Dean took a bigger
sip of the whiskey and then another one for luck. By the time he
blacked out, the bottle was three quarters empty.

*****

The pounding woke
him up. He didn’t know if it was in his head or from some
external source. Either way he needed it to stop. He clutched his
head, trying to keep it from rolling off the bed and onto the floor;
possibly careering out the door and smashing into bits on the parking
lot asphalt. On second thought, that would definitely stop the
pounding forever so…

He squinched his
eyes open and looked around. The bottle of whiskey was on the floor,
bottle open and alcohol half poured on the woolen carpet. There was
no way he was salvaging that. The carpet would have to go. Which was
sad because it was one of his favorites – he’d acquired
it at an antiques auction when he’d moved out of home. It was
his first piece of furniture that he’d purchased for his new
home. A home he’d envisaged maybe one day sharing with
Meaghan…maybe more like fantasized. It wasn’t like his
family even knew he was with her. His father was still very much in
the dark. And there was really no way to tell him without a guarantee
that he wouldn’t have a stroke. The thought of Meaghan made his
heart sink; likely it wouldn’t be a problem anymore now that
she was moving on.

The pounding hadn’t
stopped and now his phone was ringing. Someone needed to make it all
stop. He picked up his phone and answered it if only to stop it
ringing.

“
Make
it stop,” he whispered into the phone.

“
Open
the door Dean,” Meaghan demanded.

“
What?”
Dean asked in confusion. He noticed that the pounding had stopped.

“
Open.
The. Door. Dean,” Meaghan repeated biting off each word
angrily.

Dean frowned; he
didn’t understand why Meaghan sounded so furious with him. He
stood up slowly and shuffled to his front door; Mindy who ran the
bookshop had opened up downstairs so at least he didn’t have to
negotiate the stairs; all he had to do was open the door to his
apartment.