Playing With Fire

“You got the shock of your life,” she told herself. “That’s why you’re freaked out.”

But damn, what were the chances? She had had the hottest sex of her life with Wendell, and it turned out that he was Nicholas’s best friend? Could this situation be any worse?

The traffic was light at this hour, and Zienna made it to Alexis’s loft within twenty minutes. She parked her car at an available meter and then called her friend’s number.

“I’m downstairs,” she told her when they connected.

Zienna hurried out of the car and up the steps of the building. Moments later, the front door opened. Alexis faced her with one hand perched on her hip. She looked none too pleased.

“You know I hate you right now.” She flashed her the evil eye.

Zienna breezed into the condo foyer, her heels clicking on the marble floor. “Wendell’s back in town.”

“What?”

Zienna didn’t answer, instead walking the short distance to Alexis’s unit. Her friend scurried into the loft behind her and closed the door.

“Wendell called you?” she asked, then rubbed her eyes with balled fists. “I can see why you were surprised, but girl, it’s not even six in the morning—”

Zienna’s throat felt tight as she sauntered across the living room toward the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the street. She glanced outside, and wondered how the world could look the same when it had undeniably changed.

Inhaling deeply, she moved to the nearby armchair and gripped the back of it. “Remember I told you that I suspected that Nicholas wanted to introduce me to his friend tonight? Well, I was right. Wendell’s the friend. Wendell. He’s Nicholas’s best friend.”

A beat passed. And as Zienna’s words registered, Alexis’s jaw dropped. Then her eyes bulged. “Oh, my God. You’re saying you saw Wendell last night—with Nicholas?”

“Yes.” Zienna rounded the leather armchair and plopped onto it.

“Holy shit.” Alexis crossed her arms over her chest. “Does Nicholas know?” She went to the sofa across from Zienna and sat on the arm. “What did Wendell say?”

“Nicholas doesn’t know, but Wendell— Fuck, he told Nicholas he knew me years ago. That I was the kinesiologist he worked with when he was playing for the Bears.”

“Okay,” Alexis began slowly. “That’s not so bad, right? I mean, there’s no reason not to say you knew each other.”

“Except for the fact that Nicholas looked suspicious.”

“He did?”

“Yeah, and he made an offhand remark about being surprised Wendell never hit on me. And then it gets better. All this time I thought Wendell didn’t want to commit to anyone...well, it turns out he did want to commit. Only to someone else. Some swimsuit model named Pam.”

Alexis looked as confused as Zienna had been hours earlier, so she took her time and filled her in on exactly what she’d learned.

“Damn.” Her friend made a face. “The bastard was friggin’ cheating on you. Or cheating on Pam, it seems.”

“No matter how you slice it, he was fucking around.”

“Wow,” Alexis said. “At first I was pissed that you woke me up, but damn, I get it now. Bloody hell.”

Zienna didn’t smirk the way she normally did when her friend used her latest British curse. Instead she said, “Bloody hell is right. I just about died when Wendell walked through the door.” Looking even sexier than he did four years ago...

“I can imagine. It took you years to get over him.”

Hearing her friend say those words gave Zienna pause. Because with that statement, she had summed up what Zienna’s big issue was with Wendell’s reappearance. It had been incredibly hard to shake him from her system, and though she was getting close with Nicholas, there was definitely a part of her that feared seeing Wendell again was going to erase all the progress she’d made.

And there was an even bigger issue. “What do I do?” she asked. “Nicholas knows that Wendell and I used to work together, but do I tell him about our relationship? Or do I say nothing at all? And if I tell him, is he going to be okay about it, understand that Wendell and I were over a long time ago? Or is it going to cause undue grief? I have no clue what to do.”

Alexis was silent as she contemplated Zienna’s dilemma. After a moment she said, “I think you tell him. Tell him before Wendell does.”

Zienna’s eyes bulged. “You think Wendell will tell him?”

“Maybe not intentionally, but there’s no guarantee he won’t let it slip.”

“Oh, God.” Zienna groaned. “Are you sure? I just... Telling him could open a whole can of worms. Create an issue for him and Wendell, for one thing. And maybe even cause him to feel insecure. You remember how iffy Nicholas was during the first couple of months we were dating. He liked me, but didn’t entirely trust that I was into him.”

“I remember. He couldn’t understand why someone as beautiful as you would be single.”

“And I’d said the same to him. He’s gorgeous, successful.... Things are finally easy between us. And now this.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t say anything, then.”

Zienna paused. “But if I don’t tell him, and Wendell does—”

“It’s going to be much worse,” Alexis finished for her. “Nicholas is a big boy. He knows you weren’t born yesterday. So what if you dated Wendell years ago? He can’t hold that against you.”

“True.” She was silent a moment. “But I don’t think Wendell would tell him. I mean, what has he got to gain from something like that? They’re best friends. And if not best friends, at least very good friends. Wendell has to know better than to open his mouth.”

“I still think you should tell him,” Alexis said. “There are too many variables.”

Zienna drew in a deep breath. “And it kind of gets worse.”

Alexis eyed her warily. “What do you mean by that?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s nothing. It’s just...I’m not sure what Wendell wants.”

“You’re totally confusing me.”

Zienna was confused, too, which was part of her problem. It was one thing to find out that Wendell was Nicholas’s best friend. But what he’d said to her had undeniably added to her anxiety. “Wendell asked me if my relationship with Nicholas was serious. And then...then he said that he wanted to get together to talk, clear the air.”

“Shut up.”

“What am I supposed to make of that? That he wants to pick things up where we left off? Or did he just not know what else to say? Maybe he feels bad because of how he ended things with me—and the fact that I just learned he was a cheater.”

“You’re not gonna do it, right? You’re not going to meet with him to talk?”

“No,” Zienna said emphatically. “Definitely not. I don’t want to talk to him. I want nothing to do with him.” She paused. “But...I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a small part of me that wouldn’t mind hearing what he has to say. If for no other reason than to give him a piece of my mind when he’s finished. Because that’s what I wanted to do when I saw him last night. I wanted to scream and yell and slap him, and tell him what an asshole he is. All that crap about not wanting to get married and not wanting to hurt me, when he was really seeing someone else. But I couldn’t react. I had to pretend as though him coming into the restaurant hadn’t affected me one bit.”

“Zienna...” Alexis’s tone held a hint of caution.

“What? I’m not stupid. I’m over Wendell. But that doesn’t mean I’m not mad at him.”